A native of Washington, D.C., Roscoe C. Brown Jr. (1922–2016) was the youngest of two children. His mother was a teacher and his father was a public health specialist. Brown graduated from Springfield College in 1943 and immediately joined the US Army Air Forces with aspirations of being a fighter pilot. Upon completion of flight school at Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1944, Brown was assigned to the 100th Fighter Squadron of the 332nd Fighter Group—the "Red Tail Angels." Brown saw combat with the 100th in the European theater, shooting down a two enemy aircraft, including an Me 262 jet fighter, and earning the Distinguished Flying Cross; he eventually became squadron commander. After the war, he went back to school, earning his master’s degree and PhD before serving as a professor at New York University.
Seth Paridon
Seth Paridon was a staff historian at The National WWII Museum from 2005 to 2020. He began his career conducting oral histories and research for HBO’s miniseries The Pacific and holds the distinction of being the first historian hired by the Museum’s Research Department. In the 12 years he was Manager of Research Services, Seth and his team increased the oral history collection from 25 to nearly 5,000 oral histories.
Cite this article:
MLA Citation:
APA Citation:
Chicago Style Citation:
