Valor at Chosin: The Story of Thomas Hudner and Jesse Brown

The American Veterans Center’s 10th Annual Conference included a panel devoted to America’s “Forgotten War”—Korea—on November 10, 2007. Included in the panel was Captain Thomas J. Hudner, Jr., whose incredible story of heroism is among the greatest of the war. Hudner was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in the attempted rescue of Jesse Brown, his friend and fellow aviator whose plane had crashed during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. We were honored to have Capt. Hudner tell his story at the conference, and are proud to share his remarks below.

I received my wings in 1949. I had gone through the Naval Academy, and was there during World War II. That was acknowledged as being the worst war in the history of mankind, with tens of millions of people being killed throughout the world. There were so many times in World War II when we could have come close to losing it, but when it was over in 1945, we felt as if we had finally wiped out our adversaries. At that time, I was at the Naval Academy, graduating a year later. When we graduated, we felt like we had no real mission, since the war was over. After I got my wings, we were sent to the Mediterranean for a traditional, annual cruise around the area, and it was while there that we got the word that North Korea had invaded South Korea.

We didn’t even know where Korea was. Korea wasn’t much of a factor in World War II; while the Japanese did have several bases that they used during the war, other than that, it was not ever on anybody’s mind. As far as those of us in the fleet were concerned, Korea was just “there.” As a matter of fact, on January 20 of 1950, six months preceding the invasion, Secretary of State Acheson said in a widely publicized press conference that Korea was outside our sphere of interests, indicating that no matter what happened there, we would not get involved. Well, that was probably a signal to the North Koreans that if they wanted to take over South Korea, they could do so without worrying about the United States.

Now, if my history is correct, the dictator of North Korea, Kim Il-Sung, wanted to take over the South, but checked with the Chinese first to see if they would give him support. Mao Zedong, the Chinese premier, assented, but in such a way that the North could not expect his help should they get into trouble. Stalin also gave him his assent, though the word was essentially the same— “if you get into trouble, don’t come to us.”

With that, Kim made his attack on South Korea, and it almost turned into a disaster for the South. Fortunately, President Harry Truman (who was at the time not considered to be an especially strong leader, especially following Franklin Roosevelt) had the knowledge, the background, and a real sense of history to realize that if the whole country of Korea became communist that all of East Asia would be in danger. And communism would become a great threat to the peace of the whole world.

We continued operating in the Mediterranean for another month, flying operations and becoming better trained, when out of the blue we got word that we were going to Korea, because our forces were in desperate straits. Due to the surprise of the attack, the North Koreans forced the South Koreans all the way to the south, to the Pusan Perimeter at the extreme end of the peninsula where they were almost forced into the water. But they were able to hold out while our forces arrived to help the South Koreans.

On September 15, 1950, while we were still en route from the Mediterranean, the allies invaded at Inchon, behind the North Korean lines, which completely turned the war around. The North was forced back, as they did not have the logistical support to maintain them that far from home. In the meantime, we arrived and began operations on October 10. By then, the allied forces, with the Americans, were pushing the North Koreans up toward the border with China. Incidentally, the Chinese warned the U.S. that if they got too close to China, they would enter the war. This caused a great deal of concern among the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who worried that we might tempt the Chinese to enter the battle.

A fellow by the name of Jesse Brown was in our squadron. Jesse was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, the son of a sharecropper. He was a good student and athlete in school, and always wanted to fly but could never get into military aviation because blacks, as far as he knew, were not allowed to fly, outside of the Tuskegee Airmen. Still, he was encouraged to get into aviation while at Ohio State University, and ended up getting his wings and became the first black Naval aviator. As a young officer, he was assigned to the same squadron as I was, and was considered to be one of the most promising pilots in the squadron.