Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Army 1st Lt. Tyler H. Brown

Remember Our Heroes

Army 1st Lt. Tyler H. Brown, 26, of Atlanta

1st Lt Brown was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, Camp Hovey, Tongduchon City, Korea; killed Sept. 14, 2004 when his unit was attacked by small-arms fire in Ramadi, Iraq.

Brent Brown said his kid brother Tyler "fell in love with politics and our political system" on a trip to Washington while the older brother worked as a summer intern for the late Sen. Paul Coverdell.

High school classmates considered Tyler H. Brown a "politician in the making."

"He was patriotic, red, white and blue to the core, and we figured he could be president someday," said Jonathan Cooper, a friend.

Brown, of Atlanta, was killed Sept. 14 when his unit came under attack in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, Iraq. He was 26.

"He died for the country he loved, doing what he wanted to do," Brent Brown said. "He became a role model to me."

Tyler Brown became student body president at Georgia Tech, where he joined the ROTC and graduated with dual degrees in management and in history, society and technology. Commissioned from the ROTC program, he was stationed in Tongduchon City, Korea. He is survived by his parents, Carey and Sally Brown. His family has established a scholarship fund in his name at Georgia Tech.

Officer praises Atlanta soldier killed in Iraq sniper fire

ATLANTA — A soldier who was killed in Iraq last week saved the lives of his men by warning them about the sniper fire while lying mortally wounded, his commanding officer said.

Army 1st Lt. Tyler Hall Brown was “an inspirational leader, both on the field of battle and off. In numerous enemy contacts, he was calm, leading his men with bravery and aplomb,” Capt. Daniel M. Gade said in e-mails to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week.

Brown, 26, was killed Sept. 14 in the town of Ramadi, about 70 miles east of Baghdad, when he was hit in the upper thigh and bled to death, Gade said. “He died of his wounds rather quickly,” he wrote from Iraq.

The sniper, who fired at long range, got away, Gade added.

The former Georgia Tech student body president was honored Sept. 22 in a funeral at the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta. Brown will be buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on Sept. 28.

Gade, 29, said he and Brown became friends in South Korea, where their 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, had been deployed before going to Iraq. The Army unit had been in the Middle East for only two weeks before the sniper attack.

Brown had been approved for service in the 3rd Infantry Regiment, known as the Old Guard, which patrols the Tomb of the Unknowns and serves as an escort on military burials at Arlington, but he instead chose to join his battalion in Iraq “over this prestigious assignment,” Gade said.

“Tyler was the finest officer I’ve ever known ... he loved his men, and they loved him in return,” he said.

Army 1st Lt. Tyler H. Brown was killed in action on 9/14/04.

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