Arlester Brown (born April 1, 1924) is an American minister, educator, and U.S. Army veteran who served in France during World War II. As of 2025, at age 101, he is one of the few remaining veterans of the D-Day landings.
Early Life
Brown was born on April 1, 1924, in Homer, Louisiana, and spent part of his childhood in Shreveport, Louisiana. His mother was a sharecropper, and he was largely raised by his grandmother. He attended high school in Grambling, Louisiana.
Military Service
Brown was drafted into the U.S. Army on July 6, 1942, at age 18. He attended basic training at Camp Ellis in Peoria, Illinois. He held the rank of private and served as a Quartermaster engineer with the 599th Quartermaster Laundry Company, an all-Black unit. He was deployed to England, Belgium, Germany, and France, and was stationed in France during the D-Day landings. In January 1945, an unmanned V-1 flying bomb exploded near Brown, striking him in the face with shrapnel. He was honorably discharged on December 28, 1945, at Camp Shelby.
Education and Football Career
After the war, Brown attended Grambling State University on the G.I. Bill, where he played as a running back for the Grambling State Tigers. He was a member of the 1942 team that finished the season "unbeaten, untied, and unscored upon." He earned a bachelor's degree in teaching education in 1949 and later a master's degree in education administration from Texas Southern University.
Career
Brown worked for many years as a school principal in the Shreveport Public Schools, retiring from education in 1970. While a principal, he founded the Shreveport Teachers Association Credit Union.
After retiring from education, he attended Wesley Theological Seminary and Howard University School of Divinity, earning a master's of divinity degree. He served as pastor of several United Methodist churches in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and was a presiding elder for the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, overseeing churches in Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. He also served as chaplain and instructor at the Oak Hill Youth Prison Center and as chaplain of Capitol Hill Hospital.
Later Life and Honors
In 2022, Brown returned to Normandy with the Best Defense Foundation. On June 6, 2024, he was awarded the Legion of Honour by French President Emmanuel Macron during the 80th anniversary ceremony of D-Day at Omaha Beach. In February 2025, Macron met with Brown at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C., to pay public tribute to his service.
Brown's military awards include the Purple Heart, Bronze Star Medal, Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medal, European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Legion of Honour, and Knight of the French Order. He was inducted into the Grambling Legends Sports Hall of Fame in 2024.
Personal Life
Brown was married to Ozeal Shyne Brown from 1949 until her death in 2018. He resides at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, D.C., where he serves on the resident board. He is a member of the Mu Lambda chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
