Former Paratroopers Solve Mystery in Time for Memorial Day by: Robert Murphy Matthews. The 69-year-old mystery of the final resting place for an Army paratrooper of the all Black 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion was solved, thanks to a former Army paratrooper, a former smoke jumper and a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer. PFC Malvin L. Brown was a member of the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion (Triple Nickels sic) which had been deployed during World War II to northern California and Oregon in 1945, to reinforce the smoke jumper program, which trained paratroopers as airborne fire fighters. The U.S. Forest Service conducted the training. The purpose was to fight forest fires started by the Japanese balloon bombs launched from Japan. The National Smokejumper Association, the 555th and U.S. Forest Service became interested in recent years in finding his grave, missing since 1945, with the intention of placing a historical marker. Brown was the only 555th member to die, and is considered the first smokejumper to die on duty in America, falling from a tree during a fire jump. Tony Wood of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who had researched Brown, and Fred Donner of the National Smokejumpers Association; along with Robert Matthews of the 555th PIR Association Baltimore chapter, tracked down the location of the Mt. Calvary Cemetery in Brooklyn Park, Md. where Brown was buried, after years of research. Two days before Memorial Day, a flag was placed on his grave by the research team. The grave had a stone marker placed by the U.S. Army in 1946. The 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, which was born during the time of a segregated Army, was assisted by the all White Smokejumper Association, to find and honor their brother in arms.
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 09:05:57 +0000
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