My father is Harold Phillips, born January 21, 1925.
He is literally a walking, talking, breathing History Channel.
He was a young child during the Great Depression, was a teenager when Hitler decided Germany should take over the entire world, 17 when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and 18 when he enlisted in the US Army to get in the fight.
As a young boy growing up, my Dad did not talk much about his time during WWII. Occasionally he might make a reference if we were watching a movie like “The Great Escape or The Dirty Dozen” where he would say something like “That was me, I was there”. I think like most, I could not begin to comprehend or understand what he did, how he did it and the impact he had on history as we look back 75 years ago today.
He did save many of his original military documents and the internet has much information available, so I am able to piece together his time during WWII.
I know he arrived in France a few months after D Day/Normandy (records show September 23, 1944). I know based on the link here, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/102nd_Infantry_Division_(United_States), the 102nd Infantry Division, 405th Infantry Regiment played an integral part during WWII, European Theatre.
I knew per his military records, he was a Staff Sargent, responsible for upwards of 50 men, involved in combat missions/fighting (the link says 173 in combat). His records show he was awarded many medals, including (2) Bronze Stars with Valor.
It said his regiment witnessed the war crime in Gardelegen, Germany (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardelegen_massacre), unfortunately arriving too late before it was perpetrated.
I say of this to paint a backdrop of what it was like to grow up in the midst of a true hero, a warrior who as he would say “wanted to fight not hand out uniforms or meals in the mess tent.” My father was and always will be a quiet man, humble, who said “he was just doing what many men signed up to do and that was to stop the Nazis and Japanese”.
So needless to say, in our house, I was raised by a Patriot who along with thousands of other men, helped to write the history books at a time when it easily could have ended up much, much different than the final outcome.
Through my father’s wisdom, I now understand that war is hell, war is luck and war is a last resort…but it is needed at times to protect the good/weak from the evil/bad individuals.
I attached a few pictures, one taken when he first enlisted and one recently holding up a SEAL Team 2 Challenge Coin (which he carries in his pocket every day, WHY? Because he told me it was important, and he knows who gave it to him and he knows the SEALs and many individuals (like himself many years before) are the “rough men, who are needed to protect our Country today and into the foreseeable future.
God Bless America! God Bless those that serve/fight today and God Bless my Father and those few remaining WWII veterans (Greatest Generation Ever!).
Authored By: David Phillips, President of Victory Strategies
