SGT. BROWN'S RUGGED BOYS

The Army ROTC's Mountain and Winter Warfare Training Program is very tough but the cadets work at it with enthusiasm.

MASTER Sergeant William R. Brown Jr., serial no. RA 19169686, instructor in the Mountain and Winter Warfare Training Program conducted by the Army ROTC Unit at Dartmouth College, is quite a soldier.

"Sergeant Brown is the best qualified and the most competent man in the United States Army today in the area of mountain and winter warfare training," flatly declares Captain Elmer W. B. Hassett, Executive Officer of the Dartmouth Unit and the officer in charge of this program.

Brown first came to the College in 1958 when the Department of the Army decided that Dartmouth, because of its north country location and outdoor tradition, and because so many Dartmouth men had served with distinction in the famed Tenth Mountain Infantry Division, would be the best site at which to establish the second College Mountain and Winter Warfare Training Program. The only other college program of its kind has been conducted at Norwich University since 1947.

The Dartmouth program, directed by Captain Hassett and Sergeant Brown, is a completely voluntary, non-credit, four-year program in which ROTC cadets participate at least twice weekly. Basic techniques are taught the first year and advanced ones in the second and third years; in the final year most students serve as instructors, assisting the freshman cadets.

During the fall and spring most of the training is in mountain climbing, and during the winter the Cadets take to skis for training in winter warfare tactics and winter survival. First aid, use of equipment, and other related skills are taught both in the classroom and in the field.

Reports Captain Hassett, who received most of his experience in this program during a three-year command assignment at Fairbanks, Alaska, "There's a tremendous personal and physical challenge for a boy in this program. It takes a lot of nerve to jump off a cliff backwards into thin air with nothing but a slim, nylon rope holding you. There's also responsibility, particularly for the seniors who serve as instructors, and all the cadets learn the great value of team work. We believe the program offers unique training for leadership."

We asked Captain Hassett about Sergeant Brown's contribution to the program.

"Sergeant Brown is the program," the Captain admitted. "You see he's in a unique position. We officers must treat the cadets as adults, as gentlemen. Brown, on the other hand, can and often does treat them like the boys they are. He can be rough on them at times, but they like him and respect him. When Brown says a boy is capable you know you've got a real Army man."

With sixteen years of Army service, Sergeant Brown's outstanding abilities were well known before he was assigned to Dartmouth four years ago. They were, as a matter of fact, directly responsible for his present assignment. The son of a U.S. Forest Ranger, he was reared in the outdoors around Call, Idaho, and frequently went on trips and mountainclimbing expeditions with his father.

"I never thought of going into the Forest Service though," Brown reported with a grin. "I like to travel too much."

Travel he did. When World War II broke out, Brown left the University of Idaho to enlist in the Army, training first with an Airborne Division, later with a Para-Ski Unit, and finally ending up as a First Sergeant in the 86th Infantry Regiment of the Tenth Mountain Division.

The Tenth went to Italy, and says Brown, "We fought from mountain peak to mountain peak along the Alps." But there was one mountain too many, and on that one a burst of shrapnel tore into Sergeant Brown's chest, lodging near his lungs and heart. Thirteen months later, with some shrapnel still in him, he came out of a stateside hospital and received a medical discharge with 100% disability.

But Brown was a soldier and still wanted to travel, so two years later he signed a disability waiver form and reenlisted.

Korea was next and Brown, once again a First Sergeant, took an intelligence platoon ashore with the Marine landing at Inchon. Later he moved northward, leading daily scouting patrols, as American forces advanced to the Yalu River and Choisin Reservoir.

"We saw and reported thousands of Chinese troops massed there," Brown told us, "but it was an odd situation. We couldn't fire on them and they didn't fire on us." Then one day the Chinese did fire, moving in hard and fast. Brown with two other men barely escaped. "It was every man for himself that day," Brown reflected, "so three of us went up into the mountains and stayed there until we worked our way southward." However, Brown was unable to evade a machine gun burst which sprayed into his shoulder, arm and hand — so back to the states and more hospital time.

After recuperation and a stateside tour of duty, Sergeant Brown went back overseas, this time as an instructor at a U.S. Army Mountain Training Center in Austria. Later he was assigned as the noncommissioned officer in charge of the Cold Weather Mountain School at Fort Greeley, Alaska, and from there he came to Dartmouth.

"Dartmouth has been a great experience for me," Brown says. "The cadets here are tops. They work hard and learn fast. I've given these boys in two hours what it sometimes takes two days to teach regular Army men. They've got it up here, where it counts," he grinned, pointing a finger to his head.

Last year Sergeant Brown was honored by being named Soldier of the Year for the XIII Army Corps which covers all the New England States. Receiving the citation, Brown wore proudly the Silver Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Purple Heart with three Oak Leaf Clusters, the Presidential and Marine Corps Unit Citations, the Combat Infantryman's Badge with Star, and various overseas theatre ribbons with battle stars.

But Brown's main interests are with boys, not awards.

"He should really be an assistant dean, or something like that," says one member of the Dartmouth administration. "Brown is closer to many students than anyone knows. He 'chaperones' at fraternities, and many students, most of them not cadets, drop in to talk over their problems with him. His athletic interests also have brought him close to the Dartmouth teams and the Outing Club."

Perhaps the most effective testimonial to the Dartmouth program and Brown's contributions to it came in the form of a recent letter from 2nd Lt. Raphael V. Halperin '61, who wrote from the U.S. Ranger Training School at Fort Benning, Georgia: "As for the Mountain and Winter Warfare Training Program ... I found the program, first of all, to be one of the best things I did in four years at Dartmouth. It made me conscious of my mental and physical capabilities as nothing else there did. It taught me one heck of a lot about the Army I would never have learned otherwise. Quite naturally, I now have an added skill which puts me ahead of most of my contemporaries. ... I can't speak too highly of the program. I'd make it compulsory for anyone who plans to 'go Infantry' from Dartmouth."

Sergeant Brown was heading for an afternoon's climbing on the Norwich cliffs when we finished talking with him. He looked like a good many veteran Army sergeants we'd seen in service, but maybe there aren't many like him any more. Possibly though, some of the lads he works with will someday follow in his footsteps. If they do, our nation and the U.S. Army will be stronger for it.

Master Sgt. William R. Brown Jr.

A mountain rescue operationusing a litter on skid poles

Sergeant Brown directing climbing practice on the Norwich cliff named for JacobNunnemacher '42, who was killed in action with the Tenth Mountain Infantry.