Legion commander went from airplane mechanic to selling ice cream

Joe Brown loved working on car engines as a Wilmington teen. Racing to see whose car was the fastest was the thing.

“I always liked engines, always had hot rods back then. Everyone did,” said Brown, now a Sussex County resident and commander of American Legion Post 28.

After graduating from John Dickinson High School in 1967, Brown signed up for the U.S. Air Force, hoping to become a pilot. Instead, he ended up working as an aircraft mechanic. 

“It’s not what I originally wanted to do, but it worked out well,” he said.

After finishing boot camp in Amarillo, Texas, he headed to Otis Air Force Base in Cape Cod, Mass., where he worked on Constellation planes that patrolled the New England shoreline.

In 1968, he was sent to Vietnam.

When asked about his time in Vietnam, he takes a long pause before saying his time there “was an experience of how other people live.” 

“You see a lot of young faces,” he adds, before trailing off.

Brown mostly worked at Cam Ranh Air Force Base and Nha Trang Air Force Base, but traveled a lot to help out at other bases. By the end of his tour, Brown had been promoted to a troubleshooter position to help fix engine problems that others couldn’t figure out.

When he returned stateside, he got married in 1970, and had two daughters. He finished his military career at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio before getting out for good in 1972.

Brown moved back to Wilmington and started a new career driving Mister Softee ice cream trucks.

“I did it for years,” he said. 

And he still does, but it’s called Mr. Frostie now. With his longtime partner, Carol Wilson, Brown and his ice cream truck traverse neighborhoods throughout Long Neck and Millsboro.

After vacationing in the area for decades, Brown said he made the move permanent five years ago, and now lives in Gumboro. “It was time to move,” he said. “I liked the area, and I liked the folks.”

He immediately got involved in the American Legion and has been post commander for three years.

In his spare time, Brown likes to tickle the ivories with his group, the Cadillac Jack Band. Together with Carol and Kathy Martin on vocals, they play at the American Legion and other venues a couple of times a month.

“We play everything from Sinatra to country to top 40,” he said.