Merle B. Brown by his wife Barbara
Merle Brown	Merle Brown
Frank Lawson and Merle	Isle of Capri Rest Camp Merle, Larry Reynolds, and Warren Eickmann

Merle was born 2 Oct. 1923, in Summerfield, KS and raised in Burlington, Coffey Co., KS. He graduated from High School in May 1941. An uncle living in San Diego, CA, wanted him to come there to work, and so he was working at Solar Aircraft when the Attack on Pearl Harbor occurred. Merle heard the Army was recruiting for pilots. This is exactly what he wanted to do from the time he saw his first plane and took a ride with a Barnstormer that came through Burlington.. He passed the test with a high score, and enlisted the 25th of April 1942.

His Log Book states he started flying the 13th of October 1942, with R. C. Hopf as his instructor in the PT 19’s at Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Chief Flight Instructor was Jay L. Gentry. In January of 1943 he was at Enid Army Flying School in Oklahoma. In March of 1943, at Foster Field, Victoria, Texas flying AT-6’s. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lt the 24th of May 1943, and graduated with the class of 43E.

I remember Merle telling me, he was assigned to ship out with a Bomber Squadron. He missed going with them because he was in the Hospital having his tonsils out, which was a Lucky day for him as he wanted to be a fighter pilot. On the 16th of June 1943, he was in Sarasota, Florida taking instructions in P-40’s. This must have been where he was first stationed with 1st Lt. James S. Alford, 2nd Lts. Eldon E. Vondra, Frank J. Gerry, Jr., Walter J. Flynn and Francis R. Lawson, who wrote the book “ War Diary of the 27th Fighter Squadron”

The six were first assigned to the 27th Fighter Squadron.on the 23rd of August 1943, near Mateur, Tunisia, in North Africa. Merle flew his first P38 on the 26th of August, and he didn’t even have a drivers license. He went into combat with 9 hours in P38 type aircraft.

On the 29th of December 1943 Merle was one of the P38 pilots who flew escort for a Wimpy C47 on a rescue mission to Albania for 27 Army Nurses. In his Log Book, he notes, “Results????”. In 1972, Merle was stationed at S.A.M.S.O. in Los Angeles. He was working with a man, Lou Doskie, from Aerospace. Lou was an Albanian, so Merle told him this story, and as it turned out, Lou was one of the gorillas that was protecting the nurses that day. Small world.

March of 1944 seems to be a memorable month for Merle. I’ll quote from an article in The Kansas City Star. “First Lieut. Merle B. Brown, 20, returned safely to his fighter base from a B-24 escort mission to the harbor installations at Toulon, France, on March 11, to tell how he destroyed and FW-190 in an aerial battle over France. This was Lt. Brown’s first confirmed victory in the 35 combat missions he has flown with the 15th AAF squadron which he joined in Africa last August. As Brown stepped from the cockpit of his P-38, he was greeted with the news that orders, promoting him to the rank of first lieutenant had just arrived.”

“I got the biggest scare and biggest thrill out of today’s mission,” Lt. Brown remarked to his comrades as they congratulated him on his double “first” triumph, “As I followed the Focke-Wulf in, we almost collided, and I missed him by not more than ten feet and, brother, that’s too close. There we were coming in head on at each other and firing everything we had. It was the most beautiful shot I ever got at a Jerry. You should have seen him go down with long sheets of flame coming out of him.”

On the 29th of March, flying out of Foggia, Merle was shot down just north of the Aige river, and south of Padova. A farmer and his daughter came after him and wanted his parachute for the daughters wedding gown. Merle tried to tell them, if they would hide him, they could have it. While this not so good communications was going on, two Italian soldiers came on their Motorcycles to arrest him. He refused to get on their Bikes, saying “those things could kill you”. In the meantime a German soldier came and ask the problem. He flagged down a civilian car to transport Merle into Padova for interrogation. A few days later, was sent to Stalag Luft 1 near Barth, Germany, and was there for 13 months until liberated in June of 1945.

Merle was then stationed at Luke Field , where he ran into Larry Reynolds who had been stationed in Foggia. He got out of the Army August 1946, which ended his career with the 27th Fighter Squadron.

Merle did go back into the Air Force in August 1948. He became a Nuclear Weapons Officer, being stationed at Sculthorpe AFB, England, Kirtland AFB, Balikisir,Turkey, the Pentagon and Space & Missile Organization at Los Angeles, CA. Through AFIT, he got a BA at University of Illinois, and MB at University of Southern California. He retired with a regular commission of Lt Col at Los Angeles Air Force Station in September 1975.

Merle and I were married in 1947 and we have a son, Steve & wife, Martha. A daughter, Debra & husband, Dick and a grandson, Tad. Merle retired in 1976 in Albuquerque, NM, And died in 1992 of Leukemia.