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Contact Info
Home Town Little Rock, Pulaski County
Last Address Oakton, Fairfax County, Virginia. Burial: Lakeside Cemetery, Des Arc Prairie County, Arkansas
Date of Passing Aug 14, 2008
Location of Interment Lakeside Cemetery - Camden, Arkansas
Wall/Plot Coordinates Des Arc, Arkansas
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Lieutenant Eldon Walter Brown, Jr., U.S. Navy
Elton Brown was an early jet pilot in the Navy during the Korean War. He is best known as the "other VF-51 pilot" from the USS Valley Forge on a strafing run at an airfield near Pyongyang when two Yak-9's took off; Lt.(jg) Plog blew off its wing with a short burst, scoring the Navy's first aerial victory in Korea. Ens. Eldon W. Brown, Jr., downed the second Yak a few minutes later. Flying Navy F9F-3's, these air-to-air contacts were also a first for American jet aircraft.
Ed Brown flew forty-two combat missions from the USS Valley Forge, squadron VF-51, between July and September 1950.
After leaving the Navy, Ed was an experimental test pilot with Lockheed. He flew the F-104 from 1957 until 1971 and was also the ZELL program test pilot. He later worked for the Federal Aviation Administration before he retired.
Other Memories It says "Eldon W. Brown Jr." on my logbook, but a lot of people call me Brownie. Briefly, in the squadron, I was called Littlehead, because no one else could fit in my helmet. I was born in 1927 in Little Rock Arkansas, and grew up there.
I always wanted to fly. At age fifteen, I saved up my money and took flying lessons from Central Flying Service in Little Rock, with and instructor named John Ogden.
Right after World War II ended, I joined the Navy in the aviation cadet V-5 program. They required two years of college, so they sent me to Tulane in New Orleans. After that, I had preflight training in Ottumwa, Iowa, and went to Grand Prairie, Texas, near Dallas, for initial flight training.
After that, I had further training in Corpus Christi, Texas, in the N2S Stearman, a fabric-covered, open-cockpit biplane. That was quite a plane. Someone had to be on the ground to crank the starter.