Assignments Commanding Officer, USS Salisbury Sound. Assistant Director, Strategic Plans Division, Office of Chief of Naval Operations, Washington, DC. 1957. Joint Operations Analysis Group, Washington, DC. 1958 . . Assistant Chief of Naval Operations . 1956. . . 1957 1958 . 1958 Principal US Military Decorations and Qualifications Defense Distinguished Service Medal (with oak leaf cluster) Air Force Distinguished Service Medal GEORGE SCRATCHLEY BROWN 1 July 1974 — 20 June 1978 Weorge Brown was born in Montclair, New Jersey, on 17 August 1918. His father was a West Point graduate and career cavalry officer. After high school in Leavenworth, Kansas, Brown attended the University of Missouri. He then followed in his father's footsteps and entered the US Military Academy, where he excelled as a cadet captain, regimental adjutant, and polo player. Following his 1941 graduation and primary and advanced flight training, Brown served as a bomber pilot in Europe during World War II. He participated in the famous low-level bombing raid against the oil refineries in Ploesti, Romania, in August 1943. When the lead plane and ten others of his forty-plane group were lost, Major Brown led the surviving planes back to base. He received the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroism. Promotions came rapidly during World War II, and in October 1944 Brown attained the rank of colonel. After the war, Colonel Brown served in a variety of command and staff billets. During the last year of the Korean War, he was Director of Operations of the Fifth Air Force in Seoul, Korea. After graduating from the National War College in 1957, Brown served as Executive Assistant to the Chief of Staff of the Air Force and then Military Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense. He was promoted to brigadier general in August 1959 and served as Military Assistant to Secretaries of Defense Thomas Gates and Robert McNamara. Promoted to major general in April 1963, he commanded the Eastern Transport Air Force, McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey, from 1963 to 1964 and General George S. Brown United States Air Force General Brown in the cockpit of a UH-1 helicopter in South Vietnam, October 1968. Joint Task Force II, a JCS all-service weapons testing unit at Sandia Base, New Mexico, from 1964 to 1966. After promotion to lieutenant general in August 1966, Brown became Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Two years later he received his fourth star. From 1968 to 1970 General Brown served as Commander of the Seventh Air Force in Vietnam and Deputy Commander for Air Operations, United States Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (USMACV). Responsible for all US air operations in South Vietnam, which he coordinated with those of the South Vietnamese air force, Brown advised the MACV Commander on all matters pertaining to tactical air support. He returned to the United States in 1970 and became Commander of Air Force Systems Command, Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. On 1 August 1973 General Brown became the Chief of Staff of the Air Force. In that position, he campaigned to upgrade the strategic bomber program. Brown pushed to replace the aging B-52s with B-1s, swing-wing aircraft that could carry the latest electronic equipment and twice the payload of the B-52s and penetrate deeper into Soviet territory. Appointed by President Richard Nixon, General Brown became the eighth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on 1 July 1974. He was the first Air Force officer since General Twining to fill the position. As Chairman, |