Philip Grass grew up in Alexandria [Annotator’s Note: Alexandria, Louisiana], but was born near Port Allen, Louisiana. His father was a railroad clerk. His memories of the Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s] are vivid. In the summertime, he would shine shoes at Camp Beauregard [Annotator’s Note: in Pineville, Louisiana]. He worked as a soda jerk and at JC Penny assembling toys. He had a paper route for a while before the war. He played football and played in the band. When the war in Europe started, Grass and some other boys played home guard. His father traveled for work. There were six children, four boys and two girls. His oldest sister was in the Army Nurse Corps. His oldest brother was in the Marine Corps, as well as another brother. Grass enlisted in the Army in 1942. He tried to enlist in the Marine Corps, but he failed the exam. His younger brother went into the Navy. Grass had to get permission to enlist in the Army. He was sent to Camp Livingston [Annotator’s Note: Livingston, Louisiana] after he enlisted. Then he was sent to Camp Roberts, California for basic training and remained were there for 13 weeks.

Philip Grass [Annotator’s Note: who enlisted in the Army in 1942] remembers they had to learn all they could [Annotator’s Note: referring to boot camp]. He wanted to be a paratrooper. The ones who wanted to go to jump school did extra physical training. They went to Fort Benning [Annotator’s Note: Fort Benning, Georgia] for airborne training. They got their qualifications after five jumps. Later, they had a significant jump field in Alabama. During jump school, Grass injured his right knee. This put him back a week and he had to finish with a different class. In December 1942, he went to Camp Connolly [Annotator’s Note: in Atlanta, Georgia]. He went to school there to be a mechanic. He had Saturdays and Sundays off. After that, he went to join the 507th [Annotator’s Note:] 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] in Nebraska. The 507th had been on maneuvers in Louisiana [Annotator’s Note: The Louisiana Maneuvers were a series of major U.S. Army exercises held in 1941 in northern and west-central Louisiana, an area bounded by the Sabine River to the west, the Calcasieu River to the east, and by the city of Shreveport to the north. The area included Fort Polk, Camp Claiborne, and Camp Livingston]. They were training C-47 pilots [Annotator’s Note: The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota]. Grass was qualified as a mechanic. He was assigned as a permanent KP [Annotator's Note: kitchen patrol or kitchen police]. He was an assistant machine gunner in Company D. His right knee had to be operated on. He went to a replacement unit at Fort Benning. Before going to Camp Stoneman in San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California] he had a 21-day review of basics.

Philip Grass sailed on a new vessel called the Sea Snipe. The ship was made in Seattle [Annotator’s Note: Seattle, Washington]. His unit was headed to Brisbane [Annotator’s Note: Brisbane, Australia]. They were sent to the 503rd Regiment [Annotator’s Note: 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division], which is the oldest parachute regiment. The regiment jumped into the Nadzab Valley [Annotator’s Note: Nadzab Valley, New Guinea] in 1943. Grass joined the regiment in December 1943. The 35 replacements were spread throughout the regiment. Before going to Australia, they did their regular training. They were stationed at Camp Cable, Australia for five or six weeks. They went to Cape Sudest [Annotator’s Note: Cape Sudest, Papua New Guinea]. Grass was in the second group of replacements. There were 35 of them. At Cape Sudest they did some training and physical work. Then they moved into the Dutch East Indies. They did some patrol work around Hollandia [Annotator’s Note: Hollandia, New Guinea]. Grass took his first combat jump in July 1944. The 158th Infantry [Annotator’s Note: 158th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division] had gone to shore already and had secured the air strip. They were patrolling the area for the enemy. It was a coral island. They had a Japanese infantryman who was hungry and worn out. They had captured some Indonesians and had them working on the frontlines. They got in trouble for keeping the people and having them do work. Grass got a Japanese friendship flag. He came up on a Japanese machine gunner who had the flag.

Philip Grass recalls that five companies did most of the work in New Guinea. They helped unload the ships. In August or September they were training. They got a new company commander. They were knocking out pillboxes [Annotator’s Note: A pillbox is a type of blockhouse, or concrete dug-in guard-post, normally equipped with loopholes through which defenders can fire weapons]. In November, they went to Leyte [Annotator’s Note: Leyte, Philippines]. They saw a lot air warfare and dog fights. They saw kamikazes [Annotator's Note: Japanese suicide bombers]. It rained a lot on Leyte. Grass had to study the recognition of enemy aircraft. They got on with the LCIs [Annotator’s Note: Landing Craft Infantry]. The 501st [Annotator’s Note: 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] was allowed to keep their foot lockers. When they were on Leyte the points system [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] came up and the older guys were rotated home. In Leyte Bay several of the men got seasick.

Philip Grass and his unit [Annotator’s Note: 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division] left Leyte and went through a strait. He and some other men were laying on the deck and some planes flew over. They had to clear the deck for an air attack. They saw a kamikaze [Annotator's Note: Japanese suicide bombers]. They had a monstrous convoy. LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] were towing PT boats [Annotator’s Note: A PT boat was a motor torpedo boat used by the United States Navy in World War II]. Their next job was to build air strips. When they landed in San Jose [Annotator’s Note: Mindoro, Philippines] they did not have any enemy action. Two days later, their planes were landing. There were Japanese destroyers and light cruisers bombarding them the day after Christmas [Annotator’s Note: December 1944]. Grass’s company was assigned to protect the Black Widow fighters, the night fighters. More merchant sailors died than there were Army men. The Japanese planes would come in at night. On Mindoro [Annotator’s Note: Mindoro, Philippines] they established their own mess halls. The winds caused some of the stakes to blow back and into the water. Grass went to a reunion in New Orleans [Annotator’s Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. The company commanders talked about where the go spot would be on the ground. Grass could hear the small arms fire.

Philip Grass remembers hearing the crack of small arms fire [Annotator’s Note: he is referring to his time in Mindoro, the Philippines]. There was a small golf course with a swimming pool. On the second pass, one of the engines got hit when they were making a jump. The 3rd Battalion jumped at eight and the 33rd Battalion jumped at 10. [Annotator’s Note: video goes black]. Grass remembers being on Corregidor [Annotator’s Note: Corregidor, the Philippines]. They had a bazooka [Annotator's Note: man-portable recoilless anti-tank rocket launcher weapon] and Grass had to practice firing it. He fired it where they told him to. They were moved to Fort Mills [Annotator’s Note: on Corregidor] which is a prominent building near a famous flag pole from a Spanish ship. All the buildings were stripped. With one explosion the debris flew all the way out to the ships in the bay. One of Grass’s friends was decapitated from the explosion. Many guys were hurt and knocked off. Grass and Michael were under fire. Michael told Grass this is how he liked it. They were there for 10 or 12 days before the 151st [Annotator’s Note: 151st Infantry Regiment, 38th Infantry Division]. They found the beer the Japanese had moved from Manila [Annotator’s Note: Manila, the Philippines]. Grass also remembers the flies were so bad that they had to knock them out. He remembers eating crab meat, and it was the best he ever had.

Philip Grass remembers that a Japanese captain was killed the first day they were there [Annotator’s Note: referring to Corregidor, Philippines]. Grass talked with MacArthur’s G2 [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] who was there to set up the MacArthur show. For the formation, each company had to furnish men. Those men were given new fatigues. The whole regiment captured 17 Japanese. They were told that there were not many Japanese on Corregidor, but they killed over four thousand. They would go look at a sunken Japanese ship. The highest ranking officer killed in their outfit was a major. They had ammunition stowed in the barracks. They had anti-aircraft people there at this time. One guy caused the ammunition to blow. Then they went back to Mindoro [Annotator’s Note: Mindoro, the Philippines]. One guy stole an ice cream-making machine from the Navy. They became very popular with the officers and they would stop by to get some ice cream. Grass was in the hospital for hepatitis [Annotator’s Note: inflammation of the liver]. They were on Negros [Annotator’s Note: Negros, the Philippines]. They were the only Army outfit on the island. Their platoon leader was a tank destroyer officer. They were given quarter-ton trucks. They became the reconnaissance platoon. They had good cement roads on Negros.

Philip Grass remembers the fighting was fierce on Negros [Annotator’s Note: Negros, Philippines]. The Japanese tried to produce the same amount of lumber as the company did. There was a railroad that went into the interior of the island. Grass was given a book by one of the lieutenants. The lieutenant wanted to go on patrol in a motor car. The lieutenant was shot in a clearing by a Japanese officer. They placed the prisoners in a big sawmill or factory. They put up barbed wire around the place. This is where they learned about the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. Someone had a Times magazine. Grass was a sergeant of the guard and he let a Japanese officer have the magazine. The surrender ceremony on Negros was the Japanese giving up their sabers [Annotator’s Note: a type of backsword with a curved blade, worn ceremonially by Japanese officers]. The company received 13 sabers. Grass got the last one. The guy that was doing Grass’s job while he was in the hospital was killed. Grass became very close with a guy from Canada. They had to pack grenades and put the fuses on them. They were setting up an ambush. There were Filipinos helping out the Japanese.

Philip Grass got a pistol from Negros [Annotator’s Note: Negros, Philippines]. They had a machine gun and two BARs [Annotator's Note: M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle; also known as the BAR]. Company E came upon some Japanese around a water hole on Numfor [Annotator’s Note: Numfor, Schouten Islands in northeastern Indonesia]. The colonel would fly around in light planes looking for the Japanese. They received an artillery company on Numfor. On Corregidor [Annotator’s Note: Corregidor, the Philippines] the Japanese brought three or four large caliber weapons because the big stuff on the island had been knocked out. The cruisers and destroyers had a good time during the bombardment of Corregidor. Grass hurt his knee during a jump in Nebraska. He only had one combat jump. They jumped very low. It was around 400 feet or less. Numfor was a glory jump. Too many people were getting hurt so Grass’s group did not jump. They were relieved on Negros by a Filipino unit. If the Japanese came out of the mountains they would take care of them. He thought the Filipinos liked them. The Filipino fishermen would put a fuse in bottles and throw it out when they were fishing.

Philip Grass remembers being near Port Moresby [Annotator’s Note: Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea]. Their encampment had a mule outfit from Panama. The mule artillery outfit had its own area. Everyone would play baseball in the afternoons. The new replacements would do the patrolling. After they heard about the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945], they went to the southern part of Negros [Annotator’s Note: Negros, the Philippines] and worked with POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] and policed the area. The war ended in August, but they were there until December. There were refrigerated ships in the harbor and they got fresh meat and potatoes. There was a small library and movies shown at night. Grass returned to the States [Annotator’s Note: United States] in December 1945. The regiment was zeroed out in a camp in California. He was discharged on 3 January 1946 then re-enlisted. He went on leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] for Christmas. He served until 1962. He went to OCS [Annotator's Note: officer candidate school] in June 1949. He went to armored school at Fort Knox [Annotator’s Note: Fort Knox, Kentucky]. He became the platoon leader for a reconnaissance platoon. He was shipped to Korea [Annotator’s Note: The Korean War was a war fought between North Korea and South Korea from 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953. The war began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea following clashes along the border and rebellions in South Korea] from June to August 1951. He received two Bronze Stars [Annotator's Note: the Bronze Star Medal is the fourth-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy] in World War 2 and one Bronze Star in Korea.

Philip Grass thinks the war helped him become a better citizen. At the time, he did not think he sacrificed anything. Initially, he looked for chances to goof off, but then he smartened up. The war brought about better education because of the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment]. Grass used the G.I. Bill in August 1962. At the time he thought that he was a good trooper and officer. He is disappointed in the way Korea [Annotator’s Note: The Korean War was a war fought between North Korea and South Korea from 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953. The war began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea following clashes along the border and rebellions in South Korea] turned out. They needed men, but no one was interested in having a strong military anymore. [Annotator’s Note: Video goes black]. He thinks it is important to know where you have been so you can improve the future. He was pleased to have been a paratrooper. In 1946, he was fortunate to have a good assistant. He was put in charge of other officers. He retired in 1962. He does not think he would be here if he remained on active duty. The Japanese soldiers were superior. Volunteers would get into an airplane and dive into a ship. In Japan, Grass was a platoon sergeant. He had a house boy and he was a good soldier. From that man, he learned why the Japanese did some of the things they did during the war. Grass had some weird dreams, but they have faded. For the first six to eight months he would have spells at night.