Charles G. Brown






To All,

 I attended Charlie Brown’s funeral service at Barrancas National Cemetery in Pensacola this morning, here is what I learned.  Approximately 6 months or so ago Charlie quit smoking.  A month or so later he was doing some repair work to his roof and had difficulty breathing and catching his breath. When he went to the doctor they discovered he had advanced lung cancer that had spread to his spine and was continuing to spread with no option of surgery.  As many of you are aware this must have been a very aggressive form of cancer for diagnosis so late and death so quickly.

 At the funeral service I met 5 other aviators who flew with Charlie at PHI along with a few of his neighbors.  I met his wife Dianne and son Christopher. Christopher is on active duty with the US Army. Charlie and Dianne would have celebrated their 34th wedding anniversary in December.  The aviators and neighbors described Charlie as easy going and humorous  till the end.  He also appears to have been a faithful and openly outspoken Christian.  He asked Chaplain Swindle to spend time talking about the importance of Jesus Christ in Charlie’s life.

 I have attached a copy of the Funeral Service handout.  I am glad “we were there” for Charlie’s family.   Clearly, when I explained who I was and how I knew Charlie their eyes brightened for just a moment in pride and they showed true appreciation of the “unit” and were obviously thrilled to hear something about Charlie they had never known.  His son stood and shook my hand, his wife held my hand.  I let them know how sorry we all were for their loss.  I told them the Charlie they described was the one we knew too.

 Where one of us is so are we all.

 Pat  Ross


To Folded Wings