Brown, Eldon, Jr., LT

TO THE BEST OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE, WHAT INFLUENCED HIS/HER DECISION TO JOIN THE NAVY?

Test Pilot Ed Brown

This is a "Remembrance Profile" for Eldon "Ed" Brown, Jr.

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.

TO THE BEST OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE, PLEASE DESCRIBE THE DIRECTION OR PATH HE/SHE TOOK IN HIS/HER MILITARY SERVICE. WHERE DID THEY GO TO BOOT CAMP AND WHAT UNITS, BASES, SHIPS OR SQUADRONS WERE THEY ASSIGNED TO? WHAT WAS HIS/HER REASON FOR LEAVING?
In 1947, I went to Pensacolar, Florida, and flew the SnJ Texan. They also provided twenty-five hours of multi-engine training in the PBY Catalina and SNB Expeditor. Flying big planes was different for me, and today I often talk about it with my older daughter, who is a flight attendant

VF-211, F6F Hellcat

on twin-engined transports for Sky West Airlines.

I went to Jacksonville, Florida, for advanced training in the F4U-4 Corsair. I got my wings in May 1948, and then went back to Pensacolar to complete carrier qualification in the Corsiar. Then, I went to San Isidro, California, to instruct in SNB Expeditor trainers. I later spent some time in ferry squadron VR-w flying various airplanes.

Around Christmas 1948, I went to Seattle to join squadron VF-211, flying F6F Hellcats. There, I met Commander Lanham, who later became our carrier group commander in Korea. I was flying F6Fs in Seattle when Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson cancelled our air group for funding reasons.

When they abolished our air group, I delivered an F6F to El Toro, California, and picked up orders for VF-51. I joined the squadron in San Diego in 1949, in time to see the squadron's last FJ-1 Fury fighters, but not to fly them. My first jet flight was in a TO-1 Shooting Star. It had an Air Force instrument panel, which measured air speed in miles per hour. We used knots in the Navy, so we would look at thant panel, see the numbers, and think we were flying really, really fast.

As for the VF-51, the squadron had formerly been known as VF-5A and had been the first Navy jet squadron on the west coast. The squadron reequipped with the F9F-3, which I discussed above. Some things didn't change. In those early days in jets, you always landed on the carrier with your canopy open.

IF HE/SHE PARTICIPATED IN ANY MILITARY OPERATIONS, INCLUDING COMBAT, HUMANITARIAN AND PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS, TO THE BEST OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE, PLEASE DESCRIBE THOSE YOU FEEL WERE THE MOST SIGNIFICANT TO HIM/HER AND, IF LIFE-CHANGING, IN WHAT WAY.

Example: Korean War F9F-3

Ensign Eldown W. Brown Jr., F9F-3 Panther pilot, squadron VF-51, USS Valley Forge (CV 45).

The Panther was the primary Navy jet fighter of the 1950-53 Korean War. It was practical and sturdy, prompting sailors to dub its Bethpage, Long Island manufacturer the "Grumman Iron Works." In air-to-ground action, the Panther excelled.

On July 3, 1950, Panthers claimed the first-ever aerial victories by Navy jets, when Lt. (j.g.) Leonard Plog and Ensign Eldon W. Brown Jr., each were credited with shooting down a North Korean Yak-8 prop-driven fighter.

FROM THEIR ENTIRE MILITARY SERVICE, DESCRIBE ANY PERSONAL MEMORIES, YOU MAY BE AWARE OF, WHICH IMPACTED HIM/HER THE MOST.
Eldon Brown:

"It all happened very quickly. We were only over Pyongyan for a short time. After it was over, a lot of attention was focused on the fact that we were credited with shooting down two Yakovlev Yak-9 fighters. But our main purpose was to enable Valley Forge's strike group of F4U-4 Corsairs and AD-4 Skyraiders to strike at the rear of a North Korean offensive that was succeeding inn the south. Valley Forge was the first U. S. carrier to fight in Korea, and out straight-wing, under-powered F9F Panthers were the first Navy jets to fight. The enemy Yaks, as well as our own Corsairs and Skyraiders, were all propeller-driven aircraft, which were still the mainstay of military aviation.

" Before most of us had every heard of Pyongyang, we were on a routine, peacetime cruise on the Valley Forge, which was nicknamed the 'Happy Valley.' We paused in Hong Kong to give radar operators there a chance to work with jet aircraft for the first time. We expected to be heading for home soon Everybody was singing the song "Won't you Come Home, Bill Bailey?" It was a happy cruise aboard Happy Valley. Buyt then we learned something was happening in Korea.

"What was happening, of course, was war. We scrambled aboard ship and steamed north, with no idea of what would happen next.

"As we steamed toward the war zone, there were moments of relaxation. If we didn't have other duties, we would go to a gun tub on the bow of the Valley Forge - where a 40-mm Bofors cannon had been removed earlier in the ship's history, and we would sunbathe. We could see huge schools of jellyfish, some four or five feet in diameter. When we got closer to Korea, we occasionally saw a body floating at sea.

"I remember a twin-engined Soviet aircraft flying over the fleet. F4U-4B Corsairs of squadron VF-53 intercepted the aircraft and shot it down. This encounter is not covered in any of the histories of the era.

"When we drew within range of targets in North Korea, we began preparing for action. A lot of our preparations were unremarkable, even on the morning of July 3. In those early morning hours before Valley Forge's first combat mission, we received sparse briefings on weather, intelligence, and procedures. One pilot said he had never before heard of Pyongyang. My fellow Panther pilots and I were subdued and businesslike as we climbed into our aircraft. Valley Forge turned into the wind in the Yellow Sea about two hundred miles southwest of the North Korean capital. The weather was clear and bright.

WHAT PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS DO YOU BELIEVE HE/SHE WAS MOST PROUD OF FROM HIS/HER MILITARY SERVICE?
Preparing to Launch:

The intelligence officer based our intelligence briefing on an article about North Korea in National Geographic magazine, because that was about all we had to go on. So, as you can imagine, we were not really...

Remember, this was a transitional time for aviation and for warfare. Propeller-driven aircraft

Location of Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea

were mature and were still the backbone of the flying Navy. Jet-propelled warplanes were new, cantankerous, and shamefully underpowered and had yet to demonstrate that they could take over major military missions.

Our F9F-3 was powered by the 4,600-lb thrust Allison J33.A-8 turbojet, essentially the same power plant as the Air Force's standard fighter in the Far East at the time, the Lockheed F-80C Shooting Star (which by July 3 had already shot down several Il-10s and at least one Yak-9). The choice of engine in the dash-three Panther was a last-minute compromise. We considered the F9F-3 both underpowered and unreliable. Later, we would celebrate where F9F-3s were re-engined with their intended power plant, the 5,750-lb thrust Pratt & Whitney J42, which was also used on the more numerous Navy's F9F-2 model.

The F9f-e was armed with four 20-mm cannons but, at this juncture in the war, was not yet fitted with underwing pylons to carry bombs and rocket projectiles. A widely distributed painting that shows Plog and me taking off carrying two 1,000-lb bombs and six 5-inch high velocity aircraft rockets is inaccurate.

The Navy's transition from props to jets was proceeding slowly. At this late date -- whild the united States was preparing the F086 Sabre for action in Korea and the Soviet Union was readying the MiG-15 -- the Navy did not yet have a combat aircraft with swept wings. It lacked a lead-computing gunsight. Routine flight at supersonic speed was still years away. Despite all this, our untested Panther was a giant leap forward. It also offered advantages over the Air Force F-80C: I found that the cockpit was roomier and the canopy had operated hydraulically, while the F-80C (which we Navy pilots flew as the TO-1) used a manual crank. The F-80C was skinny and sleek, while our F9F was kind of a barrel-shaped aircraft with a round fuselage.

As we headed toward Pyongyang, I don't think we had any special thoughts. After all, we were all experienced. I guess I was typical of thos who hadn't gotten combat experience in World War II, which ended five years earlier, but who were pretty experienced, nevertheless. I can tall you that we all wanted to fly, and if necessary to fight, and when the time came, we were ready to go.

Navy's air war in Korea had started.

OF ALL THE MEDALS, AWARDS, FORMAL PRESENTATIONS AND QUALIFICATION BADGES HE/SHE RECEIVED, WHICH WERE THE MOST MEANINGFUL TO HIM/HER AND WHY?

Ed Brown showing a Lockheed Award

Ed Brown flew forty-two combat missions from the USS Valley Forge, squadron VF-51, between July and September 1950. He also received several awards as a Test Pilot for Lockheed after leaving the Navy.

ARE YOU AWARE OF ANY PARTICULAR INCIDENT FROM HIS/HER SERVICE, WHICH MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE BEEN FUNNY AT THE TIME, BUT STILL MADE THEM LAUGH LATER ON?
On a combat mission in September 1950:

Ensign Eldon W. Brown, Jr., of Fighter Squadron (VF) 53 had a feeling that this run was going to be the toughest of the lot. Diving through North Korean flak to strafe a row of wooden crates, his guns suddenly set off a tremendous explosion. "I'd touched off a North Korean ammunition dump, creating a blast so huge some people thouthe it was an atom bomb" Brown said. Barely keeping his plane in the air through the resulting shock wave, Brown climbed quickly, but still could not outrun the ensuing cloud which passed him at 4,000 feet. The Battle of Inchon had begun.

IF HE/SHE SURVIVED MILITARY SERVICE, WHAT PROFESSION(S) DID HE/SHE FOLLOW AFTER DISCHARGE?

Ed Brown CF-104 STARFIGHTER

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.

Photo: The initial flight of a CF-104 STARFIGHTER took place on 26 May 1961, at Palmdale California. The aircraft, 12701, had been built in Cartierville, airlifted to California and was flown by Lockheed pilot Ed Brown. Shown is the CF-104 RCAF, Canadian Air Force, aircraft being tested by Ed Brown.

IF HE/SHE SURVIVED MILITARY SERVICE, IN WHAT WAYS DO YOU BELIEVE HIS/HER SERVING IN THE MILITARY INFLUENCED THE WAY THEY APPROACHED THEIR PERSONAL LIFE, FAMILY LIFE AND CAREER?
You tested aircraft, and some were never accepted.

148 F-100s were modified for ZEL. In 1963, the German Luftwaffe sponsored similar launch experiments with a single F-104G strike fighter, with Lockheed test pilot Ed Brown performing the flights. Brown was impressed with the scheme, saying: "All I did was push

Loading Lockheed test pilot Ed Brown, ZELL F-104G

the rocket booster button and sit back. The plane was on its own for the first few seconds and then I took over. I was surprised at the smoothness, even smoother than a steam catapult launch from an aircraft carrier."

Nothing came of any of it. Nobody wanted to field ZELL (Zero Length Launch Systems). The idea was sexy, it worked well, but it was expensive and had nasty logistical and security concerns associated with it. In the end, the capability offered by the system was provided by battlefield missiles and the Harrier VTOL "jump-jet" that didn't need a booster rocket. Nobody but test pilots ever blasted a jet fighter into the sky on a rocket booster. It wasn't a practical idea, but it had certainly been a ride that Disney could never have built in a thousand years.

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NAVY TogetherWeServed

This is a "Remembrance Profile" about Lt. Eldon (Ed) Brown, Jr.

Thank you for stopping by.

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