Don Brown
Brown in 2017
Born	(1960-06-03)June 3, 1960 (age 64) Plymouth,North Carolina, U.S.
Occupation	Author; Attorney; Former Naval Officer
Education	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (BA) Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law (JD)
Genre	Thriller,fiction,Nonfiction,history,biography,military
Notable works	Treason,Black Sea Affair,Malacca Conspiracy,Call Sign Extortion 17: The Shoot-Down of SEAL Team Six,The Last Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Final Combat Mission of World War II
Children	3
Military career
Allegiance	United States
Service/ branch	United States Navy
Rank	Lieutenant Commander
Website
donbrownbooks.com

Donald Mitchell Brown, Jr. (born June 3, 1960) is an American author,attorney, and formerUnited States Navy JAG Officer. He has published fifteen books on the United States military, including eleven military-genre novels,^[1] the best known of which isTreason (2005) in which radical Islamic clerics infiltrate the United States Navy Chaplain Corps.^[2][3] He has published four works of military nonfiction, including his national bestseller,The Last Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Final Combat Mission of World War II (2017).^{[4][5][6][7][8]}

Brown may be best known for his work as legal counsel to Army LieutenantClint Lorance, who had been convicted of murder by a military court-martial at Fort Bragg when his platoon became involved in a firefight in Afghanistan in 2011, and his authorship of the 2019 bookTravesty of Justice: The Shocking Prosecution of Lt. Clint Lorance. On November 15, 2019, PresidentDonald Trump pardoned Lorance,^[9] and the book is considered to be a factor in leading to that pardon.^[10] Between the release ofTravesty of Justice on March 31, 2019, and Lorance's pardon on November 15, 2019, Brown made numerous national television appearances and penned a number of national Op-eds urging President Trump to free and exonerate Lieutenant Lorance.^[11] On the November 27, 2019, Brown and Lorance appeared onHannity, the nightly national broadcast on theFox News Channel to discuss the presidential pardon and release.^[12][13]

Brown is a candidate for the2026 United States Senate election in North Carolina.^[14] He previously ran in the Republican primary forNorth Carolina's 8th congressional district in2024 but lost toMark Harris.^[15][16]

Brown was born inPlymouth inWashington County, North Carolina, on June 3, 1960.^[17] He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Juris Doctor degree fromCampbell University'sNorman Adrian Wiggins School of Law.

Brown spent five years as a military attorney in theUnited States Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps.^[18] He earned a nonresident certificate in International Law from theNaval War College, and published a legal position paper in theNavy's Law Review on how to defend againsttemporary injunctions filed against the military.^[19] He remained on inactive status with the Navy until 1999, when he separated from the service as alieutenant commander.^[20] Brown also worked as a special assistant to theUnited States Attorney for the Southern District of California.^[20]

He is currently licensed to practice in North and South Carolina, and is the owner of Brown & Associates, PLLC, a law firm located inCharlotte, North Carolina,^[21] where he practices law in the areas of civil litigation, military law, criminal defense, family law, and estate planning.

In 2018, Brown joined the legal team as one of four military JAG officers representing Army First LieutenantClint Lorance, and in 2019 published the bookTravesty of Justice: The Shocking Prosecution of Lt. Clint Lorance. Lorance had been convicted for second-degree murder in 2013 by a militarycourt-martial, when American paratroopers in his platoon on his command fired on three men on a motorcycle in Afghanistan who were speeding towards their position. InTravesty of Justice, Brown laid out the defense contentions, including the claim that Army prosecutors withheldbiometrics evidence proving that the motorcycle riders were enemyTaliban bombmakers. In a series of national television appearances and Op-eds forFox News in the summer of 2019, Brown pressed Lorance's case further, urging PresidentDonald Trump to provide presidential relief for Lorance, and accused the military justice system of corruption for the prosecutions of Lorance, Navy SEALEddie Gallagher, and Army Green BeretMatt Golsteyn.^{[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]}

Brown is the author ofZondervan Publishing'sNavy Justice series with the fiction worksTreason (2005),Hostage (2005),Defiance (2006),Black Sea Affair (2008),^[31] andMalacca Conspiracy (2010), in which terrorists launch attacks against oil tankers in the Malacca Straights.^[32][33][34]

In hisPacific Rim series, Brown wrote his sixth novelThunder in the Morning Calm (2011) on the issue of whether American servicemen who were listed as MIAs may still be alive in North Korea since theKorean War. Brown stated in interviews that he wrote it to bring attention to the issue.^[35] His seventh novelFire of the Raging Dragon, a geopolitical action-thriller set in theSouth China Sea, was released through HarperCollins publishers in November 2012.^[36][37][38]

Brown wroteCall Sign Extortion 17: The Shoot-Down of SEAL Team Six (2015) on the August 2011 downing of a United States ArmyCH-47 Chinook helicopter in theWar in Afghanistan which killed the air crew along with seven Afghan military personnel and 17 members of Navy SEAL Team Six.^[39] Brown retells the wartime action, explains the life stories of the service members killed that day, and examines the official military explanation of the incident contained in the infamous Colt Report, arguing that series of events were gross incompetence or a massive cover-up.^[40]

In March 2017, Brown released his nonfiction workThe Last Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Final Combat Mission of World War II.^[41][42][43] The book features the true story of CaptainJerry Yellin, U.S. Army Air Force, who flew the final combat mission ofWorld War II over Japan on August 15, 1945,^[44][45] fromIwo Jima, and focuses on the last six months of the air war against Japan, flown by American fighter pilots who were stationed on Iwo Jima, who arrived on the island in March 1945, and remained there until the war's end.^[46][47]

In August 2017, Brown and Yellin appeared together to kick off the book's release at theRonald Reagan Presidential Library^[48][49][50] and theRichard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum inYorba Linda, California to discuss the book and Yellin's experiences in the war.^[51][52]Publishers Weekly announced that the book had been named to it nationalbestseller's list for hardcovernonfiction for the week ending August 7, 2017.^[53] The popular magazine and websiteTownhall named Last Fighter Pilot as one of "10 World War II Books Every American Should Read."^[54]

Navy Justice Series

• Treason (Zondervan Publishing, 2005)ISBN 0310259339
• Hostage (Zondervan Publishing, 2006)ISBN 0310259347
• Defiance (Zondervan Publishing, 2007)ISBN 0310272130
• Black Sea Affair (Zondervan Publishing, 2007)ISBN 0310272149
• Malacca Conspiracy (Zondervan Publishing 2010)ISBN 0310272157^[55]
• Destiny (Mountainview Books, LLC, 2014)ISBN 9781941291061

Pacific Rim Series

• Thunder in the Morning Calm (Zondervan Publishing, 2011)ISBN 0310330149
• Fire of the Raging Dragon (Zondervan Publishing, 2012)ISBN 9780310410447
• Storming the Black Ice (Harper Collins Publishing, 2014)ISBN 9780310410454

Navy JAG Series

• Detained (Harper Collins Publishing, 2015)ISBN 9780310338055
• Code 13 (Zondervan Publishing, 2016)ISBN 0310338077^[56]

Nonfiction

• Call Sign Extortion 17: The Shoot-Down of SEAL Team Six (Rowman & Littlefield Publishing, through Lyons Press - 2015)ISBN 1493007467
• The Last Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Final Combat Mission of World War II (Salem Media Group, through Regnery Publishing - 2017)ISBN 1621575063
• Travesty of Justice: The Shocking Prosecution of Lt. Clint Lorance (WildBlue Press - 2019)ISBN 1948239116
• Old Breed General: How Marine Corps General William H. Rupertus Broke the Back of the Japanese in World War II from Guadalcanal to Peleliu Hardcover]] withAmy Rupertus Peacock (Stackpole Books (Rowman & Littlefield) - 2022)ISBN 0811770346

• Temporary Injunctions Aimed at the Military: A Rapid Response Plan for Government Lawyers, by Lieutenant Donald M. Brown, Jr. JAGC, USNR, 40 Naval L. Rev. 157 (1992)

• Don Brown, "President Trump, please free Army Lt. Clint Lorance, unjustly convicted of murder in Afghanistan", Fox News, May 7, 2019^[57]
• Don Brown, "It's time for Trump to clean out corruption in the military justice system", Fox News, June 14, 2019^[58]
• Don Brown, "Prosecuting American warriors for killing the enemy undermines 'America first'", Fox News, July 1, 2019^[59]
• Don Brown, "Not guilty verdict for Navy SEAL Gallagher is welcome news – He shouldn't have been prosecuted", Fox News, July 3, 2019^[60]
• Don Brown, "Eddie Gallagher is cleared, but two other officers face bogus politically driven murder charges", Fox News, July 8, 2019^[61]
• Don Brown, "Policy banning military from carrying guns on US bases should end", Fox News, July 27, 2019^[62]
• Don Brown, "Trump's pardon of Army Lt. Clint Lorance on wrongful war crime conviction serves justice", Fox News, November 16, 2019^[63]
• Don Brown, "Deadly 'green on blue' attacks by Islamic allied nation troops against Americans must end", Fox News, February 15, 2020^[64]

• List of American novelists
• List of thriller writers
• List of United States Navy people
• List of military writers
• List of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni

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• United States Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps
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