PVT Jack H. Brown, USMC
This month’s highlight is taken from two separate stories. The first was written by a Marine Corps Combat Correspondent (name unknown) shortly after the battle occurred. It is unclear where the second story was published. The stories differ on Earl Brown’s rank. We do not have pictures of either of these brave, honorable men.
(Marine Corps Combat Correspondent)
Namur, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, Feb 4. (Delayed)
The Boy, a Private in the Marines, Dies on Kwajalein Beach, While “Pop,” a Corporal in Same Outfit, Goes on Fighting Japs
On this windswept coral island in the Pacific, death wrote an end today to the story of a boy’s incredible devotion to his father.
It is a story of the efforts of father and son to be together through two years of Marine Corps service. The son, a young Marine who stowed away on a ship to get overseas because “he wanted to be with pop,” was killed in action.
Father Pleads to Join
He is Pvt Jack H. Brown, 19, of Childress, Tex, the father is Cpl. Earl Brown, 44 – a veteran of every major engagement of the army in World War I – made two trips to the Marine base at San Diego, Calif., and wrote innumerable letters to Washington to convince authorities that he wasn’t “too old.” He wanted to be with son Jack, who enlisted in March 1943.
Jack and Pop finally managed to get in the same company at a West… [words are missing from copy] … it was time for the outfit to ship out, young Brown was hospitalized with a minor illness and transferred to another unit not scheduled to go over. Pop boarded the ship alone.
Just before the ship was to sail, Jack was found stowed away. He was taken off and placed under arrest. Corporal Brown’s wife, Madie, telephoned the general in command of the camp, told the story of her husband and son’s efforts to be together. The general ordered the charges against the boy dropped and allowed him to join the combat outfit with his father.
They Land Together
They were together when their outfit reached this island from another base. Jack hit the beach first, went into one of the bitterest actions of the battle, and was killed during the night when our forces held off a desperate Jap counterattack. It was his first time under fire but his buddies say he fought like a veteran.
The father will go on fighting.
TIME APRIL 3, 1944 12:00 AM GMT-4
Earl Brown of Childress, Tex. and his 19-year-old son Jack joined the Marines together. Once Jack was transferred to another company, but he raised such a row they moved him back. He and Pop, who was a veteran of the last war, would serve together or go to the brig together. Together they were in the attack on Kwajalein. It was Jack’s first and last action.
Sargeant Earl Brown wrote his wife, Madie:
As I look back on it I think I have expected this all along. Jack and I had the longest visit with each other the last week that we ever had. I will never be sorry I was with him at that time. He did not expect to get back and told me all of the things he wanted done.
I will miss him like hell but we will just have to keep our chins up. We have done that several times together but this time it will be alone for the present. I am sorry that I am not with you, it would help us both, but we have to take life as it comes.
I know of no other way I would rather die, or my son, than for his country. I have never been able to understand why young people die. I guess I am not supposed to. I have lived to see a good many things that looked bad at the time turn out for the best later. This one I will never be able to see. I had figured on trying to get out after this summer but I will stay for the duration now. I hope and believe you will understand. This is the first time in my life to know what the word hate means.
I love you and the girls more than ever if that is possible. This I promise, I will be back. You can count on that. Love, Earl.
Pvt. Jack H. Brown died in action on January 31, 1944. His father, Earl A. Brown, lived until January 25, 1980. Father and son are buried in Childress Cemetery.
