Oral History Interview with Grover Phillips, October 23, 2007

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Grover C. Phillips. Phillips was born 7 December 1925 in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Upon enlisting in the Navy in February 1943 he went to San Diego for boot training. He attended radio school, gunnery school and flight training prior to being assigned to United States. Navy. Composite Squadron 10 (VC-10) aboard the USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73). He flew on fifteen missions off the ship in a TBM. During one bombing mission, the plane was damaged by flak and he comments on the masterful job the pilot did in landing the plane. While returning from another mission his plane ran out of fuel just before landing resulting in ditching into the sea. The crew was picked up by the USS Samuel B. Roberts (DE-413) and was transferred by back to their ship. He tells of the Gambier Bay being hit by shellfire from attacking Japanese forces. Phillips was wounded twice and observed the ship’s doctor being wounded. In the water, he observed his ship sink and heard the surviving crewmen give it a cheer. After forty-five hours in the water his group of survivors was picked up by an LCI. Phillips was transferred to the USS Comfort (AH-6) before being transported to the 27th Field Hospital in Hollandia, New Guinea. After a period of time he was sent back to the United States. Soon after the surrender of Japan, he received a dependency discharge from the Navy due to the health condition of his parents