Alvin H. Brown collection

Alvin Brown was born in Atlanta, Georgia on August 15, 1919. After finishing high school in 1939, he decided to join the U.S. Army Air Corps. He enlisted in August of 1940. In the interview, Brown shares the story of his military training, and how he came to be a B-17 bomber pilot in World War II. He states that he was assigned to the 8th Air Force, 95th Bomber Group which was stationed about three hours outside of London, England. Brown talks about the B-17 missions that he flew over Germany and France. He says that he flew the bombing missions over Berlin several times. Once he completed his ten missions, he was sent back stateside to Pine Castle Air Force Base, now known as Orlando Municipal Airport.

While assigned to this B-17 group, he was an engineering officer. Because he had a newborn son, he chose to be discharged from the Air Corps in the summer of 1945. Brown and his family moved to Atlanta, where he and his brother resumed a construction business. He left Atlanta toward the end of 1945 to move to Orlando and become a private flight instructor. Because private flight lessons were going to be phased out at this location, Brown and his wife decided to move to Tallahassee in January of 1948, so that he could attend college under the G.I. Bill. Brown finished his Baccalaureate degree with a major in Political Science. Brown discusses student life and social life as a married veteran at the newly coeducational FSU. He nearly completed his Master's degree before being called up for the Korean conflict. He served in Korea for eighteen months and then moved back to Atlanta, where he eventually went into business for himself.