Brown, Carleton (Interview transcript and video), 2018

Smither, James (Interviewer)

WKTV (Wyoming, Mich.)

Carleton Brown was born on October 28, 1944 in New Haven, Connecticut. He graduated high school in 1963. He then began classes the University of Florida for a degree in journalism and communications before enlisting in the Navy in 1966, narrowly dodging the draft. Brown attended Navy Officer Candidate School and Navy Communications School in Newport, Rhode Island. After that, he was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown out of California. In December 1967, he was shipped out and headed for Japan. His first experiences at sea were tracking a Soviet attack submarine which was shadowing the USS Enterprise and was later diverted to the Sea of Japan after the capture of the USS Pueblo by the North Koreans. In 1968, he was transferred to the Gulf of Tonkin and Yankee Station, near Hanoi, where his duties were to keep watch on all vessels near the Station, remain alert for any enemy submarine activity, and send out mail to the front. Brown also recalled having to keep watch after the HMAS Melbourne and USS Evans collided in the South China Sea in June of 1969. He was soon promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade and transferred to the USS Kearsarge on which he conducted many of the same duties as he had on the Yorktown. He also periodically went ashore in places like Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. Brown then applied to learn Russian at the Presidio of Monterey Army Language School, was assigned to a Navy Security Group, and transferred to Bremerhaven, Germany, in 1970. In Germany, he and his wife raised three children and traveled around Europe while also attending to his Navy watch duties. As a part of his duties, Brown tapped into Russian communications in order to predict where and when Soviet forces were operating in the area. After his tour in Germany, the Navy no longer required his services, so he left the service, resumed his university education, but remained in the Navy Reserves. Back at the University of Florida, and then at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona, Brown acquired his master’s degree in international management and comparative government. He then went to work for Baxter International Healthcare Company in Chicago before going to work for the Stryker and Amway Corporations out of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Brown remained in the Navy Reserves for twenty-eight years before retiring in 1995.

2018-12

In Copyright

Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49401.

Veterans History Project (U.S.)

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