Ensign Jesse L. Brown, U.S. Navy, the first African American naval aviator and a pilot with VF-32, sits in the cockpit of an F4U-4 Corsair aircraft. Brown entered flight training from the enlisted ranks and operated from the USS Leyte (CV-32).
The recent film, Devotion, is inspired by Brown and his friendship with Lieutenant Tom Hudner
This and other photographs and artwork are available as prints through the Naval Institute Photo Archive. Contact us at 1-800-233-8764, [email protected], or visit our website, www.usni.org.
