Retired Delray police officer honored with Bronze Star
Skip Brown’s valor is honored 45 years after his service in Vietnam.
DELRAY BEACH — Just about everyone in the crowd at Delray Beach’s Crest Theater on Tuesday knew Skip Brown. But very few really knew him. Few in the room knew the details of Brown’s time served in the Vietnam War, about the shrapnel that tore through his right leg and foot during an ambush, about how he held his fellow soldier’s lifeless body in his arms the day he should have returned home from the war.
Brown, a retired Delray Beach police officer, kept that story to himself.
“I got used to being silent about my service since 1972,” Brown said. “It wasn’t cool being a veteran back then, let alone a Vietnam veteran.”
Even Brown’s commanding officer in the U.S. Army learned only five years ago that Brown wasn’t properly honored for his valor during that Feb. 29, 1972, ambush. His colonel knew the details of the ambush, but only learned Brown hadn’t received Keep up with The Post’s complete coverage of Delray Beach on its Facebook page dedicated to the city. On Facebook, search for Post on Delray Beach.
a medal while researching for a book about their unit.
He a ppe a l e d f o r B rown t o receive a Bronze Star, awarded for acts of bravery among military personnel, 45 years after Brown had put the war behind him.
“Some threw the word ‘hero’ around,” Brown said. “But not me. I’ve walked alongside of a few of them.”
Brown, who retired from Delray Beach Police in 2005 and moved to Alabama, accepted the medal at a ceremony Tuesday. He chose to receive it in Delray, rather than Washington, D.C., or Alabama. “It’s home,” he said. Brown landed Delray Beach national attention back in 2001 when he started a “Homefront Security” program after it was