Brown, John Gary

Age:  43

Hometown: Little Rock

Rank: Sergeant 1st Class Army National Guard's 1st Ballalion, 185th Aviation Regiment (Air Assault), 77thAviation Brigade

Cause: Killed in Baghdad, Iraq, on January 20th, 2007, in a helicopter crash

Major Michael Taylor, First Sergeant Tom Warren, and Army Sergeant First Class John Gary Brown will be remembered by their friends and family as men who lived lives full of passionand love.  Their nation will remember them as men who dedicated themselves to protect of our freedom.

Gary Brown hailed from the small town of Nashville, Arkansas.  He was born and raisedthere and attended Nashville High School, where he was on the track team. He graduated in 1982 and spent a year at Ouachita Baptist University. During his time in Little Rock, he was a memberof Agape Church and was active in the church’s children’s bus ministry and men’s Bible study.  His twin brother said that everything Brown did in his life meant something to him, whether it was easyor hard, and he could always be found with a smile on his face. To him, serving his country meant something, and he served for twenty years in the National Guard. Most recently Brown was the crew chief of the Arkansas National Guard’s 77th Aviation Brigade. He pursued perfection and was truly dedicated to his job.

The UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter he flew in was often called a limousine service.  He and his colleagues ferried others around Iraq as part of "Task Force Dragon," and they became known as the "Catfish Air." Serving their fellow soldiers, these men risked their lives everyday to make sure people got to and from dangerous areas as safely as possible.

Tragically, on January 20, 2007, he was killed when his helicopter crashed in the area northeast of Baghdad in one of the deadliest moments of the war for our National Guard. I offer my condolences to his family, and I pray that they can find comfort in the knowledge that he died serving others and doing what he loved on behalf of a grateful nation. My thoughts and prayers go out to the many people whose lives were touched by John Gary Brown.