Thomas Jerome Hudner Jr. (August 31, 1924 – November 13, 2017) was an officer of the US Navy and a naval aviator. He rose to the rank of captain, and received the Medal of Honor for his actions in trying to save the life of his friend and wingman, Ensign Jesse L. Brown, during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in the Korean War. Following the incident, Hudner held positions aboard several U.S. Navy ships and with a number of aviation units, including a brief stint as executive officer of USS Kitty Hawk during a tour in the Vietnam War, before retiring in 1973. In subsequent years, he worked for various veterans' organizations in the United States. The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Thomas Hudner is named for him.
Biography[]
Thomas Jerome Hudner, Jr. was born 31 August 1924 in Fall River, Massachusetts of a son of a businessman of Irish descent who ran a chain of grocery stores, Hudner's Markets. In 1939, Hudner entered the prestigious Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. His family had a long history in the academy, with his father graduating in 1911 and his uncle, Harold Hudner, graduating in 1921. Eventually the three younger Hudner children would attend the academy as well; James in 1944, Richard in 1946 and Phillip in 1954. During his time in the high school, Thomas was active in several organizations, serving as a team captain in the school track team as well as a member of the football and lacrosse teams, a class officer, a member of student council and a house councilor.
Military career[]
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States' entry into World War II, Hudner heard a speech by academy headmaster Claude Fuess which he later said inspired him to join the military. One of 10 from Phillips to be accepted into the academy from his class, he entered the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1943 and graduated in 1946. By the time he was commissioned, however, World War II had ended. Hudner attended the Naval Academy with a number of other notable classmates, including James B. Stockdale, Jimmy Carter, and Stansfield Turner. He played football at the academy, eventually becoming a starting running back for the junior varsity team.
After graduating, Hudner served as a communications officer aboard several surface ships. During his initial years in the military, Hudner said he had no interest in aircraft. After a one-year tour of duty aboard the Baltimore-class heavy cruiser USS Helena, which was operating off the coast of Taiwan, he transferred to a post as a communications officer at the Naval Base Pearl Harbor where he served for another year. By 1948, Hudner became interested in aviation, and applied to flight school, seeing it as "a new challenge". He was accepted into Naval Air Station Pensacola in Pensacola, Florida, where he completed basic flight training, and was transferred to Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas, where he completed advanced flight training and qualified as a Naval Aviator in August of 1949. After a brief posting in Lebanon, Hudner was assigned to Fighter Squadron 32 aboard the USS Leyte, piloting the F4U Corsair. He later said he enjoyed this assignment, as he considered the plane to be "safe and comfortable".
Meeting a Friend[]
In March of 1950, Hudner transfers to Fighter Squadron 32 (VF-32) at Quonset Point Naval Air Station, where he meets his future wingman Ensign Jesse Brown. During his time on base, Hudner integrates well into the squadron, which is assigned F4U-4 Corsairs. After Brown's car breaks down, Hudner starts giving him rides and eventually meets his wife Daisy when he picked Jesse. VF-32 passes their carrier tests with the Corsair and transfer to the USS Leyte, which is deployed to the Mediterranean Sea to deter Soviet aggression. Before they leave, Daisy has Hudner promise that he will be there for Jesse. On the voyage, squadron member Mohring is killed in a crash while attempting to land a Corsair. Hudner questions why Mohring did not follow instructions, but Brown explains that one cannot always follow directions – if Brown had solely done what he was told, he would have been stopped early in his career by the many racist superior officers who wanted him to fail.
Meeting Taylor[]
As Fighter Squadron 32 has shore leave in Cannes, France, where Brown encounters actress Elizabeth Taylor on the beach and secures invitations for the squadron to a casino, impressing them. Afterwards, the men when out to get some drinks when a waiter at a hotel refuses to take Jesse's drink order, which prompts Tom to stand up and tell the group, "Let's get the hell out of here." Then Hudner gets in a drunken fight with a US Marine who had previously harassed Brown, Brown tells Hudner appreciated him sticking up for him but need him always to fight his battles for him, but simply to be there for him.
Korea[]
Hudner in December, 1950.
The next day, the squadron is informed that war has broken out between North and South Korea, and Leyte is redeploying to support the South. By November 1950, VF-32 arrives in Korea and learns that Chinese troops have entered the war on the North Korean side and begun to push American forces back. The squadron deploys to destroy a pair of bridges on the Yalu River between China and North Korea, though they are only permitted to fire on the Korean side of the border. Brown and Hudner fight off a MiG-15 fighter jet while the others attack the bridges, but one remains standing. While Hudner orders a retreat in the facneeds anti-air fire from the Chinese side of the river, Brown disobeys him and attacks the bridge solo, successfully crippling it.
Hudner trying to save Brown.
Hudner's after-action report praises Brown but also mentions that he was acting against orders, which Brown tells Hudner will be used as an excuse to deny him promotions for the rest of his career, despite Hudner's attempt to revise the report. On December 4, 1950, The aviators received another mission to support besieged US Marines at Chosin Reservoir until Brown's Corsair is crippled, and he is forced to crash-land in a clearing in the mountains of North Korea. Hudner sees that Brown is alive but trapped in his cockpit and deliberately crashes his own plane in the clearing in order to aid Brown. Though he puts out an engine fire, Hudner, and Marine helicopter Charlie Ward were unable to put out the engine fire with a fire extinguisher and tried in vain to free Brown with an axe for 45 minutes. They briefly considered, at Brown's request, amputating his trapped leg. Brown lost consciousness for the last time shortly thereafter. His last known words, which he told Hudner, were "tell Daisy I love her." The helicopter, which was unable to operate in the darkness, a devastated Hudner promised Jesse that he will come back for him and was forced to leave at nightfall with him, leaving Brown behind. Brown is believed to have died shortly thereafter of his injuries and exposure to the extreme cold. No Chinese forces threatened the site, likely because of the heavy air presence of the VF-32 pilots. Back on Leyte, Hudner's commander determines that it is too risky to attempt to recover Brown's body from the Chinese-controlled area, and VF-32 (minus the injured Hudner) is instead sent on a "funeral flight" or a "Viking funeral" to destroy the downed Corsairs, with Brown's corpse still inside.
Medal of Honor[]
Hudner taking a picture with Truman and Brown's wife Daisy.
Several months later in April 1951, a heartbroken Hudner receives the Medal of Honor from President Harry Truman for his attempts to save Brown. Hudner speaks with Daisy after the ceremony and apologizes for failing to rescue her husband. Daisy remarks that she only made him promise to be with Jesse, not to save him, and Hudner tells her that Jesse's final words were about how much he loved her.
Later Life[]
In early October 1957, Hudner served in an exchange program with the US Air Force, flying for two years with the 60th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at Otis Air Force Base in Barnstable County, Massachusetts. During this assignment, he flew the F-94 Starfire and the F-101 Voodoo. He was then promoted to commander and served as aide to the Chief of the Bureau of Naval Weapons until 1962, when he attended the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. Upon graduating in July 1963, Hudner returned to flying duty and was appointed the executive officer of Fighter Squadron 53, flying the F-8E Crusader aboard the USS Ticonderoga. After serving as executive officer, Hudner assumed command of VF-53. Following this assignment, he was transferred to a position as a Leadership Training Officer at the office of Commander, Naval Air Forces, at Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado, California.
By 1965, Hudner was promoted to captain and took command of Training Squadron 24 at Naval Air Station Chase Field in Bee County, Texas, which he commanded in 1965 and 1966. In 1966 he was assigned to the USS Kitty Hawk, first as a navigator, then as the ship's executive officer. The Kitty Hawk deployed off the shore of South Vietnam in 1966 and 1967, flying missions in support of the Vietnam War, and he served on the ship during this tour but saw no combat and flew none of the missions himself. In 1968, he was assigned as the operations officer for the Southeast Asia Air Operations division of the US Navy. That year, he married Georgea Smith, a widow with three children, whom he had met in San Diego. The two had one son together, Thomas Jerome Hudner III, born in 1971. Hudner's final Navy posting was as the head of Aviation Technical Training in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations in Washington, D.C., a post which he held until he retired in February of 1973.
Death[]
After retiring from the US Navy, Hudner initially worked as a management consultant, and later worked with the United Service Organizations. Because of his Medal of Honor, he worked regularly with various veterans groups in his retirement as a leader in the veterans' community, otherwise living a quiet life. From 1991 to 1999 he served as Commissioner for the Massachusetts Department of Veterans' Services, until he gave up that position to Thomas G. Kelley, another Medal of Honor recipient.
He received a number of honors in his later life. In 1989, he was honored by the Gathering of Eagles Program of the Air Force at Maxwell Air Force Base. In 2001, Hudner presented Daisy Brown Thorne with several of Jesse Brown's posthumous medals at Mississippi State University. In May 2012, the Secretary of the Navy announced that an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer will be named USS Thomas Hudner. Since 1991 Hudner has lived in Concord, Massachusetts, with Georgea. In July of 2013, Hudner visited Pyongyang, North Korea in an attempt to recover Jesse Brown's remains from the crash site. He was told by North Korean authorities to return in September when the weather is more predictable. However he died on November 13, 2017 at the age of 93. He was interred at Arlington National Cemetery on April 4, 2018.