After shakedown training off San Diego, Brown arrived at Pearl Harbor on 6 October. As they arrived there, she and San Pedro-built sisters Cowell, Boyd and Bradford formed Destroyer Divison 92 in Destroyer Squadron 46, the first squadron of 2,100-tonners attached to Admiral Mitcher’s newly-formed Fast Carrier Forces.
Brown’s first operation was the raid on Wake Island in October 1943. Screening duty continued during the assaults on the Gilberts, Bismarcks and Marshalls, strikes on Truk and Hollandia, and operations in the Marianas—including the capture and occupation of Guam—Palaus and western New Guinea. After raids on Okinawa and Formosa, the squadron moved with Admiral Halsey’s Third Fleet to Leyte where, on 25 October 1944, it participated in the Battle off Cape Engaño.
On 18 December, still off the Philippines, the formation was overtaken by a typhoon. In the aftermath on the 21st, Brown rescued thirteen men from destroyer Hull and the only six survivors of Monaghan, who had been in the water for three days after their ships had capsized and sunk.
In early 1945, DesDiv 92 was at Seattle for overhaul and missed the Luzon and Iwo Jima operations but rejoined the Fifth Fleet for the assault on Okinawa. For her outstanding performance on radar picket duty there (10 April–16 May 1945 and 16–20 June 1945), Brown was awarded the Navy Unit Commendation. Continuing with the Third Fleet late in the war, Brown remained in the war zone for minesweeping operations before departing for the West Coast on 31 October.
Decommissioned at San Diego on 1 August 1946, Brown recommissioned on 27 October 1950 and was attached to Destroyer Division 132, with which she participated in operations with United Nations Forces off Korea in 1951 and 1952. Attached to Destroyer Division 52 thereafter, she continued operations in the Far East over the next decade.
On 9 February 1962, with Bradford, Brown was decommissioned and on 27 September, both destroyers were transferred to Greece. As Navarino (D-63), Brown served in the Hellenic Navy until she was stricken and scrapped in 1981.
Source: Naval History & Heritage Command including Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
