Thomas J. Hudner Jr.

Thomas Jerome Hudner Jr., a Fall River, Massachusetts, Naval Academy graduate, flew F4U Corsairs from USS Leyte with Fighter Squadron 32 in the first winter of the Korean War. On December 4, 1950, Ensign Jesse L. Brown — already on this Korean War register — was hit by ground fire and crash-landed in the mountains near the Chosin Reservoir. Hudner deliberately belly-landed his own Corsair beside Brown's wreck, packed snow around a smoking engine, and tried to pull his wingman free while enemy fire and cold closed in. A rescue helicopter arrived; Brown could not be extracted and died in the cockpit. Hudner was awarded the Medal of Honor for the attempt.

He remained in the Navy to the rank of captain and spent decades pressing for Brown's memory and for recovery of remains. He died in Concord, Massachusetts, in 2017. This register pairs the two pilots without inventing a missing status for Hudner — he came home — and without rewriting Brown's separate accounting beyond what the Korea pages already publish.

The 1950 U.S. Navy portrait (Naval Historical Center / Commons) is public domain.