Bill,

Normally, I would cut out part of your post just to save
bandwidth. But, it would be a dishonor to remove even one
word of what you've written.

Your father was a hero. Not so much in the sense of one or
two occurences during War. Because he did his job for
almost two years under horrible conditions. Because of his
dedication and patriotism, he saved many many lives, both
American and Jewish.

I wish I could have met him. It would have a proud moment
for me to have had the chance to shake his hand and say a
simple "Thank YOU".

Many of those that served in WWII as well as Vietnam won't
talk about their experiences. I know my Dad served in WWII
on PBY's. He was stationed at Adak when the Japs invaded
the Base. He hid out in the hills for over a week without
food or shelter along with many of his compadres. He didn't
talk about that; I've only heard about it now, years after
his death.

Bill, next time we meet I promise to raise a toast to your
Father.

John




On Sat, 20 Mar 2004 03:20:59 GMT,
(Badwater Bill) wrote:


There was a tragic incident in our family six days ago. My father who
was suffering from diabetes, palsy, lower back disk dehydration and
depression decided to end his life. He was scheduled for a hip
replacement operation on Monday. We all were planning a big party for
his 80th birthday which was yesterday, but instead received his ashes
from the crematorium instead. Here is a tiny, small, insignificant
glimpse of what this true hero was all about. And none of it is bull
****. This guy was for real. I could never live up to the standards
he was required to live by as a young man. Many of us could never
approach the true horror and misery that a guy like this lived
through. I heard the stories my whole life. At Dochau and Goettingen
he was assigned the duty of unloading the corpses from the boxcars to
examine the bodies. Many of them were still alive but starved into
unconsciousness. My father found many who were alive and saved them
from the crematoriums. They then examined bodies laying around the
courtyards who were unconscious and found many who were still alive
but almost skeletons covered by skin due to starvation.

In Goettengen most of the prisoners were Mongolians. He still never
told me why that was to the end of his days but the info was probably
still classified and he was still under wraps as CIC. He helped them
find food by opening a cheese factory there once the concentration
camp was liberated. Of course he was under investigation since the
town mayor and cheese factory owner were not in agreement with the
liberation of the food necessary to feed the starving and liberated
prisoners, so my dad shot and killed them, opened the wherehouse doors
and gave the food to people who would have died within days if that
had not been executed.

The Germans had just began using the ME-262. I have a black and white
photo he took of it somewhere during the war. They thought it was
powered by gravitation or something since it had no propellers. He saw
things that no one admits today like ME-109's pulling away from
P-51's. He said he saw it many times. There was some kind of super
propulsion unit they had on that thing that left the P-51's in the
dust-might have been some kind of early JATO bottle or something.
Anyone know? Was it a turbo of some sort?

There are many of you guys here that lived through this too. I take
my hats off to you. I'm proud that people like you protected this
great country so that people like me could live in freedom for all of
their lives.

I will put a picture of this great warrior who worked for this country
openly and under cover for most of his life on the binary file thing.
I will post it here when I do it.

You guys think Air America was something, you should have known this
guy...and he was my dad! This is the tip of the iceberg. I've got
stories I could write about until I die about this guy and what he did
to protect YOU and I from the bull **** that went on and is still
going on to undermine our great Nation!

I promised to never write the stories he told me while he was alive
because he was still under wraps. Now that he's gone, I may just open
Pandora's box. Yes, it's been 60 years, but I know the truth behind a
lot of it that this guy knew while working for the CIC.

I'll have to think about it a bit but I'll bet none of it could
compromise any security at this point. I'll just sit and think for a
while then I might tell some of it. I might even run it by "security"
before I do that. I'd love to write about what he told me about
Anzio, Innsbruck, Paris and the Nazi roundup after the war.

Here is his obituary. I cut a bit out of it about the family, but I
heard these stories for nearly 60 years about what really happened
over there.

Bill Phillips

_________________________________________________ _______________________

William Phillips Sr.


William L. Phillips, died March 13, 2004, in Boulder City, Nevada.

Bill loved his wife and family. He was a devoted husband, father,
grandfather, brother and uncle. A class act, he was a kind and
patient man with a special way with children. He loved the desert,
history, and he loved to read, write and recite poetry.

Bill retired in 1979 as an operations foreman at Hoover Dam.

Bill, a veteran of the US. Army, served in World War 11, from 1942
through 1945. He was one of the few survivors that saw continuous
unending battle, with nearly 500 days of active duty on the front
lines over a two-year period. His tour of duty took him from North
Africa to Sicily, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, then on to Belgium
and Holland.

Although he initially trained to be an Army artilleryman, as the war
progressed and the horrendous number of casualties mounted, he had to
assume many roles such as battle-line forward observer, supply-support
man for the engineering units, infantry rifleman, (nowadays called a
sniper) and other positions required by front line units.

He also served for nearly a year alongside the Huey P. Long's
Louisiana National Guard, which was inducted into the Army during
World War II.

His battle history began in North Africa then into Sicily. His unit
began in Europe with the battle of Cassino and on to the bloody battle
of the beachhead landing at Anzio, Italy. Then he proceeded with the
liberation of Rome, the engagements with the 6th-Corps in Southern
France, across the Rhine River, followed by pushing the Germans back
in a clearing action over the mountains into lnnsbruck, Austria, the
Brenner pass crossing to Garmish and on to Salzburg. His duty
proceeded back to Germany with the liberation of Dachau and Goettingen
concentration camps.

He was then assigned to the Central intelligence Corps (CIC) after the
European treaty was signed. He worked undercover in France, Belgium,
and Holland tracking down Nazi war criminals for the Nuremberg war
trials. He was then transferred to Paris before returning to the
United States to be granted an honorable discharge with the 141st
Field Artillery Battalion.
.