Nearly 68 years after he helped rescue a battered landing craft and pull wounded soldiers to safety on D-Day, Johnson Waverly "Dub" Brown sat quietly at Cumming City Hall on Monday as family and dignitaries recited his heroics.
Brown, 87, of Cumming, listened with the hint of a smile, seated next to his wife, Doris, whom he married March 25, 1943, the same day he enlisted in the Navy.
"It's a thrill to be recognized like this, and I'm sure all veterans deserve the same as I've gotten," Brown said following the event.
A crowd of some 50 people -- friends, family and admirers -- turned out for the morning ceremony honoring Brown, highlighted by the presentation of eight service medals by Rep. Tom Graves. He left active duty with a rank of Motor Machinist Mate 1st Class.
"That's a lot of ribbons," Graves said.
They included the Navy Commendation Medal; World War II Victor Medal; American Campaign Medal; European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with Bronze Star; Navy Occupation Service Medal with Europe Clasp; Combat Action Ribbon; Discharge Button; and the Honorable Service Lapel Pin.
Brown, who grew up in Chamblee, was barely 19 when he joined the allied invasion force as a motor machinist mate. On June 6, 1944, his landing craft, LCI (L) 487, landed in the Easy Red Sector of Omaha Beach, on the coast of Normandy, France, with 36 soldiers of Company M and 167 soldiers of Company K, 18th Regiment, 1st Infantry Division.
Almost immediately after dropping the port ramp, an artillery mortar round struck amid the exiting soldiers. More rounds struck both sides of the bow, leaving it vulnerable to flooding.
While a growing number of wounded were being dragged aboard, the captain ordered 75 percent of the crew to abandon ship. Brown stayed on board, using mattresses and whatever else he could find to patch the holes below deck. After nearly 12 hours, the tide rose enough to free the vessel from the beach.
The memory of that day still haunts Brown, although he seldom brings it up unless asked.
"We had 200 fully armed servicemen, and we got hit on both ramps," he said. "We pulled the wounded back onboard ship, but we were stuck on the beach."
Following the war, Brown returned to Chamblee, where he joined his brother in operating an auto repair shop, which he still owns. In 1980, he was elected Chamblee mayor, a seat he held until 1998.
Graves said he performs many similar medal ceremonies to recognize veterans' service, both living and deceased. This was his first for a D-Day veteran, he said.
The ceremony was the culmination of efforts by Brown's daughter, Melanie Curtis, who navigated the Washington bureaucracy for eight years before securing the recognition she thought her father deserved.
"These World War II veterans just did not talk about this," Curtis said. "They did what they had to do, they came home, and they moved on."
When she read that her father received one award, the Navy Commendation Ribbon, for staying aboard a foundering ship to get the wounded out, Curtis made it a personal mission to notify Washington that he deserved more recognition.
"My husband's a retired commander from the Navy, so I know about ribbons and medals and stuff," she said. "I got to thinking, ‘Gosh, [my father] ought to have a full chest of medals.'"
Curtis said she's still working to have her father honored with more medals, but she has another mountain of paperwork to complete before pursuing that goal.
"Don't get me wrong," she said. "It should be hard to earn medals in the military, but when you do the job, you should get the medal."
Some of the attendees came dressed in uniform, veterans of other wars fought decades ago.
George Hinkle, a Navy veteran of Vietnam, drove all the way from Loganville to be on hand for the ceremony.
"It's just an honor to be here and see him recognized," Hinkle said.
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