MAKE A GIFT IN MEMORY OF OUR CLASSMATE LT. J.L. Ward, ’74,
and his father Major Charles Ward, USMC
and help support our 50th reunion legacy campaign
BACKGROUND
Charlie wasn’t a USNA grad, but he was extremely proud of his son joining our great class, and it turns out he was the helo pilot who rescued Tom Hudner, USNA ’46, MOH Awardee from a frozen Korean mountain, after Jessie Brown, the first Black U.S. Navy fighter pilot, had passed. A movie about this, "Devotion" is being released in November.
"Devotion" is based on Adam Makos' non-fiction book of the same name, which tells the story of Jesse Brown and the unlikely bond he forms with his wingman, Tom Hudner. Brown and Hudner would go on to become two of the Navy's "most celebrated wingmen," according to the film's official synopsis, but it doesn't come without sacrifice on either pilot's part. The film will follow Brown and Hudner through their training with the elite VF-32 squadron to their harrowing aerial battles in North Korea, and even eventually behind enemy lines.
THE CATCH
It turns out our classmate, Admiral Mike Miller and J.L. were each others best man, and Mike’s wife Barbara is the ship's sponsor for the USS THOMAS HUDNER (DDG-116). The story is even more interwoven as Barbara chose Karen Ward, J.L.’s widow, to be her matron of honor. You can't make this up!
Karen is renting a theater down in Tampa for the premier of the movie (late November, early December) and thought what better way to remember and memorialize JL and Charlie by having people donate to our 50th legacy gift in their memory.
