Arthur Leroy Brown

0:00  Hi George very nice meeting you nice meeting you

0:03 here is  Louisville Kentucky

0:07 and why are you here

0:10 I’m here to uh it’s the

0:14 39th POW reunion of the Korean War

0:18 so are you Korean War veteran no I’m not a Korean War veteran

0:22 my brother Arthur L Brown was captured

0:27 in Korea  July 7th 1950

0:39 and your brothers middle name Leroy

0:43 Lee  L so you are here to represent

0:48 your old brother yes sir where are you from I’m from

0:53 Mount Gilead Ohio just north of Columbus Ohio

1:00 I see tell me

1:04 about your brother Arthur when was

1:08 he born um, well not exactly the date and the month

1:17 the month was January

1:20 31st 1932 maybe something like that

1:24 how about you

1:32 when were you born I was born

1:35 1943 September 2nd

1:38 September the 2nd

1:42 what do you remember about your brother when

1:45 you were growing

1:46 up I remember

1:50 playing baseball, playing football uh yeah

2:00 just uh kicking it around with my brother

2:04 you know just like all brothers do

2:06 you know I was the youngest and they always picked on me

2:07 I see but I  got the best of them

2:09 so you were  good with

2:13 them yeah, yeah wouldn’t have any better brothers

2:17 did you go to school together yeah we all went to

2:20 same schools what school well we started out at the

2:28 California elementary school so you move to California

2:32 no California, Ohio oh ok

2:37 just down by Coney Island River Downs

2:40 that’s high school no that’s a grade school

2:45 grade school how about  high school

2:53 high school junior high

2:57 I went to Mount Washington Junior

3:00 High School  and I went to three years at

3:06 central vocational high school which is in lower part of Cincinnati

3:16 your brother too no he didn’t graduate from high school he

3:22 went to the same schools I went to

3:27 but he wanted to quit

3:28 high school and join the Army I see

3:33 where were you born actually  I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati

3:42 so do you remember when you’re old  brother Arthur

3:45 joined the military he joined in

3:49 49 1949

3:52 he enlisted

3:55 right yes

4:04 anything you know well him after that mean

4:11 grown up for after he joined the military

4:15 uh no I just remember

4:19 taking him to the airport

4:24 so he could fly off to Korea

4:28 he did fly off to Korea  I guess they took a boat

4:32 someplace on airplane I’m not sure where but then I

4:35 see um they either flew or took a boat

4:39 probably a boat because that were most were transportation was but so

4:48 so did you hear from Arthur when he went to korea

4:52 yeah got all letters and so forth

4:55 ah he wrote the letter to you not me no

4:58 mom and dad the whole family actually so

5:04 we all read them what did he say in the letter

5:09 just that he had arrived and what unit he was in

5:13 you know the country wasn’t what he expected

5:18 what division did he belong

5:21 he was with the 24th the 24th division 21/24

5:25 yeah and regiment K Company

5:30 and regiment

5:33 21st regiment so 24th

5:37 division and 21st regiment K Company

5:41 what was it doing there rifleman or what

5:44 apparently yeah

5:50 infantry or engineer or Cigna Corp infantry so yeah you know

5:55 he played baseball

5:58 for um the 24th so you know which he was very good

6:03 at he was a pitcher so um he was on his way

6:11 but you said that he was captured on July 4

6:16 July the 7th  7th  yes 1950

6:21 1950 do you know how he was captured

6:27 and where wherever they sent

6:31 em in you know at the 38th parallel

6:38 so I mean you know I wasn’t there so I could just hear

6:42 what people talk and so

6:44 forth so wherever they were in when it

6:47 first started so I have no idea where it was so did US military

6:53 notify you that your brother was captured first

6:57 off it was Missing In Action and then we got confirmation

7:02 that it he’d been captured so you don’t know where he was

7:09 in the camp or not he was in he’d wound up

7:13 at Camp 5 Camp 5 oh how did you know

7:17 well that’s what people said when they

7:22 got out you know oh okay

7:25 he died uh 51

7:30 January 51

7:33 on his 21st birthday so

7:38 and then um the armistice was signed and everyone was coming

7:43 back home they apparently asked people

7:47 who they knew and you know people who had died

7:53 and so forth and so on and um that’s how we found out that mom and dad

7:57 got a telegram from the Army stating that you know he’d been captured and um had died in prison camp

8:10 how

8:11 he die apparently it was

8:14 Beriberi so huh Beriberi what is that when

8:25 when you swell up uh hu and your stomach swells up and you

8:30 die so

8:37 so your family came to know of his death

8:40 when the armistice was signed

8:44 yeah after everybody came home yeah

8:47 did he write a letter to you from the camp

8:51 not that I know of then

8:55 did you or your parents write a letter to him not

9:01 that I know of  I got

9:06 all the letters at home that he’s written you know you got you have it yeah I

9:12 letters that he’d written from the time he’d got over there

9:15 if you can

9:19 share that with me because I have more than 6,000 memorabilia

9:24 and here at the top these are the letters

9:27 the Korean War veterans who back wrote to their family so if you share those

9:32 with me I can publish in the website okay

9:38 yes just letters from

9:42 whatever you have about him photographs or anything

9:47 discharged whatever you have about

9:51 Arthur if you send it I will

9:54 scan it and I will return it to you when did you know

9:57 for the first time your brother was captured VFW

10:00 okay there were in a little town I

10:04 lived in

10:07 they notified um this guy named

10:11 Jack they wanted him to notify my mom and dad that

10:14 he’d been captured when was it

10:18 that was after the um

10:22 armistice was signed yeah so before armistice was signed

10:25 you didn’t know I really didn’t know

10:27 no there were guys in there with him that wrote to

10:35 my dad after they came back

10:39 you know stating what had happened and so forth and so on so do you have that

10:46 letter too no I don’t I haven’t really looked at

10:51 what else is in there so when your parents

10:54 came to know that your brother died of

10:58 Beriberi again in Camp 5

11:01 how your parent react to it mom took it real

11:05 bad real bad she uh and dad he

11:11 took bad too because him and my brother

11:17 had a little disagreement when they let him join the

11:24 service oh so your

11:27 your father didn’t like that join the army well he didn’t like the idea that

11:31 quitting school and joining the Army he only had

11:35 another year to go

11:42 oh I see so he said you know if that’s what you won’t you can go

11:48 you know they had a little scuffle my

11:51 dad won so and he felt bad about that but

12:02 mom took it real bad

12:07 my mother was pregnant in 49 and uh she uh with my

12:19 sister you know born after he was in Korea

12:24 and he never got to see her he talked about her all the time to George Bingham

12:29 and other guys that uh he had

12:33 a sister and uh he was very proud

12:37 there was uh girl in the family instead of all boys now

12:46 what do you think about the loss of your brother well

12:52 I was six-years-old at the time so um i knew he was gone and

13:01 wouldn’t be back probably never seen

13:07 him again we would never put him in

13:10 the ground yeah you know so after we

13:15 found out what they’d done with the bodies afterwards so he died

13:20 in the freezing weather

13:23 and they couldn’t really dig

13:27 a grave they just dug as far as they could put him in that and cover him up so apparently

13:34 that’s what I hear so it’s just kind of devastating you know that he’d

13:44 never you know came back so that’s very sad yeah hit my other brothers harder than it

13:56 did me so they were closer to him that I was so

14:02 I was the youngest you know like I said I got

14:04 tossed around a lot

14:10 do you know anything about Korea now uh

14:14 what I’ve heard

14:18 from talking to these gentlemen here it’s

14:22 the best experience I’ve had since I’ve been

14:27 coming to these reunions that they hear what they went through

14:34 and how they survived

14:35 and um the hardships they

14:39 had in there and afterwards yeah so

14:46 my brother

14:50 my other brother joined the Army uh

14:53 in 54 55 and he went to Korea

14:57 after the Korean War was over

15:00 he had the experience to see what had happened what’s his name

15:09 uh his name was David Brown

15:19 so what is doing now please David

15:24 no longer with us he passed away a couple

15:27 years ago so you know

15:31 Korea has tremendous economy now

15:35 and democracy well I know they’re better off

15:38 than they were before right so what do you

15:42 think about that uh I really have no thought about it

15:52 your brother died for the nation he didn’t know  

15:56 but now that nation is much better than before right it’s better because we helped them

16:04 anything else you wanna say to this interview

16:08 no just uh

16:12 I’m kinda sad that this is the last one

16:15 you know I feel that I really haven’t

16:19 mingled enough

16:22 with all the people that come you know I mean

16:31 I love all them for their sacrifice

16:35 that they made for us yeah and

16:39 Korean people so it’s uh it’s just sad it has to come to an end

16:47 never will come to an end but

16:49 you know these will these proceedings will but

16:56 behalf of Korean nation I am so sorry about the loss

17:00 your brother your loving brother Arthur

17:03 Brown but because

17:06 this interview and you send me the picture of

17:09 your brother or anything the letters I’ll

17:13 posted it into the website so that it will be

17:16 remembered permanently ok alright

17:20 that’s how we want to remember them

17:24 that’s how we want honor them

17:27 and that’s how we educate want to educate

17:31 your own descendants anybody that knew him could

17:35 not a whole that we found out that

17:38 people knew him but uh who we found out

17:42 you know and everything was

17:44 the main thing