Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army
Ralph Brown was from Port Sulphur, Louisiana. With a working scholarship, he lived and worked in the cattle barn taking care of the cattle, earning a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education in 1937 and a master’s degree in horticulture in 1938.
Ralph Brown was commissioned in 1942 as a Second Lieutenant in the 94th Infantry Division and saw action in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. In Europe, Captain Brown led Company K, 376th Infantry Regiment, 94th Division. This unsung division provided the Allied spearhead into Germany in 1945. General George S. Patton stated,I really believe this operation is one of the outstanding operations in the history of war.
“Berlin Sally,” the German’s radio propagandist, called the 94th “Roosevelt’s Butchers,” while German Reich Marshall Herman Goring claimed that “the breakthrough of the 94th Infantry Division near Tier was one of two great catastrophes to the German cause.”
No other single infantry division had ever spearheaded two entire armies to a single destination. In splitting Germany open, the 94th destroyed the great “Siegfried Line” and in 81 days captured the Rhine-Moselle Triangle along with 344,341 enemy prisoners of war. In the last days of March 1945, the 94th Infantry division led the tanks and armor of I Corps in capturing more than 200 towns and 13,400 German prisoners of war.
Through the entire operation, Captain Ralph Brown commanded Company K with little rest or relief from the constant fighting. Always reluctant to talk about his accomplishments, his heroic part in this story would not be revealed until the publishing of the books “Ugly Duckling: History of the 94th Infantry Division in World War II” and “Patton’s Ghost Corps.” Brown was one of only eight recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross in the 94th Infantry, which consisted of more than 40,000 men. Lieutenant Colonel Brown ended his military career in the Army reserves in 1962.
After the war, Brown worked with the LSU Citrus Research Station. His research helped develop new varieties of the satsuma. He retired as full professor in 1978. The LSU Alumni Association awarded Brown the Leadership Legion Award from 1982-1991 and the Ralph Brown Endowed Scholarship was established in the College of Agriculture by his family and friends.