Brown's shipmates memorialized him in a shipwide newspaper as "a Christian soldier, a gentleman, a shipmate, and friend ... His courage and faith ... shone like a beacon for all to see." As word of his death spread, Brown inspired numerous other African Americans to become pilots, notably Seaman Apprentice Frank E. Petersen. Petersen would become the first African-American Marine Corps aviator and the first African-American Marine Corps general, graduating from the Naval Aviation Training Program in 1952 and retiring from the military after 38 years in 1988 with the rank of lieutenant general.