Hugh B. Brown is correct. Service people have special religious needs, but also their families and loved ones. They all need religious comforts, not just after they get back, but before and during. Having sent a son to the Middle East, I know whereof I speak. In that context, I have tried to build into my blog spiritual themes that would attract LDS soldiers and their families.

Thanks for this post, which serves as an appropriate reminder NOT to forget our beloved military people.

Elder Brown had a lovely sense of humor and was a powerful orator. He also had good sense in general.

I don’t know if the war in the Pacific was over by then–Dad doesn’t remember the date of the meeting, and google won’t tell me. But he says that those meetings with Elder Brown felt more like a homecoming than his actual arrival in Snowflake, Arizona, about a year later.

(Dad’s brother had served in the British mission when Elder Brown was the president, so that was another connection. I don’t think, though, that Dad or Elder Brown knew then that he and Dad’s grandmother (Hannah M. Brown) were second cousins.)

On a personal note, my mother served as a secretary under Claire Middlemiss when Bro. Brown served in the First Presidency. When she left, she was given a letter of thanks signed by the FP. It is one of her most treasured possessions, especially since it includes Hugh B. Brown’s signature. She loved that man.