Charles Brown, a gunner on the B-24 Liberator named "Earthquake" was shot down during a bombing run over over Sophia, Bulgaria on November 24, 1943. He and the other crew members were part of a sortie conducted by 60 B-24 Liberator aircraft in the vicinity of the city's Central Railway Station. Theirs was one of two allied bombers Bulgarian fighters brought down during the attack.

They were taken prisoner in Yugoslavia near the border between it and Bulgaria. Charles and his fellow captives were transferred by way of a five-hour march to a Sofia POW camp in Bulgaria. where he would spend the next 13 months. The Bulgarians executed two of his crew members while they were interned there. He was liberated in 1944,

Charles was called back to service on October 1950 and served in the Korean Conflict until 1955. He stayed in the U.S. Air Force until he was honorably discharged as an Intelligence Officer. Later he went on to work with the the Atlantic County Sheriff’s Office, from which he retired in 1980.

Charles resides in Hammonton, NJ with his wife Josephine, whom he married on June 10, 1945. They have one son, Gary Charles Brown.