BROWN, WILBUR RONALD – MAJOR, USAF
Class of 1954Service: U.S. Air Force
Service Dates: 1958-1966
Rank: Major
Notable: KIA
After graduating from New Hanover High School Brown entered UNC at Chapel Hill graduating 1958. He entered Air Force flight school and was commissioned a second lieutenant. He trained at the 331st Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Webb Air Force Base in Big Spring Texas. Brown reported for duty January 1966 at the Air Force 315th Air Commando Group at Da Nang Air Base South Vietnam. He had only been in Vietnam for seven days when on Feb 3 he received orders as lead pilot of a Fairchild Provider C-123 for an airlift supply mission from Da Nang to the beleaguered Khe Sanh Marine Base in Quang Tri Province. Having completed the mission the transport then flew southwest along the border of Laos. It was there radio contact was lost.
Maj. Ronnie Brown was reported MIA on February 3, 1966. He remained in the status of MIA for eight years. It was not until May 30, 1974 that the Air Force changed Maj. Brown's status from Missing to Presumed Killed in Action but his remains were still not found or repatriated. The Brown family remained without closure for another 26 years until 2000 when joint U.S. and Vietnamese POW/MIA Accounting Command teams were finally able to investigate possible crash sites of U.S. aircraft in Vietnam Laos and Cambodia. Later the aircraft's tail number 55-4537 was recovered and established as Maj. Brown's plane. Consequently on May 19, 2003 the remains of the crew of Provider were recovered.
On August 28, 2009 52 years after he disappeared his remains were released to his family ad interred with honors in Arlington National Cemetery along with his crew of Provider 55-4537.
Accolades: Major U.S. Air Force
Accolades: Major U.S. Air Force