Capt. Dick Brown joined Northwest April 7, 1941 as a Fargo ticket agent. He worked a split shift, four hours at the downtown ticket office on Northern Pacific Avenue, a break, then four hours at the airport. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in March 1942 and soon found himself in England where he piloted B-26 Martin Marauder bombers on 66 missions over Europe. (The Martin Marauder was sire of the Martin 202). He bombed German fortifications on and around Utah Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

            “We were much luckier than the boys on the big bombers,” Dick recalls. “The Marauder was relatively short range and we had fighter cover with us the entire war. We only lost a few planes to flak. They could really take a beating.”

            In the winter of 1944-45 Dick flew stripped-down B-26s towing targets over the Gulf of Mexico for B-24s stationed at Harlington, Texas. “There were seven Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) in our outfit and I flew copilot for a few of them. Still see some of them at different air shows across the country.

            Dick rejoined Northwest, as a pilot, in August 1945. One of Dick’s very best friends was Northwest pilot Joe Farrell. They flew 25 Marauder missions together until Joe got his own crew. Joe ended up with 67 missions, one more than Dick.

            “Joe joined Northwest in September 1945, one month after I did,” Dick says. “So I was always ’that senior bastard’.” Dick’s Northwest career spanned 36 years with about 24,000 flying hours. He flew 12 different types of planes, seven props and five jets.

            Dick and his wife Jean have been married more than 61 years. They had four children – one passed away in 2005 – and have five grandchildren and three great grandchildren. “Jean took the brunt of bringing up the kids,” Dick says, “while I was out flying.”

            Retired in Wayzata, Minnesota, Dick stays busy with a variety of endeavors. One of his favorite pastimes is co-hosting a B-26 Martin Marauder booth at the annual “Air Expo” extravaganza sponsored by Wings of the North at Flying Cloud Airport in nearby Eden Prairie. It draws participants and onlookers from throughout the country. Dick’s booth partner is Earle Luikens, retired Northwest mechanic-flight engineer-pilot. Earle was a Marauder crew chief in North Africa during World War II. “We talk about the Marauder to anybody who’ll listen,” says Dick. “We even tell a few lies, we’ve got lots of them.”

Included in the Book are Some Odds and Ends Like This!

             General Harold R. Harris, Northwest’s president for about a year beginning in January 1953, in 1922 became the first man to make an emergency parachute jump from an airplane. From 1920 to1925, as a military test pilot, he achieved thirteen flying records. Before joining Northwest he was vice president of Pan American’s Atlantic Division. He left Northwest in early 1954 after a series of disputes with our Board of Directors. He was replaced as president by Donald Nyrop.

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