"I wish I could have done it years ago, when more of the family was around to see it," said Donald R. Allred, Brown's nephew and himself a veteran of three tours in Vietnam. "Seeing him added to the memorial is very pleasing. There's quite a bit of military history in the Brown family."
It was Allred who did the leg work necessary to have Brown's name approved for addition to the memorial, bringing letters and government records of his uncle's service to Lincoln County Veterans Affairs Officer Steve Melancon for verification. The entire process began with a small discussion years ago, during a family reunion at the old home site in Montgomery.
"Someone was talking about J.L., asking about what it would take to get his name on the monument in Brookhaven," Allred remembered. "Before that, I had never thought of looking for his name."
After making contact with Melancon, Allred turned to his aunt, 90-year-old Vescie McKenney of McComb, who had her late brother's information stored in the old family Bible. She produced the documents that led to the addition of Brown's name to the memorial, such as a photograph of his empty grave at the Lorraine American Cemetery in St. Avold, France; a 1949 letter from the U.S. Army's Quartermaster General notifying the family of Brown's placement in the cemetery; and letters the captured soldier wrote from behind barbed wire while still alive in German hands.
Brown was born in the Montgomery community in 1914 to parents Edward L. (died, 1943) and Delia Prestridge Brown (died, 1963). He attended the two-roomed Montgomery School, but had to quit early to work on the family farm. After the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 all but eliminated the Brown family's cotton farm, Brown went to work as a hand on a nearby dairy farm.
"I remember when J.L. joined the military," McKenney said. "He and the man he was working for came over to the house. He and mother went off the front porch and back in the kitchen to talk a while. Then they called daddy back there and he told them what he was going to do."
Brown's parents had to sign for the 17-year-old soldier-to-be to enlist. He joined the U.S. Army and was stationed in Panama, where he wrote home often and made his family proud. After three years, Brown was discharged and returned to Mississippi, where he eloped to marry Vergie Reeves. McKenney said Brown hid his marriage license in the toe of a boot in his Army footlocker.
Life was returning to normal for Brown, but World War II began in 1939. He was recalled to active duty after the U.S. entered the war on December 8, 1941, and was bound for Europe.
During his second enlistment, Brown served in the 422nd Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division. The 422nd and its sister regiment, the 423rd, were spread thinly on the "Ghost Front," an abnormally quiet sector in the Ardennes forest in Belgium.
Brown had been on the line in the Ardennes for only a few weeks when the last great German offensive of the war overran and cut-off the two regiments in what came to be known as the Battle of the Bulge, a failed attack to the Atlantic Ocean that cost America approximately 80,000 casualties before the salient in the lines was pushed back.
The battle is considered to be one of the greatest Allied blunders of the war, but Brown and his comrades tried to avert it. The sister regiments passed plenty of intelligence up the chain of command in the days before the battle, alerting superior officers that they could hear the rattle of tank treads through the woods at night and had captured German defectors who warned of the attack.
The intelligence was ignored. The 422nd and 423rd were crushed and surrounded. More than 7,000 men from the two regiments - Brown among them - surrendered on Dec. 19. It was the largest mass surrender by American soldiers during the war.
According to an online history of the 106th Infantry Division at www.indianamilitary.org, Brown and his fellow soldiers were taken to Stalag IX-B, a prisoner of war camp near Bad Orb, Germany. Since Brown was a non-commissioned officer, he was likely transferred to Stalag IX-A, near Ziegenhain, on Jan. 23, 1945.
The American Red Cross sent word of Brown's capture to his family shortly after the battle ended.
"Mr. Sam Moak came to mother's one night and told her (Brown) had been taken prisoner," McKenney said. "Even though mother would hope and pray he would come home, that's when he died to her. He loved his mother. The last thing he said to his wife before he stepped on the train was, 'You take care of my mother.'"
McKenney said Brown's letters from the Stalag were heavily censored, but the family could tell he was looking out for his fellow soldiers. He was not a smoker, though he requested cartons of cigarettes and chewing gum to share with the POWS.
Brown almost certainly died in Stalag IX-A, though his body was never recovered. McKenney said the Red Cross reported Brown was in the camp the night before it's liberation, but was missing when Allied troops crashed the gates the following day.
Brown's body may still be missing, but the memory of his service to America is now eternal. Last month, Melancon authorized the addition of Brown's name to the monument and the Lincoln County Board of Supervisors immediately approved the $500 engraving expense.
Brown's name, which is the first to be engraved on the monument's western side, will be officially presented in a Memorial Day ceremony Monday at 9 a.m.
"I think it's a great honor - I feel very, very proud," McKenney said. "He gave his life for our country. I think my mother and daddy would be very proud."
Melancon said the paper work and fact-checking required to get Brown's name on the memorial is just part of his job of looking after the interests of veterans.
"It's nice to recognize the service," he said. "It's important that younger people see we as a society will continue to recognize those who have died. It doesn't matter how long ago, we will continue to respect their service."
Melancon said he doesn't know how Brown's name was left off the memorial when it was erected in 1994, pointing out that other names have been added over the years. He encouraged the families of any Lincoln County veterans killed in the service of their country who are not listed on the memorial to contact his office.
"There are others out there," Melancon said. "Bound to be."
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