Medal of Honor · Korean War
Thomas Jerome Hudner Jr.
Lieutenant, Junior Grade, U.S. Navy
- Date of Action
- December 4, 1950
- Location
- Near Chosin Reservoir, North Korea
- Medal Presented
- April 13, 1951
Values Embodied
- Commitment
- Courage
- Integrity
Official Citation
This citation is paraphrased from public-domain histories and is pending verbatim verification against the Congressional Medal of Honor Society archive.
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as a pilot in Fighter Squadron 32, while attempting to rescue a squadron mate whose plane struck by antiaircraft fire and trailing smoke was forced down behind enemy lines. Quickly maneuvering to circle the downed pilot and protect him from enemy troops infesting the area, Lieutenant (j.g.)
Hudner risked his life to save the injured flier who was trapped alive in the burning wreckage. Fully aware of the extreme danger in landing on the rough mountainous terrain and the scant hope of escape or survival in sub-zero temperature, he put his plane down skillfully in a deliberate wheels-up landing in the presence of enemy troops. With his bare hands, he packed the fuselage with snow to keep the flames away from the pilot and struggled to pull him free.
Biography
Before the War
Thomas Jerome Hudner Jr. was born August 31, 1924, in Fall River, Massachusetts, to a grocery-store family that had grown into a chain across southeastern New England. He attended Phillips Academy Andover and the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, graduating in 1946 — after the war had ended. He served as a communications officer on surface ships for three years before he applied for flight training in 1948.
In flight school at Pensacola he became friends with Ensign Jesse Brown, the first African American to complete U.S. Navy flight training. Brown was the son of a Mississippi sharecropper; Hudner was a New England prep-school graduate. They roomed together. When both were assigned to Fighter Squadron 32 aboard the USS Leyte, they flew as wingmen.
The Action
On December 4, 1950, Fighter Squadron 32 was flying close-air-support missions over the frozen mountains near the Chosin Reservoir, where the 1st Marine Division and elements of the Army were being encircled by six Chinese divisions in a catastrophic Thanksgiving retreat. Jesse Brown’s F4U Corsair was struck by ground fire — likely a single rifle round through the oil line — and began trailing smoke. He crash-landed on a snow-covered mountainside, wheels up, in enemy territory.
Hudner circled and saw Brown still alive but pinned in the cockpit, his knee crushed by the twisted fuselage, the plane smoking. No helicopter would arrive in time. In sub-zero cold, in enemy-held territory, Hudner made a decision that was not in any rule book: he deliberately crash-landed his own Corsair on the mountainside next to Brown’s. He packed snow into the burning engine compartment with his bare hands, tried to pry Brown free, and could not. Brown slipped in and out of consciousness. Hudner promised to come back with a rescue helicopter.
A Marine helicopter arrived at dusk. Hudner and the pilot, Lieutenant Charles Ward, worked with an axe in the fading light and could not free Brown. He had by then lost consciousness. They left him in the cockpit. Hudner spent the rest of his life trying to get Brown’s remains returned; he finally visited the crash site in 2013 at the age of 88. Brown’s body was never recovered.
After the War
Hudner returned to combat duty and eventually commanded USS Kitty Hawk, retiring as a captain. Back in Massachusetts he ran the state’s department of veterans’ services. He maintained a lifelong friendship with Brown’s widow, Daisy, and their daughter. He died on November 13, 2017, and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. In 2018 the U.S. Navy commissioned the guided-missile destroyer USS Thomas Hudner.