Steve Brown, In His Own Words

I served in the Air Force from 1968-1991 twenty-three years as a pilot.  I joined the Air Force, primarily to avoid the draft.  Nothing against the military, just didn’t want to carry a rifle in the rice paddies during the height of the Vietnam conflict.  I was a high school band director at the time.  The draft board sent me a letter saying get ready.  So I went to see my Air Force recruiter who it turned out gave me some great advice.  He said go take some flight instruction classes.  He said, this won’t make you a pilot, but it will help you on your aptitude test because we’re only taking pilots right now.  Sure enough, that 4-5 hours in that little “tail dragger” helped me throughout my career.  

Steve would go on to fly Caribou, B-52 and joined the elite group of pilots flying the U-2. For the rest of Steve’s story, click on the pdf below.

Please contact the St. Charles County Veterans Museum Oral History project at sccvetsmuseum@gmail.com or call 636-294-2657 for more information and lets’ talk. We want to hear from you because we know…Every Veteran has a story.