WWHS ALUMNI PAGE

William C. Brown ('57)

Bill Brown is West Virginia's most decorated Vietnam veteran

By PAT HANNA

Bill Brown is West Virginia's most decorated Vietnam veteran.

Seriously wounded just days before he was scheduled to complete his third tour of duty in Vietnam, he was awarded 16 medals, including the Silver Star, the Bronze Star with three Oak Leaf Clusters, two Purple Hearts with Oak Leaf Clusters, the Air Medal and the Army Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Clusters. The bridge over Piney Creek leading from Eisenhower Drive to Interstate 64 in Beckley is named in his honor.

He is also one of West Virginia's biggest sports fans. In a room inside his Beckley home, along with his war medals and a painting of his unit in Vietnam, are a football autographed by Chad Pennington and a basketball signed by members of Woodrow Wilson High School's 1993 state championship basketball team. That's the team that rallied - and Brown can remember every detail - from 20 points down in the fourth quarter to beat Brooke in the semifinals of the state tournament.

He loves the WVU Mountaineers, the Mountain State University Cougars and the WWHS Flying Eagles.

"I've been to the Fiesta Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, the Peach Bowl, the Gator Bowl two or three times," he said, looking forward to another trip to Jacksonville, Fla., on New Year's Day to watch the Mountaineers take on Florida State and former WVU coach Bobby Bowden.

He recalls the fact Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie never beat WVU, but completed that Hail Mary pass to beat Miami in 1984 and won the Heisman Trophy.

"I remember Major Harris in the Fiesta Bowl against Notre Dame (in a game for the national championship following the 1988 season). He got hurt on the third play of the game, but he wouldn't quit. My son (Sammy) and I talked to him a good while after the game."

And then there was the 1982 victory over Oklahoma.

"That, to me, was the turnaround of the football program at West Virginia."

He remembers a little boy who grew up right beside him in his neighborhood. And what a thrill it was when that youngster of a generation ago, Bob Bolen, coached the Mountain State basketball team to the NAIA championship last season.

"He's done a tremendous job with MSU," Brown said. "I was so happy when they won the national championship."

He remembers the glory years at Woodrow Wilson under Jerome Van Meter and "Preach" Wiseman, and the resurrection of the basketball program under Dave Barksdale. For years, he sold 50-50 tickets at WWHS football and basketball games to raise money for the cheerleaders.

He's followed the careers of former WWHS and Marshall lineman Mike Guilliams, "a good friend of the family," Pennington, Randy Moss, Jerry Porter, Amos Zereoue and Curt Warner. He's happy for another Beckley product, Marshall coach Bob Pruett.

But he's also disturbed by what he's seen in recent weeks - the near riot in the Indiana Pacers-Detroit Pistons NBA game and the brawl that marred the college football game between Clemson and South Carolina.

"Sports is big business now," he said. "But sportsmanship should be No. 1. If we as adults can't set a good example, we can't be very good teachers."

For William C. Brown, life began two days before Christmas in 1939. He grew up on the family farm in Eccles, one of 12 children of the late Sam and Ruby Brown who learned the value of hard work at an early age.

By the time he was in fourth grade, he was helping out at the Clark Plant Farm.

"We raised vegetable plants and sold them to farmers," he recalled. "Back then, it was nothing for a family to buy 100 tomato plants and put them out. Everybody had gardens.

"We used to sell them uptown at Beckley Motors (where Bank One is now located) and at the Yellow Cab lot where Shoemaker Square is now."

On the farm, the Browns produced their own milk from cows and meat from hogs.

"Mom would churn," he added. "We made our own butter, cheese.

"I think that's something young people miss today living in the city."

There was also a sense of duty and patriotism in the Brown household. All five boys in the family served in the military, with four of them - Lawrence, Gilmore "Bobo," Robert J. "Jack" and Bill - making careers out of the armed services, retiring after a combined 83 years in uniform. The fifth brother, Jimmy, spent eight years in the military before graduating from the University of Arkansas and becoming a football coach in Texas.

Lawrence and Bobo are now deceased. Jack, like Bill, is a big WVU fan.

Bill joined the Army in December 1956, cutting short his senior year at Woodrow Wilson, although he finished his education in the service.

"I just took it for granted; it was the patriotic thing to do," he said. "I guess I knew I was going to make a career of it before I went in. I never gave it a second thought."

He was stationed at various bases stateside before going to Germany for a two-year stint in 1958. Later, he was sent to Okinawa and Thailand before going to Vietnam for the first time in 1965.

After a year there and two more years in Germany, he went back to Vietnam in 1968. He returned to Fort Bragg, N.C., in 1969 before beginning his third tour in Vietnam in 1970.

On June 18, 1970, in Cambodia, Brown was wounded by shrapnel from a rocket. Six months later, as a 1st sergeant, he was assigned a command position with the 984th Engineering Company, made up of 160 men and a like number of South Vietnamese counterparts being trained to fight the North.

"My company's job was to destroy jungle and bunker complexes," he said. "We uncovered two underground hospitals.

"We were in there before the infantry. We would prep the area with artillery fire, then take the bulldozers in. The lead plow always had radio communication with a chopper. The chopper would direct the cut.

"It was dense jungle. One day you may cut 200 acres, the next day you may cut 200 feet."

It was a dangerous mission. The average man in his company received two Purple Hearts. But Brown never gave his assignment a second thought.

"I was a career man," he said. "I knew I would have to go where I was directed. That's the reason we maintain a military force."

On the night of March 15, 1971, at Xuan Loc in Vietnam, Brown was seriously wounded by an 82-millimeter mortar shell. His right leg was broken in 17 places below the knee. He also suffered injuries to his left leg, his back, left arm and right hand.

"I got hit on Monday night. I was coming home on Friday," he said. "My replacement got hit the same time. He got killed."

Brown was treated at field hospitals in Vietnam, then was transferred to hospitals in Japan and Alaska before being moved to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and then to the McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond, Va.

He underwent numerous operations, and treatments continue today.

"The VA has been good to me," he said. He still wears leg braces.

Brown retired from the Army as a sergeant 1st class on Aug. 18, 1973.

Four Silver Stars were awarded to members of his outfit in Vietnam. Two of the soldiers, Capt. Edwin Heisse and Lt. Renaldo Reinard, were killed in action.

Brown's own Silver Star citation recognized him for his gallantry in action and said he ignored his own injuries, organized his soldiers to take cover and then rallied them to care for wounded colleagues.

He was also awarded the Cong Binh, the highest honor an Army engineer could receive from the government of South Vietnam. Only 12 Americans received the honor. It had to be approved by the secretary of the Army before it could go on a uniform.

"If you haven't been in combat, you can't envision what combat is like," Brown said. "We lost 408,000 men in World War II, 37,000 in Korea and 59,000-plus in Vietnam. And I hated to see the first one die in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"You know when you go to war you're going to have casualties. That's part of the price we pay for freedom."

He realizes the country is split over the war in Iraq, much like it was during Vietnam.

"You have a president, a commander-in-chief," he said. "Whether you agree with him or not, once he engages the troops, you have to back him and back the troops, especially, and give them what they need."

He doesn't believe the recent assault on Fallujah should have been revealed ahead of time - "It was not a field commander who made that decision -- you don't let them (the enemy) know when you're coming," he said - and he doesn't think the news media "have any business being embedded with the troops." With 24-hour access to television news, he said, "maybe some mother or wife will sit there and see a family member being punished. That's not the way to be notified."

After leaving the Richmond VA hospital, Brown came back to Beckley, but he remained in rehabilitation "for a long time."

He worked a couple of years at the supply house of Slab Fork Coal Co. and later at local funeral homes. He was also a familiar sight around town delivering food from the Greyhound bus station restaurant.

"I like people," he said. "I like being around people."

He remains active. He teaches flag etiquette to students at Raleigh County elementary schools, attends reunions of his Vietnam company that are held every other year and enjoys spending time with his grandchildren.

He's also active in veterans organizations, primarily as a member of the Oak Hill VFW Post 3110 Honor Guard that conducts military graveside rites at area cemeteries for honorably discharged veterans who have died.

"We do 125 to 150 a year," he said, noting World War II veterans are dying at a rate of 1,500 a day nationally.

"I consider it an honor and privilege to do that. It's the last thing you can do for a veteran."

Brown said he saw the country come together in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 only to have it begin to dissipate. He hopes future generations will keep Sept. 11, 2001, alive in American history, much like ensuing generations have not forgotten Dec. 7, 1941, and the attack on Pearl Harbor.

"I guess time will tell," he said.

He has seen change in his nearly 65 years of life, some of it, he believes, not for the better.

"The Supreme Court, the ACLU, anything good for the country they're against. No more Pledge of Allegiance, no more prayer in school. You can't have this, you can't have that. Both parents have to work, and the children come home from school and nobody's there.

"My mother raised 12 children and she was always there when we got home from school. I'm not knocking mothers who work. That's just the way it is today. Society has changed."

But Brown wouldn't change his life or the course it took him.

"I would do the same thing again, no hesitation," he said. "If I thought I could be of benefit, I would go back today.

"I'm proud of my country. I would do everything that I did before. I don't regret where they sent me. That's part of being in the military.

"And my wife (Connie) has always been loyal. That means a lot."

William C. 'Bill' Brown -- Born: Dec. 23, 1939, in Eccles. -- Current residence: Beckley. -- Education: Attended Woodrow Wilson High School, finished requirements for his diploma while in the U.S. Army. -- Family: Wife, Connie; two daughters, Cynthia Farrell and husband Greg of Crab Orchard and Tabatha Wood and husband Seth of Highland, Ill.; one son, Sammy Brown and wife Daphne of Cool Ridge; and four grandchildren. -- Military career: Enlisted in Army in December 1956, retired as sergeant 1st Class on Aug. 18, 1973; served three tours of duty in Vietnam; was wounded in Cambodia on June 18, 1970, was seriously wounded on March 15, 1971, at Xuan Loc in Vietnam; was awarded 16 medals, including the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest military award designated solely for heroism in combat. -- Affiliations: Life member of Disabled American Veterans, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars; attends Memorial Baptist Church; past board chairman of Raleigh County Veterans Museum; member of Oak Hill VFW Post 3110 Honor Guard. -- Hobbies: Sports, fan of West Virginia University, Marshall University, Mountain State University and Woodrow Wilson High School.