June 16, 1945 — Phil and his best friend Ross are reunited and Phil learns how Ross survived as a POW
June 16, 2025
Walt and Barb’s Family Update — July 2025
July 1, 2025June 17, 1945 — Phil’s first visit back home with his parents in Memphis was a media firestorm
After Phil’s reunion with his best friend, Ross Calvert, Phil took the train from Nashville to Memphis for his first visit home since the fall of 1943, when he dropped by to see his parents before boarding a Liberty ship bound for French Morocco. His reunion with his parents was a media sensation.[1]
Reporter Dick Lane with the Memphis Commercial Appeal wrote this:
Fighting outfits breed fighting commanders. And the 3rd Division’s famed Company L, 30th Infantry, is no exception.
It’s the old outfit of Capt. Maurice L. Britt[2] of Lonoke, Ark.—the nation’s most decorated man—and also that of Philip B. Larimore, beribboned 20-year-old Memphis hero who’d like nothing better than to be back with it.
Captain Larimore, who served under Britt before taking command of Company L himself, is now home from Lawson General Hospital in Atlanta visiting his parents…while recuperating from battle wounds.
“Sure, I’d like to stay in the Army. I like it—its bull and all,” Captain Larimore mused yesterday. And you knew he meant it, too. You knew it by his surprise at being asked his service point total.[3] He modestly admitted that he had never bothered to add them, but a casual count showed more than 100 points, which increased over the weekend by the addition of a second Silver Star for gallantry in action. Along with his first Silver Star for laying mines within 100 yards of German positions during daylight on Anzio, Captain Larimore wears the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster,[4] the Purple Heart with two Oak Leaf Clusters, a Presidential Unit Citation with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, and the European Theater ribbon with four campaign stars and one arrowhead.
What is the future now that his combat days are over?
“If the Army doesn’t let me stay in—and I certainly hope they will—I’d like to get around to taking that engineering course at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology that I’ve always wanted. Maybe the Army can use another engineer—even with a wooden leg,” he added reflectively.[5]
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[1] Larimore, At First Light, 279.
[2] Britt was wounded, losing an arm on Anzio on January 22–23, 1944, and was evacuated before Phil arrived on Anzio in February 1944. Therefore, Phil never served with Britt, but he later became the Company Commander of Love Company, which was Britt’s company.
[3] The “service point total” or “adjusted service rating score” was used by the U.S. Army at the end of World War II. The score was determined as follows: months in service, one point each; months in service overseas, one point each. In addition, combat awards (Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star Medal, Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart, etc.) or campaign participation stars were worth five points each
[4] The Oak Leaf Cluster represents one additional award. In this case, it represents a second Bronze Star.
[5] Larimore, Ibid, 279-280.
Learn more about my book about my father’s heroics and exploits at Amazon’s First Light page here. You can also read more of my WWII blogs here as well!
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