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Roscoe Brown Jr.

Captain (Ret.) Roscoe Brown Jr. commanded the 100th Fighter Squadron of the 332nd Fighter Group, the famed “Tuskegee Airmen.” Brown flew his first combat mission in August 1944, escorting B-24 bombers over the Ploesti oil fields in Romania. He completed 68 combat missions flying the P-51 Mustang, escorting B-24 Liberator and B-17 Flying Fortress bombers over Germany, Austria and the Balkans, and conducting low-altitude strafing missions over enemy airfields and rail yards. The highlight of his combat career occurred on March 24, 1945, during the 15th Air Force’s longest mission. While escorting B-17s over Berlin, he became the first 15th Air Force fighter pilot to shoot down an Me-262 jet fighter. Brown later downed a German Fw-190 fighter. For his achievements in combat, Brown was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with eight Oak Leaf Clusters. Brown left military service in 1945. He earned a bachelor’s degree and later a Ph.D. from New York University (NYU). He served a successful career as a full-time professor at NYU for 25 years. Brown attended a ceremony in the U.S. Capitol rotunda March 29, 2007, where he and the other Tuskegee Airmen collectively were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of their service.