To prevent the body and the aircraft from falling into Chinese or North Korean hands, the U.S. Navy bombed the aircraft with napalm two days later, with pilots reportedly reciting the Lord's Prayer over the radio as they watched Brown's body be consumed by flames. The pilots observed that Brown's body was still stuck in the aircraft, but his clothes were gone. The remains of both Brown and the aircraft were never recovered. Brown was the first African-American U.S. Navy officer killed in the war. Legacy For his actions in Korea leading up to his death, Brown was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Purple Heart Medal, and the Air Medal. For the failed rescue attempt, Hudner received the Medal of Honor, the highest valor award presented by the U.S. military. Brown's shipmates memorialized him in a shipwide newspaper as "a Christian soldier, a gentleman, a shipmate, and friend ... His courage and faith ... shone like a beacon for all to see." As word of his death spread, Brown inspired numerous other African Americans to become pilots, notably Seaman Apprentice Frank E. Petersen. Petersen would become the first African-American Marine Corps aviator and the first African-American Marine Corps general, graduating from the Naval Aviation Training Program in 1952 and retiring from the military after 38 years in 1988 with the rank of lieutenant general. On 17 February 1973, the Navy commissioned the , the third U.S. ship named in honor of an African American. Present at the commissioning ceremony in Boston, Massachusetts, were Daisy Brown Thorne (who had remarried), Pamela Brown, and Hudner, who gave a dedication. The ship was decommissioned on 27 July 1994 and renamed Damiyat after being commissioned with the Egyptian Navy. In July 2013, Hudner visited Pyongyang in an attempt to recover Brown's remains from the crash site. He was told by North Korean authorities to return in September when the weather would be more predictable. While Brown is often cited as the first African-American Naval Aviator, Lieutenant (junior grade) Oscar W. Holmes preceded him, earning the designation of Naval Aviator in 1943, because the Navy did not initially realize he was an African American. Biographies In 1998, Theodore Taylor wrote a biography titled Flight of Jesse Leroy Brown, interviewing Brown's acquaintances and with reference to his personal letters. In 2011 a traveling exhibit, "A Pilot Lights the Way" was featured in the 100th Anniversary