Marine Pfc. Donald S. Brown

Died October 25, 2006 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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19, of Succasunna, N.J.; assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii; died Oct. 25 from wounds sustained while conducting combat operations in Hadithah, Iraq.

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Hometown to honor Marine killed 5 years ago in Iraq

By Matt Manochio
(Morristown, N.J.) Daily Record

ROXBURY TOWNSHIP, N.J. — The township will honorarily name Eyland Avenue after a native son who grew up along that street and who was killed while serving in Iraq as a Marine in 2006.

Yellow signs with "L Cpl Don Brown Ave" in red lettering will be placed above approximately eight of the 20 Eyland Avenue street signs that line the road, said Connie Gouck, and administrative assistant for the township.

They officially will be unveiled July 18 at the Eyland and Hillside avenues intersection, near the home where Brown, a 2005 Roxbury High School graduate, grew up. Brown was 19 when he was killed.

"Every organization, every group that I have contacted has been nothing but generous and accommodating [asking] what can we do to help," Gouck said of the effort to honor Brown, who was killed along with three other Marines on Oct. 25, 2006, by an improvised explosive device in Anbar province.

Township councilman Martin Schmidt, himself a Vietnam veteran and former commander of the Morris County chapter of the Disabled American Veterans, said he's been working on renaming Eyland for Brown for three years.

"Any kid that gets hurt in combat, or killed like that, they're kind of our own," Schmidt said. "I didn't know him well, but I knew him before he went into the service. ... He was a nice young kid. When he got killed in action, there are no words to describe it."

Schmidt said he got the idea because of the way the Army names buildings in honor of its war dead.

"To me that is one of the ultimate honors that we can give to these kids who give their lives," he said, adding that Roxbury passed a resolution to make the sign official.

Gouck said Brown's family is expected to attend, as will a Marine Corps Color Guard and bagpipers.

She said Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., is hoping to procure an American flag that flew over the Capitol Building so it can be presented to the family.

The Morris County Freeholders Board also is expected to present the Browns with a distinguished service award.