[1] He served as a rifle platoon leader in the 17th Airborne Division's 513th Parachute Regiment while it took part in three European campaigns: the Ardennes, Rhineland and Central Europe.
Following a parachute drop over the Rhine River on March 28, 1945, Phillips was wounded, evacuated and remained hospitalized until the end of World War II.
Phillips ultimately was awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart and a Presidential Unit Citation.
Phillips served as the assistant director of the Institute of Government in Chapel Hill, North Carolina from 1948 until 1949, and then he worked in private law practice in Laurinburg from 1949 until 1955.
[1] Phillips was nominated by President Jimmy Carter on July 20, 1978, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit vacated by Judge James Braxton Craven Jr.