Platoon Leader 'Wanted to Make a Difference'

Army Lieutenant Loved His Job and His Men, Family, Colleagues Say

The sky was filled with clouds, and gray extended as far as the eye could see as dozens of cars lined York Drive at Arlington National Cemetery yesterday for services for 1st Lt. Thomas J. Brown.

Brown, 26, died Sept. 23 in Salman Park, Iraq, when his patrol came under small-arms fire.

"He wanted to make a difference," said Timothy Brown, his twin, a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Arizona. "And he felt at that time, with a war going on, leading guys in a combat situation or joining the military, that would be his most effective way to make a difference."

The twins were more like best friends than brothers, Timothy Brown said. They did everything together, including moving to Virginia to go to George Mason University together. Thomas Brown graduated with a degree in politics and government from GMU in 2004. After college, he decided to join the military.

"That sums up his character," Timothy Brown said. "It didn't matter if the road less traveled was harder. If that was the way he had to go, he'd take it."

At yesterday's ceremony, attended by more than 200 mourners, his mother, Carol Brown, accepted a flag from Maj. Gen. Richard J. Rowe Jr., commanding general of the Military District of Washington. Brown was the 450th casualty of the war in Iraq to be laid to rest or memorialized at Arlington.

Meanwhile, 300 miles to the north in Connecticut, Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R) ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff yesterday in honor of Brown and his burial at Arlington.

Brown was born in New Haven and grew up in Shelton, Conn. He graduated in 2000 from Notre Dame Catholic High School in Fairfield, Conn. The school's principal said teachers who knew Brown were "devastated" by the loss.

Yesterday, a school staff member read the governor's proclamation about Brown and spoke about him.

"When it hits home, it puts a different perspective on everything," the principal, the Rev. Bill Sangiovanni, said in an interview. "A lot of teachers here knew him. It's not like somebody who graduated 40 years ago."

Sangiovanni recalled Brown as a fun kid and a good student who played soccer, ran track and did volunteer work.

"Anytime you lose anybody, of course, but a young person like that . . . you hear this every day, and then all of a sudden, boom," Sangiovanni said. "It hits home."

Brown was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division based at Baumholder, Germany. He was honored a week after his death with a ceremony at Combat Outpost Carver in Iraq, according to the Multinational Division Center.

Friends and fellow soldiers honored the rifle platoon leader and spoke of his motivation, determination and love of his job. They talked about how Brown could make anyone smile and how he wanted to make a difference in people's lives.

Brown often ate with his men instead of his fellow officers. He had said that if anything happened to him, he wanted to make sure people back home didn't forget about the soldiers in combat.

"He loved what he did," his brother said. "He loved leading his men and he always wanted to get them home safe."

Brown was due to return home for a break in October, according to an article in the Connecticut Post. He spoke with his mother just days before he died, telling her that his unit had discovered a cache of weapons, the article said.

"He said that by finding that, hopefully they saved some lives," she says in the article. "Those were his last words to me."