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These Tough Americans Fought In WWII, Korea, and Vietnam

Khalid Elhassan August 2, 2019 23 min

Basil L. Plumley - Sgt. Maj. Basil Plumley

2. Jim Phelps Enlisted During WWII at Age 15

Jim Phelps in WWII. Panama City News Herald

As 1944 drew to a close, Jim Phelps had a dilemma. Many of the young Oklahoman’s friends were going off to fight in WWII, and he wanted to go too, but at age 15, he was just too young. So he got some of his friends to forge a letter purporting to be from his parents, giving their approval for his joining the Army. In 1945, a recruiter accepted the letter at face value, and Phelps was off to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, for training.

After training, he was sent to the Philippines as a tank driver, but saw far less action than he’d hoped for. By the time he got there, the main Japanese resistance had been broken, and all that was left were mopping up operations. Phelps did not even get to experience that much mopping up, as Japan surrendered shortly after his arrival. He was then sent to Japan as part of the occupation force, and stayed there until 1947, when he was discharged. He would be back in uniform soon enough.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.