PFC John Riley Brown
12th Cavalry
Killed in Action 9 March, 1945
near Luzon, Manilla
In January of 1999, I was reading the February issue of Readers Digest.
As I came to the story about "Finding My Father" written by Susan Hadler, it
really caught my attention. With the name of the story and a picture of a
Young Man in Uniform, I could relate to it even before I read it. I read the
story twice and could understand and relate to what Susan was writing. At
the end of the article there was an email address for AWON. I was fortunate
enough to have just purchased a new computer in November mainly so I could
have email at home. I came right into my computer and sent a message to
AWON. The next day I had a message from Ann Mix. She forwarded my message
on to Susan and we visited back and forth for several days. Either Ann or
Susan forwarded my message to Joe Ormond. We visited for several days back
and forth. He was so kind as to send out an introduction about me to the
file server. The messages started rolling in and it has been a Great
experience meeting a whole new family through email. I feel like I know a
lot of them as we have exchanged pictures as well as seeing the pictures on
the AWON site.
My Father was John Riley Brown. He was born August 24, 1919 in
Stevensville, Montana. He did his basic training at Camp Roberts in
California. He was last home on leave in January of 1945. He was shipped
overseas to the Phillipine Islands. Shortly after their arrival he was in a
counter attack with the Japanese in the Mountains of Luzon, Manila. He was
killed in action March 9, 1945. He was buried in an American Cemtery there
and was returned to the States and reburied at Ft Snelling in Minneapolis
March 7, 1949. He was PFC in the 12th Calvary of the Army. I was not born
until September of 1945 so I never knew him. I have shared many wonderful
stories with other AWON Siblings and made a lot of new friends. I also
recently had a nice phone conversation with one of his fellow soldiers that
lives not far from me here in Montana. AWON is a wonderful organization for
all of us to get to know and share with each other.
In Memory of All Fathers,
-- Nancy Johnson --
