BROWN, PAUL GORDON

Name: Paul Gordon Brown
Rank/Branch: United States Marine Corps/O2
Unit: 1 MAW
Date of Birth: 25 August 1943
Home City of Record: Newton MA
Date of Loss: 25 July 1968
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 171400 North  1005100 East
Status (in 1973): Returnee
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: A6A
Missions:
Other Personnel in Incident: Major Curt Lawson (rescued)
Refno: 1257

Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK from one or more of the following: raw
data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA
families, published sources, interviews. Updated 2023

REMARKS: 730314 RELEASED BY DRV

===============

Paul Brown retired from the United States Marine Corps as a Lt. Colonel. He
and his wife Bobbi reside in California.

===============

From: "Bruce Swander" <bruceswander@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 2002 12:17:57 -0500

Here's some additional info regarding Capt Paul Brown, MIA on 25 July
68.  He was shot down with Maj Curtis Lawson who was extracted out that day
by a SAR group.  Capt Brown was part of the 1973 returnees, and he later
found out that he was listed as MIA for over a year.....until the infamous
Seaman Hegdahl "sang" his name when he was released.

The comment at the end regarding the F-4's was in response that he was in an
A6 that day....as I had asked him if we even had F-4's in Chu Lai.  Point
being that he is verifying that he was in an A6.

Based on the SAR documents, they started looking about 10AM the next day.
One of the early birds started taking hits once they got there, and they
called in AF strikes.  That went on most of the day, and they were finally
able to get a Jolly Green in around 4PM to locate and extract Maj Lawson.
It appears that Capt Brown had been captured by then.

Hope this helps.

Bruce Swander

----- Original Message -----
To: bruceswander@hotmail.com
Sent: Friday, March 29, 2002 9:22 PM
Subject: Re: Response to your Qs

Good evening Bruce

I was assigned to VMA(AW)-533 in Chu Lai... A-6As.  I was the Bombadier
/Navigotor for a night road recce on Jul 25, 1968.   We were hunting trucks
along Hwy 1 in NVN from the DMZ to Dong Hoi.  We were shot down near Delta
55 around 2130h.  The right engine exploded, the aircraft was on fire and
descending;  I ejected passing 1000' going down.  The A-6A had separate
ejection systems.

I came down near a triple AA site.  With my aircraft burning in a column of
orange fire less than a mile away, I looked for Maj Lawson's parachute
between me and the fire.  I didn't see it.   I broke my back on the ejection
and was nicked on the arm by rifle fire on the way down.  I did everything
that seemed reasonable at the time... field packed my chute and hid it,
moved away from my landing spot, fell into a ravine and was knocked
unconscious, and found a dense clump of bamboo trees to hide in.

There were people searching for me all night ... with dogs.

There was no aircraft overhead after we were bagged all night.  There was no
emergency 243.0 traffic from my pilot or anyone else all night.  In fact, I
was very concerned that a radio broadcast would give away my position.

The villagers must have followed my boot prints and/or blood trail to the
bamboo stand.  At first light, my position was discovered.  I broke the
antenna of the pocket radio and buried it as I slowly got to my feet.

On the way to the nearby village, stripped and under guard of 10 villagers,
a F-100 went overhead at low altitude... probably 1000 feet.  Gutsy move!

Later that afternoon while I was bound in an underground cave, I heard a
small war going on to the East of this village.  I didn't have a watch but
would guess it was mid-afternoon.  That was the extraction of Maj. Lawson
... I learned when I returned to the USA and met him again.

Maj. Lawson was VERY fortunate!  The Jolly Greens, Spads and Fast FACs men
should be getting a case of good scotch from Maj. Lawson every Christmas.

There were F-4s at Chu Lai.  MAG-11.  First reports seem always to have some
inaccuracies.

Semper Fi

Paul G. Brown
LtCol USMCR (ret)