Monday, May 27, 2002
Change in day's tradition
Tristate family to celebrate sailor's return to America
By Howard Wilkinson, hwilkinson@enquirer.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer
For the Brown family of Whitewater Township, Memorial Day means a morning trip to the Miamitown observance followed by an afternoon of barbecue and laughter on the tree-shaded lawn of their Lawrenceburg Road home.
Not this year.
This weekend, their eyes are on the Pacific Ocean.
Hubert and Angy Brown — on this day set aside to remember the men and women who wore their country's uniform and did not come home — celebrate the return of their son Alex, a sailor on board the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis.
“We'll have a lot to be thankful for this Memorial Day,” said Mr. Brown, a Whitewater Township trustee known to his friends as “Brownie.”
Mr. and Mrs. Brown left Saturday morning to be at the naval base in San Diego when the Stennis arrives Tuesday morning. They are accompanied by his father, Hubert Brown Sr.; and his sister, Donna Schwein of Indian Hill.
Hundreds of Tristate service men and women are serving overseas in the war on terrorism, all with families back home waiting for the opportunity the Browns will have when that aircraft carrier sails into port.
Happy, tearful reunions in time of war are a ritual as old as the American military. Tim Culbertson of Cheviot remembers the moment he reunited with his family 33 years ago; he was a young airborne soldier wounded in Vietnam.
It was special, even though his war was an unpopular one and he was advised by his superiors not to wear his uniform on the streets of America.
The reunion was “something I won't forget,” Mr. Culbertson said. “Veterans have always been able to depend on their families for support.”
The Browns support their young warrior with constant e-mails, care packages and countless prayers.
Now, they will get to see him.
Only a year ago, Seaman Brown was a senior at Harrison High School wondering what turn his life would take.
Soon he would find himself in the middle of the Arabian Sea with about 5,000 other sailors aboard the Stennis, a 1,092-foot long, nuclear-powered floating city.
The Stennis launched numerous air strikes into Afghanistan. Seaman Brown was part of a crew maintaining its flight deck guns. He learned to fire all of them — including his “favorite,” the 50-caliber mounted machine gun.
The experience has taken him literally around the world — Italy, Portugal, Spain, Bahrain, Australia.
“I had to leave my friends and family to experience all this,” the young weapons specialist said in an e-mail to The Enquirer from on board the carrier. “It's tough.”
So when the Stennis pulls into port, Seaman Brown will be as eager as the family waiting for him among the thousands of wives, parents and children.
“I'm a guy who has seen the world,” Seaman Brown wrote, “but all I want to see is my family.”
His parents say that after months of reading between the lines of his e-mails from the carrier, the boy that shipped out has become a man.
“When he left, he knew no one outside this little world he grew up in,” said his father. “His life started and ended right here.”
His father, a union electrician, thought his son might follow in his footsteps as an electrician. But “really, he was not at all certain about what he wanted to do,” Mr. Brown said.
His grandfather — a veteran — takes credit for “nudging” the young man in the direction of the Navy.
“I'm glad he did it,” said the elder Mr. Brown, for whom the trip to San Diego will be his first airline flight in his 73 years. “I'm proud of him. You can tell he has changed. He's grown up now.”
The high school graduate joined last summer and was sent in early September to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Illinois. He was there when the terrorists attacked on Sept. 11. His father mailed him newspaper front pages about the attacks.
“But the Navy must have thrown them out; he never saw them,” Mr. Brown said. “They never did tell them what had happened.”
Seaman Brown didn't find out about Sept. 11 until November, when he went out to dinner with his family after his graduation from basic training.
On Christmas Day, his family drove him to Dayton for a flight to Norfolk, Va. From there, he flew across the Atlantic to Portugal and began his new assignment on the Stennis.
Soon after celebrating his 20th birthday in the Bahrain Hilton, he was in the Arabian Sea, the starting point for the aircraft carrier's air strikes into Afghanistan.
“I think when he left he was really into it; he wanted to be a part of it,” said his aunt, Mrs. Schwein.
“I remember him saying, "Let's go kick some butt.'”
Seaman Brown has another three years in his commitment to the Navy. His father said he has “no idea” what his son will do next.
“All I know for sure is that this experience is going to help him, no matter what he does,” Mr. Brown said.
In his e-mail to the Enquirer, Seaman Brown said one of the highlights of his time aboard the Stennis came in March, when he watched on satellite TV the University of Cincinnati Bearcats play in the NCAA basketball tournament.
“I'm a big Bearcats fan,” he said. “I get it from my father.”
It is not all he has gotten from his father.
His father, Seaman Brown said, is why he is doing what he does.
“This one's for him,” Seaman Brown said of his father. “I just want him to be proud of me. He's done a lot for me and this is his thanks.”
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