Flight leader Richard Creole radioed “Mayday” and called for a helicopter. However, the 24-year-old pilot’s legs had become entangled in the damaged instrument panel. The other Navy pilots initially thought Brown was dead, but they soon saw him waving his hand. Chinese Communist soldiers were bound to discover the wreckage given that the crash occurred so close to the Chosin Reservoir.
Lieutenant Junior Grade Thomas Hudner and the other Strike Fighter Squadron VF-32 pilots flying from the carrier USS Leyte viewed the situation on the ground as they circled above. The rugged, propeller-driven, big-nosed design could normally sustain a lot of damage, but on that day, Brown had been tragically unlucky. The Vought F4U Corsair went down heavily and crashed into the rough terrain, folding up at the cockpit and streaming smoke from the wreckage.
Brown was strafing Chinese troops near the Chosin Reservoir when his plane was brought down by enemy small arms fire that hit the aircraft in a vulnerable spot. Navy Ensign and the Navy’s first African American aviator, was flying 1,000 feet above the icy Korean mountains in his Corsair when its engine cut out.
