The Patriot Post® · Profiles of Valor: CPO Adam Brown (USN)
Adam Lee Brown was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Being raised in a family of hardworking people shaped his drive as a youngster. His dad was an electrician, and Adam helped him from an early age. He excelled in sports at Lake Hamilton High School and was nicknamed “Psycho” for his fearless competitive spirt and his defense of the defenseless.
In a 2012 biography, Fearless, author Eric Blehm writes of Adam:
[When he was in eighth grade,] Adam was hanging out with friends in front of the school one morning when a school bus pulled up and students poured out. Most of the kids headed to the front doors, but three boys stopped Richie Holden, who had Down syndrome, and taunted him by calling him names. Smaller than any of the bullies, Adam nevertheless marched over and stood in front of Richie. “If you want to pick on someone,” he said, “you can pick on me — if you think you’re big enough.” Richie’s father Dick Holden, recalls, “The three backed off. … Adam put his arm around Richie and walked with him through the door, then all the way to his class. Richie never forgot that, and I remember thinking, ‘That Brown boy — he’s something special.’”
While in high school, Adam saw the 1990 movie “Navy SEALS,” and that inspired him to work out and get into shape. But after graduation, his dream of becoming a SEAL grew distant as he lost his way in life. He was depressed, unable to keep a job, and lured into addiction. At one point he attempted suicide with a knife, but police found him in time. He had warrants for prior trouble, and a judge offered him jail or rehab — he chose the latter.
For Adam, that changed his life, though he had setbacks. In 1988, he married Kelley, who had a similar background with substance abuse, and both committed their lives to Christ as she helped him get back on his feet. Through his continuing struggles, she recalls, “My heart said stay and see this through.”
And again, he set his sights on becoming a SEAL.
He earned a shot at age 25, entering Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training in Coronado, California. He was the oldest of 145 candidates in his BUD/S class. And never short of determination, 173 days later, in April 1999, he was one of about 30 graduates.
Blehm notes: “The training awakened in Adam the psycho who never quit. He also had Kelley and his faith, which gave him a refuge and a shield of strength.”
At the time, there were about 2,500 SEALs divided across nine teams, and Adam was initially assigned to SEAL Team Four, where he trained as his team’s M60 machine gunner.
In 2000, the year Adam and Kelley had their first child, he began training for SEAL Team Two’s Central and South American unit. In 2002, the year his daughter was born, then-Petty Officer Second Class Brown had his first deployment, a counter-narcotics operation. His commander recalls he was “always the first to volunteer for the hard jobs and the last to leave — he leads, mentors and sets the example, the definition of a team player.”
He then deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004, but in a noncombat intel management position after suffering a severe right eye injury. He would not let that keep him benched; back Stateside, after teaching himself to shoot left-handed using his good eye, he graduated from SEAL sniper school a year later.
Deploying next to Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom, then-Chief Petty Officer Brown suffered a serious hand injury, requiring him to retrain himself to shoot a pistol left-handed. At this point, he had injured his back, broken a leg, and had surgery on both ankles.
But that did not hold him back as he set about to qualify for SEAL Team Six, the military’s most heralded counterterrorism unit, where he spent another year in training.
Blehm writes: “In the entire history of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, nobody had ever attempted, much less passed, the stringent qualifications with vision in only one eye. Peripheral vision and split-second reaction times are critical.”
But Adam qualified, and in 2008, he deployed a second time to Iraq, mostly on night missions to attack combatants responsible for deadly IEDs, which were responsible for almost 70% of coalition deaths. But the SEAL missions resulted in a dramatic downturn in those deaths. Blehm notes: “This was one of the greatest victories in the war, executed almost entirely by two squadrons of DEVGRU SEALs, fewer than 100 men, killing more than 200 and capturing upward of 300. They saved thousands of lives.”
Adam’s teammates recall, despite his ferocious capabilities as a warfighter, how tender he was with refugee children in Afghanistan when supplying them with clothing and other necessities.
There is a passage from the book Tender Warrior: God’s Intention for a Man by Vietnam Veteran Green Beret Stu Weber that Adam shared with his team, and it aptly defines his spirit and character: “The heart of the Warrior is a protective heart. The Warrior shields, defends, stands between, and guards … He invests himself in ‘the energy of self-disciplined, aggressive action.’ By Warrior, I do not mean one who loves war or draws sadistic pleasure from fighting or bloodshed. There is a difference between warrior and brute. A Warrior is a protector. … Men stand tallest when they are protecting and defending.”
In 2009, Adam had to have his right eye removed, but he returned to Afghanistan again.
On 17 March 2010, Adam and his team were tasked with killing a Taliban leader code-named Objective Lake James in Komar Province. Typical of such missions, this one started with fast roping from a helicopter in darkness far enough from their objective to avoid detections, followed by a 12-mile hike with 80 pounds of gear.
That night, Adam was killed in action after an enemy firefight.
Before his deployment, he left a letter for his children: “I’m not afraid of anything that might happen to me on this Earth because I know no matter what, nothing can take my spirit from me. No matter what, my spirit is given to the Lord and I will finally be victorious.”
At his Hot Springs memorial service a week later, Adam’s SEAL teammate John Faas, who was with him on the night he was killed, said: “Adam is the hardest man I have ever met. Over the course of his career he sustained more significant injuries than most of us combined, but he just kept on operating. He would not quit, he would not accept defeat. Not ever. Adam’s devout Christian faith matched his toughness and fearlessness.”
Another former teammate, Chief Harley, said: “He could flip the switch from having this stuff happen, these funny moments, and the next minute, we could be downrange and be in harm’s way, and he would be the ultimate professional operator, warrior that you’d want. Adam had that rare ability to look in the mirror and laugh at himself to the cool-headed professional, the one person I’d choose to have beside me if I was surrounded by the enemy and running out of ammunition.”
Arkansas adjutant general BG Chad Bridges observed on the occasion of awarding his state’s Medal of Freedom to Adam’s family: “This isn’t a perfect person. He had struggles. He had challenges, but they didn’t conquer him. He conquered those challenges, and that is what is so inspiring about the Adam Brown story.”
Adam was posthumously awarded a Silver Star.
Chief Brown served as part of an assault force that executed a daring raid deep into mountainous enemy occupied terrain in northeastern Afghanistan. Two barricaded enemy fighters opened fire from the target building into assault force personnel and non-combatants, while numerous enemy fighters simultaneously engaged the force from the surrounding mountains. Reacting immediately, and without regard for his own safety, Chief Brown engaged two of the fighters from his position and boldly maneuvered toward the enemy under intense small arms fire, thus providing life saving cover for his trapped teammates and noncombatants. Though mortally wounded, Chief Brown continued to engage and communicate the location of the enemy fighters. His heroic actions under withering enemy fire changed the tide of the battle and inspired those around him to courageously eliminate the remaining enemy fighters.
His citation concludes: “This aggressive operation resulted in the elimination of the targeted Taliban commander and four enemy fighters following an intense two hour firefight. By his bold initiative, undaunted courage, and complete dedication to duty, Chief Petty Officer Brown reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.”
CPO Adam Brown: An ordinary man faced with extraordinary circumstances, he summoned the greatest measure of courage to place his life in imminent peril to save others. Your example of valor — a humble American Patriot defending Liberty for all above and beyond the call of duty — is eternal. Live your life worthy of his sacrifice.
“Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of American Liberty, and for our nation’s Veterans, First Responders, and their families.
(Read more Profiles of Valor here.)
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776
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