The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to First Lieutenant George R. Brown (MCSN: 0-13652), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight while attached to Marine Scout Bombing Squadron ONE HUNDRED FORTY-FOUR (VMSB-144), at that time operating from Henderson Field, Guadalcanal. First Lieutenant Brown participated in an eighteen plane dive bombing attack on enemy shipping consisting of a large troops transport and two corvettes with fighter escort on 27 February 1943, twenty-five miles north of Kolombangara Island. Immediately upon contact being made the enemy fighters attempted interception and the transport and corvettes opened up with all their anti-aircraft guns and began violent maneuvers in effort to escape the attacking bombers, but in the face of this opposition, Lieutenant Brown delivered his attack with such courageous devotion to duty, skill and determination that he scored a direct hit with a 1,000 pound bomb on the troop transport, starting fires on it and so damaging it that, with the three other hits scored on it, it was left dead in the water burning furiously. Also Lieutenant Brown participated as a combat pilot in a large number of dive bombing missions against strongly fortified enemy ground positions in the Solomons Area during his squadron’s two tours of duty in the combat zone, at Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, 5 February to 8 March and 15 June to 25 June, and at North Field, Russell Islands 25 June to 31 July 1943, scoring many hits on anti-aircraft positions, gun emplacements and bivouac areas and inflicting costly damage in men and material on the enemy. Anti-aircraft fire in varying intensity from moderate to heavy was encountered, and in addition while at the Russell Islands with his squadron, which was on daily dawn to dark alert assigned to and on call from ComAir New Georgia for ground support mission, and which was the most advanced bombing squadron toward the enemy, he was subjected to eight enemy bombings and eighty-three alerts. Notwithstanding this, Lieutenant Brown displayed superior dive bombing skill, gallant courage and an inspiring devotion to duty that contributed greatly to the severe and costly damage his squadron inflicted on the enemy.