BEALE AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., (ACCNS) -- The youngest surviving member of the Bataan Death March was awarded the Bronze Star Award 66 years after he earned it during a ceremony here Sept. 30.
Col. Keith Gentile, 9th Reconnaissance Wing vice commander, presented the award to Rosemary Brown, wife of Chief Master Sgt. (Ret.) Robert Brown, who was unable to attend the ceremony due to illness.
A Marysville, Calif., native, Chief Brown was part of the Luzon Forces that surrendered to the Japanese on the Bataan Peninsula April 9, 1942 after a four month battle to keep them at bay. Already half-starving from living on quarter rations, the surrendered forces were then forced to march more than 60 miles without sufficient food and water through the jungle. At one point, the POWs were packed into box cars, which carried them to Camp O'Donnell on Aug. 14, 1942.
From there, the medical technician was sent to Korea and then Manchuria, where he spent the next three years treating his fellow POWs until his liberation on Aug. 20, 1945 - just four days before his 21st birthday.
It was for his service and commitment during his imprisonment that Chief Brown was awarded the Bronze Star.
"Well he always knew he had earned the award but it had never been formally presented to him," said Mrs. Brown. "I know he'll be very proud and honored, and it's hard for him to not be here. He said that if he couldn't get up and put on his uniform, and represent it properly, he didn't want to go. That's how much his service means to him."
During his time in Manchuria, Chief Brown worked at a POW hospital, where he learned to speak Japanese. According to Mrs. Brown, the chief's wife of almost 30 years, Chief Brown had an amazing memory for details such as names and places. Before the ceremony began, she shared some of the chief's stories from his time at the POW hospital.
"While he worked in the clinic, helping other POWs, he found a skate key, which he could use to turn on the water, which they [the POWs] didn't have access to. They were never given enough food and water," Mrs. Brown said. "He had that key the whole way through his time there.
"He was also able to steal a key to the room where they kept the care packages from the Red Cross and family members from home," she added.
This was not the first time Chief Brown was recognized at Beale. In 2007, he was presented with the Purple Heart during Beale's Prisoner of War and Missing in Action luncheon. He was also a frequent guest speaker at the Airman Leadership School. Former ALS flight chief, Chief Master Sgt. Robert Rubio, talked about the impression Chief Brown left on him.
"He's one of my mentors in life," he said. "Although I'm now stationed at Lackland [Air Force Base], he has been and is a huge influence in my life. He epitomizes that generation of hard workers that we're losing every day. He's an American hero."
USAF. (U.S. Air Force Graphic by Rosario "Charo" Gutierrez)