Bio, Brown, Geroge R.

BROWN, GEORGE R.

Remains Returned 02/11/2000
ID'd 12/18/2001 - DAUGHTER DISPUTES

Name: George R. Brown
Rank/Branch: E5/US Army Special Forces
Unit: C & C Detachment, Drawer 22 (MACV-SOG), 5th Special Forces Group
Date of Birth: 19 September 1935
Home City of Record: Hollyhill FL
Date of Loss: 28 March 1968
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 164730N 1062000E (XD434574)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Refno: 1108
Other Personnel In Incident: Charles Huston; Alan L. Boyer (missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 30 June 1990 from one or more of
the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence
with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W.
NETWORK 2020.

SYNOPSIS: MACV-SOG (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and
Observation Group). MACV-SOG was a joint service high command unconventional
warfare task force engaged in highly classified operations throughout
Southeast Asia. The 5th Special Forces channeled personnel into MACV-SOG
(although it was not a Special Forces group) through Special Operations
Augmentation (SOA), which provided their "cover" while under secret orders
to MACV-SOG. The teams performed deep penetration missions of strategic
reconnaissance and interdiction which were called, depending on the time
frame, "Shining Brass" or "Prairie Fire" missions.

On March 28, 1968, Sgt. Alan L. Boyer, Sgt. Charles G. Huston, both
riflemen, and SFC George R. Brown, intelligence sergeant, were conducting a
reconnaissance patrol in Laos, along with 7 Vietnamese personnel. The men
were attached to Command and Control Detachment, MACV-SOG. About 15 miles
inside Laos, northeast of Tchepone, the patrol made contact with an unknown
enemy force and requested exfiltration by helicopter.

Because of the terrain in the area, the helicopter could not land, and a
rope ladder was dropped in for the team to climb up to board the aircraft.
Six of the Vietnamese had already climbed to the aircraft, when, as the 7th
climbed aboard, the helicopter began receiving heavy automatic weapons fire.
This forced the helicopter to leave the area.

Simultaneous to these events, Sgt. Boyer began to climb the ladder when
seconds later, the ladder broke. When last seen during the extraction, the
other 2 sergeants (Huston and Brown) still on the ground were alive and
appeared unwounded. On April 1, a search team was inserted into the area and
searched 6 hours, but failed to locate any evidence of the three men.

Boyer, Huston and Brown are among the nearly 600 Americans missing in Laos.
When the war ended, agreements were signed releasing American Prisoners of
War from Vietnam. Laos was not part of the peace agreement, and although the
Pathet Lao stated publicly that they held "tens of tens" of prisoners, not a
single American held in Laos has ever been released.

Any of the three members of the reconnaissance team operating that day in
March 1968 could be among the hundreds of Americans experts believe to be
alive today. The last they saw of America, it was flying away, abandoning
them to the jungle and the enemy. What must they be thinking of us now?

HOLLY HILL -- ....The military gave her $4,800 to buy a burial vault, and she will receive a
full-sized casket containing the tooth.....

Daughter doesn't believe remains are those of war hero dad
By: F.A. KRIFT, The Enterprise
09/30/2006
Updated 10/01/2006 11:56:47 PM CDT

DAYTON - For Ronda Brown-Pitts, it's what wasn't buried Friday in Magnolia
Park Cemetery......

SGM GEORGE R BROWN

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Conflict
Service
Status
Date of Accounting

VIETNAM WAR
UNITED STATES ARMY
Accounted For
02/09/2005

On February 9, 2005, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, now DPAA) identified the remains of Sergeant Major George Ronald Brown, missing from the Vietnam War.

Sergeant Major Brown entered the U.S. Army from Florida and was a member of C & C Detachment, Drawer 22 (MACV-SOG), 5th Special Forces Group, 1st Special Forces. On March 28, 1968, he was with a reconnaissance patrol being extracted by helicopter from Savannakhet Province, Laos. While hovering, the helicopter came under enemy fire and was forced to ascend with a rope extraction ladder still hanging from the aircraft. The ladder broke before the remaining men could climb it, including SGM Brown, and he either fell to his death or was killed by enemy fire in the landing area. His remains could not be recovered at the time. In 1992, a joint U.S./Laotian investigation team was led to a common grave related to this incident, where they found some material evidence from the case but could not locate SGM Brown's remains. However, a U.S. citizen later turned over human remains received from a Laotian refugee, and modern forensic techniques were able to identify SGM Brown from these remains.

Sergeant Major Brown is memorialized in the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

If you are a family member of this serviceman, you may contact your casualty office representative to learn more about your service member.

SGM GEORGE R BROWN

Unit
Country of Loss
LAOS
Home of Record FL