Henry Brown was the first of his family to be born in the US, January 8, 1919. He lived in Little Rock, Arkansas, where his family owned Western Meatpackers. He graduated from the University of Arkansas where he was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity. The family attended the Lutheran Church. He married June Gingles, of Benton, Arkansas, and after the war, went to work for her family, later becoming President of Gingles Dept. Stores. He was well respected and a civic leader in Benton. They had 2 children, Cherry "Gingi" Brown Young and Greg Brown. They had one granddaughter, me.

Henry entered active duty June 18, 1941. He had primary training at Jackson, Miss., Basic at Greenville, and Advanced Instruction at Columbus. His military occupation/specialty/and No. was Bomber Pilot, Twin Engine, 1022. He fought in 3 campaigns in 1945 where he was assigned to the the 553rd Bombardment Squadron of the 386th Bombardment group: Ardennes ltr Hq ETOUSA, Rhineland Ltr Hq, and Central Europe Ltr Hq. He recieved the European African Middle Eastern Service Medal, 1 Overseas Service Bar Air Medal GO 39 Hq 9th BD 45 with 3 Oak leaf clusters, and 3 Battle Stars. He left for the European theater Nov 4, 1944, stationed in the UK before moving to Beaumont-Sur-Oise. He piloted 21 missions according to service records. He returned to the US August 9, 1945 and was relieved from active duty in Jan 8, 1946. He achieved the rank of Captain while in active service and was promoted to Major in the reserves. Upon return to the US, he served at Fort Benning as a flight instructor before being discharged in 1946. He flew 6 missions in the B-26 and the rest in the A-26. I am merely a civilian and cannot decipher a lot of his service record. My grandmother saved his service records and files of Vmail and photographs, but sadly his footlocker in the basement disappeared after her death. Maybe someday we will locate it.