Just before sunrise on Nov. 17, 1955, Billy Brown of Savannah, along with 13 other men, was in Burbank, Calif., preparing to board a C-54 Lockheed airplane bound for whereabouts known to only a privileged few. A short while later, the plane took off and headed for a top secret location where the U-2 spy plane was constructed and tested.

As far as the public was concerned, the remote desert site - nicknamed Area 51, Watertown, Groom Lake and The Ranch - did not exist.

It was the '50s and at the height of the Cold War, a time when questions and explanations about the government's covert activities weren't asked or offered. During this war, no boots were on the ground. Instead, the nerve-wracking battle existed behind closed doors when both the United States-led Western powers and the Soviet-bloc countries strived to win the nuclear arms race. For the U.S., the conflict involved many top-secret aspects, including the testing of nuclear bombs and the construction of reconnaissance planes.

For all Grace and Jimmy Brown knew, their first-born child was gainfully employed by the government and that was fine with them. They were extremely proud of the son they called Billy, a slender, bespectacled young man who was just 23 when he was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency. He grew up in Savannah, where his dad was the longtime owner of the Savannah Maytag Co. on West Congress Street. The younger Brown was his father's best buddy and his grandfather's hunting and fishing pal.

Billy Brown was an all-American boy. He became an Eagle Scout - his mother was den mother - before he decided to go off to high school at Georgia Military College in Milledgeville. After his stint at GMC, he enrolled at the University of Georgia where he graduated in three years. Upon graduation, he joined the Army and was honorably discharged as a lieutenant. He was on the fast track to success when he chose to go to work for the CIA.

"Billy was brilliant," said his only sister, Barbara Brown Wolling, who came along 15 years after her big brother was born. "He was so smart. To be 23 and in the CIA … he was my hero. We all were very proud of him."

Tragically, Billy Brown's life was cut short that November morning in 1955, shortly after the C-54 took off from Burbank and, during a blinding blizzard, slammed into Mount Charleston, 10 miles from Las Vegas. Because of the clandestine nature of the flights to and from the desert, pilots were ordered to fly under the radar.

Known as silent heroes of the Cold War, Billy Brown and the 13 other men finally were recognized for their service and patriotism on May 29 when a monument was dedicated near the crash site. The monument also honored "the hundreds of individuals who have worked in obscurity during the Cold War, many of whom paid for our freedom with their very lives," according to a statement by the Silent Heroes of the Cold War National Memorial Committee.

What Billy's family didn't know until years after he died was that Billy Brown and the 13 others were working on the U-2 plane in the Nevada desert. It was a classified mission, the details of which weren't declassified until 1998. Even then families weren't notified of all the details until a man named Steve Ririe began investigating the story behind the plane crash. (Jimmy Brown died in 1988 and Grace passed away in 2001.)

Ririe saw remnants of the plane as a 12-year-old Boy Scout when he and members of his troop hiked Mount Charleston. As an adult he was determined to uncover the details of the plane crash nobody seemed to know anything about.

Explained Barbara Brown Wolling who echoed sentiments held by other surviving family members: "We knew it was a top-secret mission but that was all."

The mystery is explained in Kyril D. Plaskon's book, "Silent Heroes of the Cold War: Declassified." In the book, family members are quoted and Ririe details the how's and why's of the story that touched his heart. He was determined to honor the silent heroes and serves as chairman of the Memorial Committee, which raised funds to build the monument.

Wolling was only a child when her brother died but remembers how her parents found out about the crash.

"The phone rang and it was a long distance operator from Washington, D.C.," Wolling said. "My dad was hysterical because we didn't know if Billy was dead or alive."

The Browns almost convinced themselves that Billy had used his Boy Scout skills to survive the crash. Three agonizing days later, they were officially notified of Billy's death. Later, the family received items that he had with him when he died, personal belongings such as his wristwatch and his UGA class ring.

The young Savannahian's wallet also was returned to the family. "My parents took money that was in his billfold and bought me a hi-fi for Christmas that year," Wolling recalled.

Because of the remote, mountainous location of the crash and the severity of the weather, the rescue party rode to the site on horseback and removed the bodies by strapping them to the horses.

"Our maternal uncle, who was CIA himself, flew to Las Vegas to identify Billy's body," Wolling said. "He marked the casket and boarded a train to accompany his body back to Savannah."

Last week, surviving relatives of the 14 men, as well as Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, were on hand for the monument dedication at the U.S. Forest Service's Spring Mountains Visitor Gateway Recreational Area.

Billy Brown was represented by his nephew, Sam Wolling of Los Angeles, who carried the American flag that covered his uncle's casket during the Nov. 27, 1955, funeral service at Savannah's First Presbyterian Church and the burial that followed at Hillcrest Abbey.

The flag was raised during the ceremony and Sam Wolling asked to read a prayer he wrote about the souls lost on the mountain. (As much as she wanted to attend the ceremony, Barbara Brown Wolling was unable to go because she recently underwent serious back surgery.)

While in Savannah to pick up the flag from his mother's house, Sam Wolling said although he never met his uncle, he was honored to represent the family at the dedication. Additionally, Sam Wolling wants to personally thank Ririe for spearheading the effort to honor the men with the monument.

"For (Ririe) to wonder why the plane crashed and to take the time and financial resources to give a voice to these men who died in silence is really what America is all about," Sam Wolling said.


In addition to Billy Brown, who was in security for the CIA, the other 13 men who died in the Nov. 17, 1955, plane crash were:

• James F. Bray, 48, CIA security

• Clayton D. Farris, 26, United States Air Force flight mechanic

• Guy R. Fasolas, USAF flight attendant

• John H. Gaines, 23, USAF lab technician

• Fred Farrar Hanks, 35, Hycon Manufacturing Co. camera technician

• Richard J. Hruda, 37, Lockheed engineer

• Rodney H. Kreimendahl, 38, Lockheed engineer

• William H. Marr Jr., 37, CIA security

• Terence J. O'Donnell, 22, CIA security

• George Manual Pappas, Jr., 27, USAF pilot

• Harold C. Silent, 59, Hycon Manufacturing Co. physicist

• Edwin J. Urolatis, 27, CIA security

• Paul Eugene Winham, 24, USAF co-pilot

Additionally, a 24-year-old flight mechanic named Bob Murphy was scheduled to be on the flight but he overslept and missed the plane.


• coldwarmonument.org

• Facebook: Silent Heroes of the Cold War

• "Silent Heroes of the Cole War: Declassified" by Kyril D. Plaskon