Writing

The following night in shivering rain, Phil accompanied his men in his A&P platoon on his first mission to the front lines in World War II: […]

Ross Calvert, Phil’s good friend from Officer Candidate School two years before, walked him into the building, where Phil’s men rose to attention. “At ease!” Ross […]

In the middle of February, the weather turned rainy, and the wind was sharp and ice-cold. Phil and the other men were a miserable bunch, and […]

Phil was one of 182 men (17 officers and 165 enlisted men, including men returning from the hospital) who received slips indicating they would be replacements […]

On February 19, 1944, Phil received his orders to report to the 30th Infantry Regiment on the Anzio Beachhead. Late that afternoon, he hopped aboard a truck […]

Phil returned the next day and began instruction with the master and one of his apprentices, Antonio, who was bilingual. “He wants you to mount one […]

After arriving on the docks at Naples, the ever-present Army 6×6 trucks were waiting to take Phil and the other second lieutenants to the Replacement Depot, […]

On February 16, 1944, the Germans had completely surrounded the Allies that were pinned down on the Anzio Beachhead — which the men quickly named ‘The […]

In Oran, Phil was among 200 infantry lieutenants who boarded the Highland Queen, a small British steamer bound for Naples, Italy. He was part of a […]

Orders were issued for 1,000 men, including Phil, to board narrow-gauge railroad cars for a three-day train ride across Morocco and Algeria to Oran, a major […]

Phil had written his mother about letting “a cute girl that I met near camp teach me French.” He also learned from her about a Moroccan […]

While Phil and the thousands of replacements in camp with him waited in French Morocco for their assignments, the war waged in Europe without them. Phil […]