CHARLOTTE HALL, Md. – Lloyd Brown, the last known surviving World War I Navy veteran, has died. He was 105.
Brown died Thursday at the Charlotte Hall Veterans Home in St. Mary’s County, according to his family and the U.S. Naval District in Washington.
Brown was born Oct. 7, 1901, in Lutie, Mo., a small farming town in the Ozarks. His family later moved to Chadwick, Mo. In 1918, 16-year-old Brown lied about his age to join the Navy and was soon on the gun crew on the battleship USS New Hampshire.
“All the young men were going in the service. They were making the headlines, the boys that enlisted,” Brown told The (Baltimore) Sun in a 2005 interview. “And all the girls liked someone in uniform.”
Brown finished his tour of duty in 1919, took a break for a couple of years, then re-enlisted. When Brown ended his military career in 1925, he joined the Washington Fire Department’s Engine Company 16, which served the White House and embassies.
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