George Wesley Phillips was born on March 26, 1921. George lived in Merion Station, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. His parents, William and Violet (Durnell) had three children in total. George was their middle child.

He graduated from high school and entered Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. He was in the Delta Phi fraternity.

He entered the US Air Corps in January 1942 as an Aviation Cadet and graduated from Primary Flight School in September 1942. He enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces and served during World War II. Phillips had the rank of First Lieutenant. His military occupation or specialty was Pilot. Service number assignment was O-796024. Attached to 355th Fighter Group,357th Fighter Squadron.

On D-Day he departed on a combat strafing mission in a P-51B Mustang. His plane sustained damage after being hit with "Flak". Flak is a contraction of German Flugabwehrkanone (also referred to as Fliegerabwehrkanone) meaning "aircraft-defense cannon", the original purpose of the weapon. In English, "flak" became a generic term for ground anti-aircraft fire He was observed bailing out but his parachute failed to open. His body was retrieved by civilians and buried in a small church in Etreville, France. He died on June 6, 1944.

George Wesley Phillips is buried or memorialized at West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

This young man was earned a Purple Heart and The Air Medal for his bravery.

Sources: HonorStates.org

Find a Grave.com

Ancestry.com

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see++ www.storiesbehindthestars.org++). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

If you notice anything I missed in this profile, you can contact me at ElizJShaw@yahoo.com

George W Phillips