Sidney Clarke Phillips, Jr. (September 2, 1924 – September 26, 2015) was a

United States Marine The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

, family practice

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

, and author from

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 cens ...

. He provided source material and interviews for the making of

Ken Burns Kenneth Lauren Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American filmmaker known for his documentary film, documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle United States, American History of the United States, history and Culture of the ...

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

documentary film '' The War'' and the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

miniseries '' The Pacific''. His recollections revolve around his time as a young man fighting in the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

.The War (PBS)
/ref>

Biography

Early life

Phillips was born in Mobile, Alabama, the second child after his sister Katharine (1923-2019). A younger brother, John, followed. Their father, Sidney (1893-1950), was a

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

veteran of the Battle of Argonne Forest who became a teacher, then the principal of

Murphy High School Murphy High School may refer to: * Murphy High School (Alabama), United States * Murphy High School (North Carolina) Murphy High School (MHS) is a public high school in Murphy, North Carolina, it serves grades 9–12 and is one of only three ...

, where Phillips graduated in 1941. He was childhood friends with

Eugene Sledge Eugene Bondurant Sledge (November 4, 1923 – March 3, 2001) was a United States Marine Corps, United States Marine, university professor, and author. His 1981 memoir With the Old Breed, ''With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa'' chroni ...

Military service

After graduating from

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, Phillips enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps at age 17, on December 8, 1941; the day after the

Attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

. He was inducted later that month after obtaining parental permission. He served with How Company, 2nd Battalion,

1st Marine Regiment The 1st Marine Regiment is an infantry regiment of the United States Marine Corps based at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. The regiment is under the command of the 1st Marine Division and the I Marine Expeditionary Force. The 1st ...

1st Marine Division The 1st Marine Division (1st MARDIV) is a Marine division of the United States Marine Corps headquartered at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. It is the ground combat element of the I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF). It is the ...

and saw combat as an 81mm mortarman in a number of battles including the

Battle of the Tenaru The Battle of the Tenaru, sometimes called the Battle of the Ilu River or the Battle of Alligator Creek, was a land battle between the Imperial Japanese Army and Allied ground forces that took place on 21 August 1942, on the island of Guadal ...

during the

Guadalcanal Campaign The Guadalcanal campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by American forces, was a military campaign fought between 7 August 1942 and 9 February 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in th ...

and the

Battle of Cape Gloucester The Battle of Cape Gloucester was fought in the Pacific theater of World War II between Japanese and Allied forces on the island of New Britain, Territory of New Guinea, between 26 December 1943 and 16 January 1944. Codenamed Operation Backhande ...

. He reported that his mortar crew observed effective fire control discipline; one example was a firefight on Cape Gloucester where they were able to provide light high explosive rounds through the jungle canopy only 15 yards in front of their own lines.

Post-war

After his overseas duty he enrolled in

V12 V12 or V-12 may refer to: Aircraft * Mil V-12, a Soviet heavy lift helicopter * Pilatus OV-12, a planned American military utility aircraft * Rockwell XFV-12, an American experimental aircraft project * Škoda-Kauba V12, a Czechoslovak experim ...

, a program designed to educate young men so they could become

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

officers. However, his four-year US Marine Corps enlistment expired on December 31, 1945, freeing him to return to Mobile. He had decided while at Cape Gloucester to become a physician, so he enrolled in

Spring Hill College Spring Hill College is a private, Jesuit college in Mobile, Alabama. It was founded in 1830 by Michael Portier, Bishop of Mobile. Along with being the oldest college or university in the state of Alabama, it was the first Catholic college in the ...

, then went to medical school to become a family physician. He enlisted in the USMC Reserves while at Spring Hill, then was finally discharged in April 1948.Phillips, pages 170, 185–195 Phillips reported that Eugene Sledge's widow and sons introduced him to

' writing team, then later the HBO writers, so that he was able to provide needed information about the lives of Marines in combat for the making of ''The Pacific''. In April 1946, he married Mary Houston and his best man was Eugene Sledge. He and Mary had three children together and they remained married until her death in 2000.

Death

Phillips died on September 26, 2015. He is buried at Pine Crest Cemetery in Mobile.

In media

Phillips wrote the

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...

''You'll be Sor-ree'', an accounting of his experiences in the Marines. As a surviving veteran of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

battles including the Guadalcanal Campaign and the Battle of Cape Gloucester, he provided valuable documentary interviews describing his recollections of the Pacific Theater of Operations. His character was played by actor

Ashton Holmes Ashton Holmes (born February 17, 1978) is an American actor, best known for the role of Jack Stall in ''A History of Violence'', Private Sidney Phillips in the HBO miniseries '' The Pacific'', Thom on the CW action-thriller series ''Nikita'', a ...

in the HBO miniseries ''The Pacific''.Mobile man in HBO WWII miniseries (Fox10tv.com)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Sidney 1924 births 2015 deaths American memoirists United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II American primary care physicians Military personnel from Mobile, Alabama United States Marines Writers from Mobile, Alabama Spring Hill College alumni Family physicians