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Methodist Chaplain
Service #O-020862
Newspaper News Articles Submitted by
Family members from College Station, Texas:
Caption of Part 1 Photo: Left to right-RICHARD and PEGGY BROWN, MRS. R. W. D. BROWN and WARREN BROWN - Received medals in memory of their father.
Major Ralph W. D. Brown, former pastor of Asbury Methodist Church here, who died in a Japanese prison camp during the war posthumously was awarded a group of medals in ceremonies yesterday in the office of commanding general of Fort Lewis.
The awards were presented to his widow, Mrs. Margaret P Brown, 4033 Wallingford Ave., by Col. James M. Lewis, deputy post commander. They include the Distinguished Service cross: the Legion of Merit: Bronze Star Medal with Oak-leaf Cluster: the Purple Heart Medal: a Presidential Unit Citation with two clusters: the American Defense Medal: the (WWII) Victory Medal, the Asiatic_Pacific Theatre Medal, and the Philippines Liberation Medal.
Major Brown was the chief chaplain of the Far East Air Force when he was captured in the fall of Bataan. He was on the Bataan death march and subsequently was taken to Japan where he died in a prison camp at Mojii.
Major Brown entered the Army in 1937. He attended the College of Puget Sound, was graduated from the University of Washington an took graduate study at Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, N.J.
Attending the cermony with Mrs. Brown were the couple's three children, Warren, Peggy and Richard Brown; his parents, the Rev. and Mrs. A. W. Brown of Oregon City, Or; his sister, Mrs. L. A. Oules of Preston, and his brother, Capt. G. M. V. Brown of Tacoma.
Herald and News, Kalamath Falls, OR, 14 Sept 1945
SEATTLE, Sept. 14 (AP)-Maj. Ralph W. D. Brown, first army chaplain to receive the Distinguished Service Cross in World War II, died in a Japanese prison camp last January 31, his widow learned today.
Mrs. Margaret Brown, who teaches school here and is buying a home for herself and the three teenage children, said she received the information from the chaplain's parents, the Rev. and Mrs. A. W. Brown of Oregon City, Ore. the major was a pastor here before he went into army service in 1937.
Shamokin News-Dispatch, PA, 2 January 1943
Twenty-four Army Chaplains were either captured by the Japanese on Bataan or at Corregidor or lost their lives there, according to a report issued recently by Chief of Chaplains W. R. Arnold. Their names are: Alfred C. Oliver, Jr., Elias Calimbas, Perry O. Wilcox, John K. Borneman, Albert William Braun, William Dawson, John E. Duffy, Herman C. Baumann, Ralph W. D. Brown, Richard E. Carberry, Arthur V. Cleveland, Morris E. Day, Samuel Everett Donald, John Joseph Dugan, Frederick B. Howden, John J. McDonnell, Thomas J. Scecina, Henry Stober, Robert P. Taylor, John A. Wilson, Mathias E. Zerfas, Leslie F. Zimmerman, James W. O'Brien and Albert Talbot.
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