Hometown: Corpus Christi, TX
Branch: U.S. Coast Guard
Unit: USCGC Point Welcome
Military Honors: Bronze Star, Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: August 11, 1966 - KIA East Vietnam Sea
Age: 27
Conflict: Vietnam War, 1959-1975

Born in Hope, Arkansas on March 13, 1939, Jerry Phillips and his family moved to Corpus Christi, Texas, where he attended Sundeen High School.

Phillips joined the U.S. Coast Guard and served for more than 8 years. Assigned as an Engineman Second Class to the Coast Guard Cutter Point Welcome (WPB-82329), he was deployed to Vietnam’s USCG Coastal Division 12 based at Danang. Point-class cutters were designed for use as law enforcement and search and rescue patrol boats.

In the East Vietnam Sea, the Point Welcome was tasked with patrolling the waters off the demilitarized zone between North and South Vietnam—to prevent enemy Viet Cong smuggling and gunrunning activities. The vessel was part of the Navy’s “Operation Market Time” to stop the flow of troops and war materials from enemy North Vietnam to the South.

On August 11, 1966, the Point Welcome was on patrol in the pre-dawn hours, running without lights near the mouth of the Ben Hai River. North of their vessel, the U.S. Air Force had been on the hunt for North Vietnamese boats when a spotter saw the Point Welcome on the radar.

A Forward Air Control officer authorized a strike. A USAF B-57 bomber and two F-4 Phantom II fighter-bombers conducted strafing runs and multiple bomb drops against what they thought was a North Vietnamese junk ship.

With its communication equipment damaged by the first strike, the Point Welcome had no way to alert the attacking planes and call off the attack. With their ship badly damaged, the crew took evasive action and endured multiple air strikes as they headed south toward the beach near the mouth of the Cua Viet River, and abandoned ship.

According to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times (June 2, 1967): “The first strike set the boat afire, and Phillips, ‘without regard to his own personal safety’ rushed to the deck and began fighting the blaze. He ignored the aircraft diving at the cutter in the second strike and was struck and killed.”

In a tragic “friendly fire” incident, EN2 Jerry Phillips along with the Point Welcome’s commander Lieutenant JG David Brostrom (Los Altos, California) were killed. Five others were wounded.

A sister ship, the USCGC Point Comfort (WPB-82317) arrived on the scene, and was able to halt the attack and take aboard the surviving crewmen. A skeleton crew boarded the Point Welcome and was able to bring the vessel to Danang under her own power.

Phillips and Brostrom were two of seven U.S. Coast Guardsmen to lose their lives during the Vietnam War. Phillips left behind his wife Linda and their three sons Jerry, Gary, and Danny.

EN2 Jerry Phillips was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star for valor in a June 1, 1967 ceremony at Corpus Christi’s Coast Guard Air Station. Rear Admiral J.D. Craik pinned the medal on the jacket of Phillips’ 4-year-old son, Gary.

Phillips is honored at the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington D.C., where his name is inscribed on Panel 09E, Line 128.

Sources
Artist’s rendering: Craig Du Mez, from USCG photo
Gold Star Family Registry: EN2 Jerry Phillips
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, The Wall of Faces: Jerry Phillips
War History Online: Bombed & Strafed By Friendly Fire This USCG Chief Took Charge and Saved Lives
The Los Angeles Times, August 12, 1966: Coast Guard Cutter Strafed by U.S. Jets in Viet Error
Corpus Christi Caller-Times, August 12, 1966: Local Man Is Killed in Strafing Error
Corpus Christi Caller-Times, June 2, 1967: Coast Guard Hero’s Family Gets Posthumous Bronze Star
Corpus Christi Times, August 18, 1966: Deaths and Funerals, Jerry Phillips
United States Coast Guard: U.S. Coast Guard KIA Vietnam
Vietnam War Commemoration: This Week In History August 9
Burial Site: Find a Grave