George Scratchley Brown

George Scratchley Brown (17 August 1918 – 5 December 1978) was a United States Air Force general who served as the eighth chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.In this capacity, he served as the senior military adviser to the president of the United States, the National Security Council and the secretary of defense.[1] Both Brown and his younger brother Tim set their sights on attending West Point, but their father advised taking a year of college first.High casualties and the rapid expansion of the Air Force paved the way for fast promotion, which Brown's superiors felt was deserved due to his outstanding performance in combat and leadership skills.Perhaps no one was as surprised at his rapid advance in rank as his father, now a brigadier general,[9] who was serving in North Africa at the time Brown arrived there with the 93d Bombardment Group when it was temporarily detached from the Eighth Air Force."[10] It was as executive officer that he took part in Operation Tidal Wave, the low-level bombing raid against oil refineries at Ploieşti, Romania, on 1 August 1943.[16] Brown returned to the United States where he assumed command of the 3525th Pilot Training Wing at Williams Air Force Base, Arizona, on 6 June 1953.After graduation in June 1957,[18] he served as executive to the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, General Thomas D.[29] General George S. Brown was sworn in as the eighth Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force on August 1, 1973.Brown emphasized the need of the modernization of United States Air Force Aircraft fleet following the Vietnam War and for the long-term future, in order to deter the growing Soviet weapon arsenal.At one occasion Brown always flew the Air Force Aircraft that was used primarily for official trips such as Lockheed VC-140B Jetstar, North American T-39 Sabreliner and Boeing C-135 Speckled Trout.This prophecy was proven true ten years later and was retold in Brown's biography "Destined for Stars" by Edgar F. Puryear Jr.[29] George S. Brown was sworn in as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by Department of Defense General Counsel Martin Hoffman in a ceremony held in the Pentagon on July 1, 1974, which was attended by Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger and President Richard Nixon.[31][30] Brown attended Nixon's departure at the White House Lawn on August 9, 1974, as well as Gerald Ford's inauguration ceremony as president.As chairman, Brown was responsible for handling notable international events, such as the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974,[32] and the Mayaguez incident, the final act of the war in Vietnam in 1975.One of Brown's primary actions in reshaping the leadership within the Joint Chiefs was eliminating the J-2, which was basically responsible for communications function, and combining it with the J-3 operations.One notable case is during the Mayaguez incident, in which at that time Brown was on official foreign trips to attend NATO summit in Europe, during which Brown allowed Air Force Chief of Staff General David C. Jones to act as the acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and to lead the discussion within the National Security Council on the military planning and military matters to execute the operations to save the crew of SS Mayaguez.As part of this focus, Brown continued his effort to build up the Strategic Air Command Nuclear Triad arsenal that he had started during his tenure as Air Force Chief of Staff, and emphasized the need for both a new and modern bomber aircraft such as the B-1B Strategic Bomber Aircraft as well as the new MX Intercontinental Ballistic Missile.Together with Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger, Brown began the study and development of a new and sophisticated weapon to deter any possible future threat.Working together with Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger, Brown re-asserted that although both the United States and Soviet Union had signed the SALT treaty and were mutually practicing Détente, that the US should remain ready at any time to prevent any event that could catalyze a major crisis and concomitant escalation of tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union.Both Rumsfeld and Brown agreed to work to speed up the B-1B Bomber Program in order to make those aircraft ready for service within the United States Air Force as soon as possible.However the SALT II Treaty important points doesn't come up due to several disagreements and failed to meet its deadline before the 1976 election.[29] The event happened when Brown commented on two occasions—firstly to a Duke University audience in October 1974, and then to a French reporter in 1976—that Israel was becoming a burden to the Pentagon and that he believed the reason for continued military aid was due to Jews having control over America's banks, newspapers and elected officials.[33]Brown's comments at Duke and subsequent reprimand by President Gerald Ford were reported on the front page of The Washington Post on 13 and 14 November 1974.[38] The event that cause a sparked of controversy especially in the middle of a presidential election was eventually resolved by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Brown himself, who immediately apologize for the remark.[29] Brown advised the National Security Council by the end of March 1975 that the United States should immediately begin the evacuation of American citizens that were still left in Saigon and other South Vietnam cities.[30][31] He organized the military's tactical airlift aircraft in coordination with Air Force Chief of Staff General David C. Jones to evacuate American citizens out of Saigon as soon as possible.[29][31] The operation managed to evacuate many people out of Saigon by flying them via helicopters to a nearby United States aircraft carrier in the South China Sea.Brown was replaced by Air Force Chief of Staff General David C. Jones, who assumed the position on June 21, 1978.[39] Source:[40][41] The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Major (Air Corps) George Scratchley Brown, United States Army Air Forces, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy while serving as Squadron Leader and Pilot of a B-24 Heavy Bomber in Headquarters, 93d Bombardment Group (H), Ninth Air Force (Attached), while participating in a bombing mission on 1 August 1943, against the Ploesti Oil Refineries in Rumania.