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Personal info

Full name
PHILLIPS, Moorehead "Jay"
Date of birth
3 June 1920
Age
24
Place of birth
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
Hometown
Malvern, Chester County, Pennsylvania

Military service

Service number
O-753242
Rank
First Lieutenant
Function
Pilot
Unit
47th Squadron,
313th Troop Carrier Group
Awards
Purple Heart,
Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
24 March 1945
Place of death
Hamminkeln, Germany

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Margraten
Plot Row Grave
M 17 8

Immediate family

Members
Charles G. Phillips (father)
Edna M. Phillips (mother)
Charles G. Phillips (brother)
Leaugeay Phillips (sister)

Plane data

Serial number
44-77595
Data
Type: C-46D
Destination: Drop Zone X, north of Wesel, Germany
Mission: Paratroop Drop
MACR: 13421

Biography

Jay Phillips possessed an exceptional gift. He started painting at 9, and sold his first painting when he was 12. In 1938, Phillips left school at the Episcopal Academy to work for the artist William Tefft Schwartz, assisting Schwartz as he painted murals for the upcoming 1933 New York World’s Fair. The following year, at the Eighth Annual Oil and Sculpture Exhibition of the Chester County Art Association, visitors voted Phillips' portraits of Mr. and Mrs. G. A. Van Lennep as best in the exhibition. Soon, as a student at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Arts, Phillips was painting portraits for lawyers, doctors, and other professionals in Philadelphia.

More information

1st Lt Moorehead Phillips joined the National Guard in Wayne, Pennsylvania, on 13 January 1941.

The airplane was shot down by anti-aircraft fire on the approach to the drop zone and exploded when hitting the ground.

The entire crew of four men was killed. Of the 34 passengers, all members of C Company of the 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 17th Airborne Division, only 10 survived.

Source of information: Raf Dyckmans, Terry Hirsch, www.abmc.gov, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.archives.gov, www.mainlinemedianews.com, www.ancestry.com - U.S., Headstone and Interment Record / Veteran Compensation Application File

Photo source: www.findagrave.com - Des Philippet, Silvano Theunissen, Arie-Jan van Hees, Pilot Class Book 43-H, Marfa, Texas / Pilot Class Book 43-H, Pecos, Texas