THE WALL OF FACES

CPT Joseph Brown, You are remembered. NAIL FAC, Pilot of O-1F 57-2800 on that ill-fated mission.

Dear Captain Brown,
I hope your photo is put here because this wall of faces needs yours. Thank you for your service as a Pilot. I read you were identified in 1998.
Welcome Home.
Watch over our nation. Rest in peace.

In Southeast Asia, all tactical strike aircraft had to be under the control of a FAC, who was intimately familiar with the locale, the populous, and the tactical situation. The FAC would find the target, order up U.S. fighter/bombers from an airborne command and control center, mark the target accurately with white phosphorus (Willy Pete) rockets, and control the operation throughout the time the planes remained on station. After the fighters had departed, the FAC stayed over the target to make a bomb damage assessment (BDA). The FAC also had to ensure that there were no attacks on civilians, a complex problem in a war where there were no front lines and any hamlet could suddenly become part of the combat zone. A FAC needed a fighter pilot's mentality, but but was obliged to fly slow and low in such unarmed and vulnerable aircraft as the Cessna O-1 Bird Dog, and the Cessna O-2. On April 19, 1966, an O-1F Bird Dog and a A-1E Spad were lost near Na Pho in Khammouane Province, Laos. Their precise missions are not clear from public records, and in fact, the Air Force cannot determine the unit assignment of the O-1F pilot, CAPT Joseph O. Brown. Both Brown and the A-1 pilot, CAPT Richard J. Robbins were lost in hostile situations, and both are listed as Killed in Action, Body Not Recovered. The Air Force reports that Brown's aircraft was on a FAC mission when his aircraft was struck by hostile fire. Brown then radioed that part of the right horizontal stabilizer had been blown off, and that he was going to a higher altitude. The aircraft was observed to roll twice while in a steep dive and crash. No parachute was seen, but white smoke was seen to rise from the crash site. Unspecified evidence was received by the Department of the Air Force on April 24, 1966 to confirm that CAPT Brown died at the time of the incident. In 1994 and 1995 joint teams of U.S. and Laos specialists visited the area of the O-1 crash. Led by the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting, the teams recovered pilot-related items, an aircraft data plate from Brown's aircraft, as well as human remains. Anthropological analysis of the remains and other evidence by the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii established the identification of CAPT Brown. In September 1996 the Pentagon announced the remains identification of CAPT Robbins. A joint U.S.-Lao Team excavated the crash site in May of 1995 and recovered personal effects, aircraft wreckage, and human remains. [Narrative taken from pownetwork.org; image from wikipedia.org]

Dear Captain Joseph Orville Brown, sir

As an American, I would like to thank you for your service and for your sacrifice made on behalf of our wonderful country. The youth of today could gain much by learning of heroes such as yourself, men and women whose courage and heart can never be questioned.

May God allow you to read this, and may He allow me to someday shake your hand when I get to Heaven to personally thank you. May he also allow my father to find you and shake your hand now to say thank you; for America, and for those who love you.

With respect, and the best salute a civilian can muster for you, Sir

Curt Carter

If I should die, and leave you here awhile, be not like others, sore undone, who keep long vigils by the silent dust, and weep...for MY sake, turn again to life, and smile...Nerving thy heart, and trembling hand to do somethin g to comfort other hearts than thine...C omplete these dear, unfinished tasks of mine...and I, perchance, may therein comfort you.