Timothy Wynn Phillips
Ronald Guttu and, me, Timothy W. Phillips AKA "Bear" served from February of 1967 thru November of 1967 together in Vietnam. All I ever called him was Merritt, never knew his real name was Robert Ivan, but that did not matter. We spent lots of time together and looked out for each other. I would even say that we loved each other closer than natural brothers do, that is because we had to keep each other alive. I don't if anyone from Bob's family will read this, but if you do, could you contact me at [email protected] or call my phone 803-571-9194. Ron and I would like to maybe some day meet Bob's children. I am supposed to share some memories with you about Bob. I don't know if he ever talked about the Army Lines with any of you. We spent some time near Binh Sonh, Vietnam guarding Army 175 MM Howitzers. While we were there Bob and I boxed each other. He beat me. We also played the Army in football. Bob played fullback, Guttu was the quarterback, and I played center. We won. RCBANA was a mountain top we were on that had an old French Hotel on it. We spent around two months up there guarding a radio relay team from Marine Recon. Other than our Lieutenant mistakenly firing a mortar round at us one night, we had it pretty easy up there. If you want to know more about Vietnam memories of Bob, get into contact with me and I will help you contact Ron.
Timothy W. Phillips
1stSgt, USMC, Retired