BREWSTER PHILLIPS, II, LCDR, USN

Brewster Phillips, II '41

Date of birth: October 12, 1919

Date of death: December 15, 1946

Age: 27

Lucky Bag

From the 1941 Lucky Bag:

BREWSTER PHILLIPS, II

Memphis, Tennessee

Have you heard about the latest glorious feats of Major Bob Neyland's orange-shirted Volunteers? Drop in and ask Brewster if you've got a few hours you can spare. From Memphis on the Mississippi, way down there in Tennessee, comes this jolly Rebel, and a truer son of Dixie never breathed. He came to us already something of a military man, having spent some of his school days at Columbia Military Academy, and he has had little trouble with the various executive and academic phases of academy life.

There's a rumor that he missed a hop once—must have been a broken leg or something equally as serious, for where there is a hop there must be blondes, and where there are blondes, there is Brewster.

Between hops he manages to get in time for a few of his other hobbies, notably bridge, music, sports of the season, and no small amount of letter writing. His ambition—to have the organ pound out the Hungarian Rhapsody while he marches down the middle aisle.

Battalion Football 4, 3, 2; Outdoor Rifle 4; Boat Club 3, 2, 1; Battalion Baseball 3; Small Bore 4.

The Class of 1941 was the first of the wartime-accelerated classes, graduating in February 1941.

BREWSTER PHILLIPS, II

Memphis, Tennessee

Have you heard about the latest glorious feats of Major Bob Neyland's orange-shirted Volunteers? Drop in and ask Brewster if you've got a few hours you can spare. From Memphis on the Mississippi, way down there in Tennessee, comes this jolly Rebel, and a truer son of Dixie never breathed. He came to us already something of a military man, having spent some of his school days at Columbia Military Academy, and he has had little trouble with the various executive and academic phases of academy life.

There's a rumor that he missed a hop once—must have been a broken leg or something equally as serious, for where there is a hop there must be blondes, and where there are blondes, there is Brewster.

Between hops he manages to get in time for a few of his other hobbies, notably bridge, music, sports of the season, and no small amount of letter writing. His ambition—to have the organ pound out the Hungarian Rhapsody while he marches down the middle aisle.

Battalion Football 4, 3, 2; Outdoor Rifle 4; Boat Club 3, 2, 1; Battalion Baseball 3; Small Bore 4.

The Class of 1941 was the first of the wartime-accelerated classes, graduating in February 1941.

Loss

Brewster was lost when his F4U-4 Corsair crashed in the North Atlantic on December 15, 1946 while on a training flight from USS Randolph (CV 15). He was commanding officer of Fighting Squadron (VF) 82.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Attending Columbia Military Academy, Brewster received a post-graduate pin for highest average in May 1937. He stood fourth place in the U.S. Naval Academy competitive examination.

From The News Journal, Wilmington, Delaware, on August 6, 1945:

Thrilling Rescue at Sea Revealed

Chestertown Woman’s Husband Was Target for Jap Fire.
It was a lucky Japanese anti-aircraft burst that started Lieut. Brewster Phillips II, U. S. N., whose wife, Margaret, lives here, on his all-night surf-riding trip in a rescue flying board during which he was attired “in a pair of sun-glasses only.”
Lieutenant Phillips, executive officer of a Navy fighting squadron, was leading his flight of Hellcats on a mission in the Sakishima area, just south of Okinawa, when his plane was struck by enemy anti-aircraft fire, and it was necessary for Lieutenant Phillips to land in the water.
After two hours in his rubber life-raft a large flying boat picked him up. The sea was smooth, but there were large swells as the big ship settled to the water near the three airmen, and the shock of landing tore a gaping hole in the flying boat’s hull.
It was 150 miles back to land, and the entire trip had to be made by taxiing along the surface of the water. The rescue craft arrived at its base about five o’clock the next morning with its four rescued fliers including Lieutenant Phillips.

Per Asheville Citizen-Times, December 24, 1946:

Pilot of a Grumman “Hellcat” fighter plane, Comdr. Phillips was returning to the ship from a flight and as he was preparing to land on deck the vessel rose suddenly on a swell, crashing the plane, according to word received by Mr. Phillips. The message stated that the wreckage went overboard and sank, carrying Comdr. Phillips with it.
He is survived by his widow and two small children who reside at Chestertown, Maryland.
He served in World War II in the Western Pacific, making 82 flights in 82 days of the Okinawa campaign. His decorations included the Distinguished Flying Cross.

The inscription on his memorial marker, in North Carolina, reads "In Loving Memory of Brewster Phillips, II, Son of Edwin B. and Marie Grainger Phillips, Born Oct. 12, 1919, Lost at Sea in Line of Duty Dec. 15, 1946"

Distinguished Flying Cross

From Hall of Valor:

(Citation Needed) - SYNOPSIS: Lieutenant Commander Brewster Phillips, II (NSN: 0-100243), United States Navy, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight during World War II.
General Orders: American Battle Monuments Commission
Action Date: World War II
Service: Navy
Rank: Lieutenant Commander

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.