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<div>Early Friday evening on 19 October 1971, <em>Robert Nugent Brown</em> returned to his home, Bloomington, Indiana. It was Homecoming Weekend for the Indiana University “Big Red” and also for this fallen soldier. Three days earlier Bob Brown had died in the Da Nang Hospital from wounds received on 15 October near the demilitarized zone in Vietnam.</div>
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<div>Bob Brown was born in South Bend, Indiana, on 7 September 1948, the son of Howard K. and Dixie Brown. He had two brothers, Ted and Bill. In his early years, Bob was active in scouting and youth sports. He attended Bloomington High School where he lettered in football, was president of the senior class, and a member of the National Honor Society. During his senior year he was awarded the American Legion Award for excellence as a student leader of Bloomington High School.</div>
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<div>1 July 1966 marked the entrance of Bob Brown into the Corps of Cadets. From the very first, everything Bob did, he did well. His sincere, unbridled enthusiasm and love for the Academy and the profession of arms was legendary and well respected among his classmates. It was this tremendous zeal and self motivation that allowed him to reach the highest degree of achievement in the corps, a distinguished cadet.</div>
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<div>Throughout his time as a cadet, Bob participated in many different activities. He was a swimming team manager as a plebe. Once during a plebe meet, the opposing team had no entrants for the one meter dive and the West Point team only had one participant of a possible two allocations. In order to score points for the overall team competition, Bob, the tram manager, went to his locker, changed into his swimming trunks, and entered the diving competition. He would watch the experienced diver execute a dive and then try to perform that dive himself immediately thereafter. His effort was tremendous, performance atrocious, but the points counted just the same. Such was his approach to cadet life and life in general.</div>
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<div>Those of us in the Class of 1970 remember Bob Brown for one activity that was never listed by his picture in the <em>HOWITZER</em>. This concerned the coaching and tutoring of the 3d Regiment during Second Class year in the study of electricity. For some uncanny reason. Bob Brown understood why electrical engineers pointed current direction arrows in a direction opposite to the way the current actually Mowed. His ability to break the code of the Electrical Engineering Department’s teachings endowed him with something that none of the rest of us had—the “poop on juice.” Bob Brown spent many a late night in the latrines of the 3d Regiment explaining and teaching “double E.’’ Bob would study two lessons ahead of the class so that he would fully understand the material he was tutoring. For final exams, his pupils would even provide him with a chalk board. There are today quite a few people with diplomas from the Academy who would not hold those diplomas had it not been for the efforts of Bob. As a result of his willingness to help and interest in others his classmates gave him the nickname “Pop.” This was based on their love of this cadet who looked out for their welfare like a father.</div>
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<div>Bob’s First Class year at the Point was marked by his appointment as company commander of Company 1-3. Bob led the company on the playing field, parade field, and classroom. At branch selection, he chose to be commissioned in the Military Intelligence Corps. This selection required a two-year detailed tour in the Infantry. Bob enthusiastically accepted the Infantry assignment and volunteered for duty in Vietnam.</div>
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<div>Following graduation, Bob successfully completed Infantry Officer’s Basic Course, Airborne School, and Ranger School. Lieutenant Brown then was assigned to the 82d Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, for an interim assignment en route to Vietnam.</div>
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<div>On 7 September 1971 Lieutenant Brown left Bloomington, Indiana, for duty in the Republic of Vietnam. It was his twenty-third birthday. Lieutenant Brown was assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division when he arrived in Vietnam. On 15 October he was seriously wounded by a land mine while leading his platoon in combat. He died four days later.</div>
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<div>On the Homecoming Weekend Robert N. Brown was buried, Indiana University lost its football game. But the State of Indiana lost one of its finest young men. Bob loved Bloomington, its people, and the University. Both of his parents had attended Indiana University. Howard, Bob’s father, had been an All-American football player for Indiana University and later coached the freshman and varsity football teams. At Bob’s burial service the people of Bloomington and family friends came in such numbers that the church could not hold them all. Many had to stand outside in the cold sprinkle of the fall afternoon. It is altogether fitting that he is buried on a hill that reverberates on fall afternoons from the cheers of the crowds at the Indiana University football games.</div>
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<div>Bob Brown once told a friend that he would be proud to die for his country. That he died in Vietnam, a war that history will tarnish, does not diminish Bob’s sacrifice. He died fighting for the ideals and principles that symbolize his country. He died for his country. We are proud of him.</div>
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<div>With Bob’s death, one must wonder how many men have died before they have had an opportunity to achieve greatness. Surely only success awaited Robert Nugent Brown in life. His death is a terrible loss to the friends who knew him, the family that loved him, and the country that cherished him.</div>
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<div><em>—John Gray Noll</em></div>
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