{"id":51817,"date":"2018-03-25T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-03-25T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/03\/25\/commentary-korean-war-hero-showed-valor-on-and-off-the-battlefield\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T08:50:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T08:50:38","slug":"commentary-korean-war-hero-showed-valor-on-and-off-the-battlefield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/opinion\/2018\/03\/25\/commentary-korean-war-hero-showed-valor-on-and-off-the-battlefield\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary: Korean War hero showed valor on and off the battlefield"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today, March 25, we remember Medal of Honor recipients<\/a> \u2014 the nearly 3,500 heroes who\u2019ve received the nation\u2019s highest award for valor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of us recall famous names from that list like Joe Foss<\/a>, James Bond Stockdale<\/a>, Smedley Butler<\/a>, Dan Daly<\/a>, Lance Sijan<\/a> and George \u201cBud\u201d Day<\/a>. Thomas Hudner, who passed away Nov. 13<\/a> at age 93, was a lesser-known recipient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom Hudner\u2019s story is also Jesse Brown\u2019s story. It\u2019s our country\u2019s story, too. It belongs to the America of our ideals, of our better angels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hudner grew up in privilege in Massachusetts, where his father owned a chain of grocery stores. Brown grew up in Mississippi, the son of an African-American sharecropper who possessed very little. Yet these two men became brothers in arms and comrades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their story begins in 1949. Soon after Hudner checked into his Navy Corsair fighter squadron, VF-32, his flight leader took him aside and said, \u201cWe\u2019ve got a Negro pilot in \u201932. First in the Navy. Will you be OK taking orders from a Negro?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question was a weighty one. President Truman had desegregated the military<\/a> the year before. The Civil Rights Act was about 15 years away. Many Americans didn\u2019t think white and black soldiers would fight for each other. Some used this cynical assumption to oppose desegregation. The country\u2019s not ready, they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Lt. j.g. Thomas Hudner receives congratulations from President Truman on April 13, 1955, after Hudner was presented with the Medal of Honor in ceremonies at the White House. (Navy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hudner looked at his commander and said, \u201cAt my high school we only had one colored kid and I was friends with him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Dec. 4, 1950, during the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir, Brown and Hudner were on a \u201croadrunner\u201d mission when Brown\u2019s plane was hit by small arms-fire. He immediately lost oil pressure, and his engine seized. Too low to bail out, Brown had to make a crash landing on a snow-covered mountainside north of the Chosin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hudner, loitering overhead, looked down at the rising smoke and saw Brown\u2019s canopy slide open. Then the downed pilot waved his arms, but he didn\u2019t get out of the aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hudner decided he had to act. He disregarded instructions and deliberately crash-landed his own plane to try to save his squadron-mate.<\/p>\n\n\n\t