Navy Cross Citation

The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Navy Cross (Posthumously) to Major Robert Samuel Brown (MCSN: 0-4661), United States Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism and distinguished service as Operations Officer of the FIRST Marine Raider Battalion, during the enemy Japanese attack on Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, on the night of 13 and 14 September 1942. Adeptly reorganizing troops which had withdrawn from the main line of resistance to the rear of the reserve line, Major Brown committed them to action under direction of the Battalion Commander. Afterward, reporting for duty at a point along the line where a hostile breakthrough was imminent, he, with proficient skill and complete disregard for his own personal safety, assisted in the defense of the position until he was wounded by the explosion of a Japanese hand grenade. While he was being evacuated from the Battalion aid station, the ambulance in which he was a passenger was subjected to merciless machine gun fire and he was killed. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

General Orders: SPOT AWARD, Commander in Chief Pacific Forces: Serial 19 (January 2, 1943)

Action Date: September 13 - 14, 1942

Service: Marine Corps

Rank: Major

Company: Operations Officer

Battalion: 1st Marine Raider Battalion

Major Robert Samuel Brown, 35, of the U. S. Marines, son of Mrs. H. H. Brown and the late Mr. Brown of West Sixth Street, has been reported killed in action by the Navy Department, while on active duty with the Marines in Guadalcanal in the Solomons.

Robert . . . was born at Wilson, Ark., on August 6, 1907 and spent his early life in that community. He graduated from the Wilson High School and attended Mississippi A. and M. College for two years. The Brown family moved to Caruthersville about this time and were living here when Robert received his appointment from Congressman Driver of Wilson to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md.

He was graduated from the Naval Academy in 1931 and was a ranking student in the large class of cadets. By virtue of his being a ranking student he was permitted to choose the branch of service he preferred and chose the Marine Corps and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. Promotion since that time came rather rapidly to young Brown. In 1934 he was made First Lieutenant and in 1937 Captain. In 1937 he was sent on Foreign service and spent three years in Guam and China. He returned to Quantico, Va., for further study in April, 1942, and was promoted to the rank of Major.

He left the United States in April, 1942 for active war duty and met his death in one of the fierce assaults made by the Japanese forces trying to land new troops on Guadalcanal in the Solomons in the last few weeks. His mother has heard from him at fairly regular intervals in the past few months and was almost certain that he was in this area.

Major Brown was married to Miss Betty Johnson, daughter of a prominent lawyer of Philadelphia, Pa., in October, 1931, following his graduation from the Naval Academy. In addition to his wife and mother, Major Brown is survived by a son, Robert Samuel, Jr., who with his mother is living with his grandparents in Philadelphia, two brothers, Howard H. Brown, Biloxi, Miss., and George Brown in Officers Training School at Camp Davis, N. C., and a sister, Mrs. Verne Forcum, a nurse of Dyersburg, Tenn.

Major

USMC

1st Marine Raider Battalion

KIA at Guadalcanal

Navy Cross and Purple Heart