Echoes of Devotion
Tom Hudner ’95 reflects on lessons from his war hero father and the remarkable man he tried to save in North Korea.
Many children grow up believing their father is a hero. Thomas J. Hudner III ’95 grew up knowing his was—Thomas J. Hudner Jr. had received the Medal of Honor, the U.S. military’s highest accolade.
The story culminates on a remote mountaintop in North Korea on Dec. 4, 1950, when Hudner Jr., a Navy fighter pilot, intentionally crash-landed his plane to try to save his wingman and friend Jesse Brown, who had been shot down during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir while supporting Marines on the ground. Jesse was trapped in his flaming Corsair 17 miles behind enemy lines.
Amid hostile presence and temperatures, Hudner Jr. ran across the rugged terrain to Brown and packed the plane’s fuselage with snow to keep the flames away from his friend, whose leg was pinned by the wreckage against the instrument panel. He ran back to his own crashed airplane and radioed for a helicopter to be dispatched with an ax and fire extinguisher.
Hudner Jr. and the rescue pilot who arrived were unable to free Brown with the ax, and he eventually lost too much blood. His last words to Hudner Jr. before dying were, “Just tell Daisy how much I love her.” He was 24 years old and left behind his wife, Daisy, and a toddler daughter, Pamela. Hudner Jr. was forced to leave Brown where he was.
But Hudner Jr.’s devotion did not end on that mountaintop in 1950. In July 2013, when he was 88 years old, he returned to North Korea and battled significant red tape to try to bring Brown’s remains back to his family and to Arlington National Cemetery for a proper burial with military honors.
Unfortunately, it was monsoon season, and the roads to the Chosin Reservoir and up into the mountains were washed out, so the expedition to the crash site was canceled.
Although the 10-day quest was unsuccessful on that front, the expedition members were treated like dignitaries and supportive North Korean military officers, including the nation’s leader, Kim Jong Un, vowed to continue recovery efforts, calling the return of war dead a humanitarian—not political—issue.
Joined by a bond that transcends their beloved pilots, the Hudner family remains close friends with the Brown family to this day.