Perry Nathan Browning – Staff Sergeant, United States Army

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Full Name: PERRY NATHAN BROWNING

Wall Name: PERRY N BROWNING
Date of Birth: 8/13/1942
Date of Casualty: 7/29/1969
Home of Record: ARLINGTON
State: VA
Branch of Service: ARMY
Rank: SSGT
Casualty Country: SOUTH VIETNAM

 

Casualty Province: HUA NGHIA

Perry Nathan Browning was born on August 13, 1942 and joined the Armed Forces while in Arlington, Virginia.

He served in the United States Army, Battalion DET A415.  In 8 years of service, he attained the rank of Staff Sergeant.

On July 29, 1969, at the age of 26, Perry Nathan Browning perished in the service of our country in South Vietnam, Hua Nghia.

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Perry Nathan Browning was my big brother. He was only eighteen when he decided to
follow in the footsteps of the men in our family who had fought in all the wars and conflicts that our Nation had been involved in. From the Revolutionary War, War Between the States, WWI, WWII, Korea, now Vietnam, it was his turn to step up and be counted to do his duty for his country.

After his basic training he decided jumping out of airplanes was what he wanted to do, so he joined the 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. While there, he was introduced to the world of medicine, which he had an aptitude for. He took his training in Fort Hood, Texas, and became a medic.

He took a tour of duty in Korea; he was stationed at the Pentagon after that. He found time to marry his best friend Fay Abbott and they started their family and had three children before he was sent to Vietnam.

While at the Pentagon he learned about a new outfit that was being formed, they were to be called the Special Forces. He found he could use his jumping skills along with his medical training, so he joined the team.

Once more he was back in training for more skills, from setting broken bones, sewing up wounds to filling teeth. One of the skills he used but had not had much training for was OB work. He delivered a set of tiny twins while he was in Vietnam, he sent us the picture of him holding them after birth. He not only helped keep our men going, he also reached out to the friendly villagers and gave of himself what he could to help them.

When he was killed he was only two weeks shy of turning twenty-seven and was within thrity days from rotating our of his tour in Vietnam.

The Chaplain knocked on my siter-in-law’s door early one morning to tell her that her husband had been killed in action in a faraway land called Vietnam. She was only twenty-four with three very small children and had to face the future by herself.

Perry’s birthday was August 13th, we buried him in Arlington Cemetery on the 14th so as not to bury him on his birthday.

It has been thirty-two years since his passing from us, and there is not a day that goes by that he is not missed by our family. His children have grown into adults, married and made him a grandfather four times over. One of his young granddaughters asked me about his picture, is that my grandfather who got himself dead? Yes, he got himself dead but not forgotten.

Posted By: Fran Tolliver

Relationship: He is my brother

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