December 11, 2023 • 27 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, our next story comes to us from Air Force fighter pilot and “Top Gun” graduate, Jim “Boots” Demarest. Demarest will tell the story from the book about his friend, Five Nickels: True Story of the Desert Storm Heroics and Sacrifice of Air Force Captain Steve Phillis.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories
to show where America is the star and the American people,
and send your stories to our American Stories dot com.
There's some of our favorites up next to story that
comes to us from an Air Force fighter pilot and
top gun graduate. Let's take a listen.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
My name is Brigadier General Jim Boots Demorest. I was
a classmate at the United States Air Force Academy of
God by the name of Captain Steve Phyllis. And I'm
going to tell the story about Steve and his life
and the heroic circumstances around his shootdown and untimely death
on the fifteenth of February nineteen ninety one during Operation
(00:54):
Desert Storm. Steve was a miss Western kid born and
raised in Rock Island, Illinois. He was the oldest of
five children and described by both his mom and his
dad as Dobson's strong willed child. Early on in his life,
his dad was in the Air Force. They had moved
(01:16):
to Wyoming, and Steve thought his parents so oppressive that
he decided to run away. So he packed all those
earthly belongings at age four and went out the front
door and his parents washed him walk all the.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Way to the parade field.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
He got underneath the bleachers and had packed a peanut
butter jelly sandwich and lasted about six hours under the
bleachers before coming back and realizing that perhaps his mother
and father's rules were not as ownerous as he originally thought.
But as the oldest of five, he was a leader
within the family. And you know, we hear that a
lot about the oldest children, but in Steve's case, one
(01:50):
of the examples that I think that kind of brings
this out is that in Rock Island, Illinois, the family
lived in a neighborhood full of children, and so there
were constantly sports games going on outside. They would play
street hockey and flag football and soccer, and as was
often the case, the kids that were better athletes tried
to put themselves all on the same team to compete
(02:13):
against the kids that were not as athletic, and Steve
was the kind of kid that would be almost always
selected as a captain. And unlike most of his peers,
Steve would pick all the kids that nobody else picked
to be on his team, but he would take a
few minutes before the start of a soccer game and
coach them all up, and nine times out of ten,
(02:35):
the less athletic kids, through Steve's leadership and coaching, would
come up on top of the neighborhood sports games.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
And it was kind of a testament to the kind
of guy he was.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
He was very much an informal and a formal leader
later in his life, but he he was an inspiring
kind of guy, very quiet as a child, but kind
of led by example and through action.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
He was a high school football player.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
He played in the marching band, but early on in
his adult life he determined that there was something more
for him out there, and he couldn't quite put his
finger on it. But as he approached his senior year
in high school, it became evident to him that a
future in the military would align with his organized, fastidious
personality and also with the fact that Steve felt a
(03:23):
calling to serve. He was an altar boy. He was
a captain of whatever sport he was on, and so
in late nineteen seventy seven he wrote a letter and
applied to go to the United States Air Force Academy
in Colorado Springs. And the letter that he wrote to
his congressman is a classic because unlike a lot of
(03:45):
others who wrote their congressman to talk about the free
education and that, Steve's letter to his congressman was very
focused on the fact that he felt that it was
his duty as an American citizen to serve in the military,
and that the Air Force Academy would provide him with
the greatest opportunity to serve. He also thought it might
(04:05):
be neat to be a pilot, which he mentioned in
his application, but it was much more about service and
his obligation to his country than for his own personal game.
So in the summer of nineteen seventy eight, Steve shows
up in Colorado Springs with fifteen hundred of his new
friends to attend the United States Air Force Academy, and
his parents made the trip that many parents do. They
(04:28):
loaded up the family station wagon with all of Steve's
worldly possessions the other four children, and they made the
long drive from Rock Island, Illinois to Colorado Springs. Were
on a sunny, bright morning in June of nineteen seventy eight,
Steve was dropped off and in short order taught to
march and marched off with a group of a dozen
(04:50):
or so of his new classmates. So when he graduated
from the Air Force Academy on June tewond of nineteen
eighty two, he was one of four one hundred and
fifty classmates off to undergraduate pilot training. And Steve went
off to pilot training with one goal in mind, and
that was to be fighter qualified and to fly the
(05:11):
A ten Warthog as an Air Force fighter pilot, and
his single minded, focused and determination drove him through the
fifty two week pilot training program. He excelled academically. He
was always extremely well prepared, He was a cool character
under pressure, and those things in the military aviation world
(05:31):
translated to success, and so on assignment night in late
nineteen eighty three, Steve was fortunate enough to get his
first choice, got assigned the A ten Warthog and was
on his way to Alex Louisiana to Suan Airbase in
the Republic of Korea. After being in Suan for a
(05:52):
while becoming upgrading to instructor pilot, it became clear to
Steve that he wanted to excel in the A ten
and that means that he wanted to compete to attend
the prestigious Air Forces Fighter Weapon School Now many may
know the Weapon School as Top Gun from the Navy movie,
but the Air Force Fighter Weapon School was more than
just a place to do great flying. Steve got over
(06:14):
two hundred hours of instruction and platform instruction to make
him not only a great fighter pilot, but a great instructor.
And he loved to teach and he loved to learn.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
About the A ten.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
And so while at Suan, he was selected for and
attended the prestigious Air Force Fighter Weapon School, where he
graduated as a distinguished Graduate, returning to Suwan Airbase to
complete his two year assignment in Korea.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
And you're listening to Brigadier General Jim Boots Demorrists tell
the story of Captain Steve Phillis, and you're learning about
a profile in character and a profile of some of
the men and women who serve this nation, and particularly
the ones that go to our academies. And that's at
West Point in Annapolis and in Colorado. That's the Air
(07:01):
Force Academy West Point, of course, the Army and the
Navy in Annapolis, Maryland. When we come back more of
the story of Captain Steve Phyllis. Here on our American stories.
(07:30):
Here are our American Stories. We bring you inspiring stories
of history, sports, business, faith, and love. Stories from a
great and beautiful country that need to be told. But
we can't do it without you. Our stories are free
to listen to, but they're not free to make. If
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go to our American Stories dot com and click the
(07:51):
donate button. Give a little, give a lot, help us
keep the great American stories coming. That's our American Stories
dot Com. And we continue with our American Stories and
(08:12):
bring it to your general. Jim Boots Demrist telling the
story of Captain Steve Phyllis. Let's pick up where we
last left off.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Then it was time for another assignment, and Steve was
lucky enough to get a third assignment to fly the
A ten, this time in a much different environment as
he was shipped from Korea to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
And Steve is cruising along like the rest of us
until summer of nineteen ninety when Saddam Hussein's Republican Guards
(08:44):
roll south from Iraq into a little country that at
that time none of us had heard of, called Kuwait,
and Myrtle Beach was part of a quick reaction force
at the time, such that as soon as armor came
south into Kuwait, Myrtle Beach was put on recall and
told to get ready to deploy. And Steve as the
(09:06):
weapons officer and tactical leader of the Panthers, who were
designated to be the first squadron out the door within
a few weeks of the invasion, uploaded on a C
five and sent to Saudi Arabia, to a little air
base in the middle of nowhere. So they land and
the door comes down on the transport airplane, and Steve
(09:28):
and the others on the airplane are greeted by one
hundred and twenty degree blast of heat from the desert,
the likes of which they had never felt before. And
they quickly prepared for the arrival of a squadron of
twenty four A tens, which when they landed had half
a load of fuel. The only weapons they had on
board were gun and they were the only things standing
(09:49):
between the Republican guards and Saudi Arabia. And I think
what people have to remember is, at the time that
Iraq invaded Kuwait had the fifth largest standing army on
the face of the earth. They had just come out
of ten years of combat operations.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
With Iran, so they were very experienced.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
They were equipped with some of the most modern and
sophisticated Soviet built aircraft and surface to air missiles that
the world had seen. And so while we know in
the end that Desert Storm was a stunning victory, that
was anything but assured in the summer of nineteen ninety
(10:30):
and so the build up during Desert Shield was all
about getting people ready. Now, in the prelude to the war,
Steve had been promoted out of being the weapons officer
and now was the commander of Seaflight, and a flight
commander is essentially the officer in charge of about twelve
other pilots in the squadron. And one of Steve's important
(10:52):
pre war taskings was to make what we call combat pairings.
And the idea here is that you would take your
most experienced pilot and pair him with the least experienced
pilot to average out the experience of the flight so
that as we went out there, it increased the survivability
of the squadron overall. And so as Steve as the
(11:14):
high time a ten pilot in his flight, decided to
select as his combat wingman a Lieutenant Rob Sweet.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
What we have seen is a redoubling of Saddam Hussein's
efforts to destroy completely Kuwait and its people. I have
therefore directed General Norman Schwartzkoff, in conjunction with Coalition forces,
to use all forces available, including ground forces, to eject
(11:47):
the Iraqi Army from Kuwait.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
So Desert Storm kicks off, and Rob and Steve are
going to fly twenty nine of their first thirty combat
missions together. And it is everything from benign attacks of
unmanned targets to being shot out by surfaced air missiles
and anti aircraft artillery. And they had an incredible experience
back and forth. But the story really that I want
(12:12):
to focus on surrounds their thirtieth combat mission. On February
fifteenth of nineteen ninety one, Steve and Rob were tasked
on what was by far their most dangerous mission of
the war. They were tasked to fly one hundred miles
north of the Kuwait Saudi border and attack Saddam's elite
(12:34):
Republican Guards, the same units that had spearheaded the initial
invasion and who were equipped with the raq's most modern equipment.
So they're tasked against the Republican Guards, but not just
any Republican Guards. They happened to get tasked against the
Medina Division, which later became famous for the Battle of
(12:55):
Medina Ridge. They proved themselves throughout the war to be
the most ferocia and dedicated fighters of any unit in
the Iraqi Republican Guards, and the mission was very straightforward,
to prepare the battle space for an upcoming invasion. They
woure to target artillery, armor and military equipment. What would
(13:16):
make this mission even more difficult was that the Republican
Guards had concentrated their forces, So this unit of about
ten thousand elite Republican Guard troops were amassed in a
circle about three miles wide and six miles across, and
the idea behind that was to spread the equipment out
enough to make it hard to target, but to provide
(13:38):
overlapping fields of fire for the over one hundred and
fifty pieces of mobile anti aircraft artillery and the twenty
four SA thirteen batteries. Now the SAY thirteen was the
most modern and sophisticated surface to air missile that the
Iraqis owned. It was Soviet built and designed, and unlike
(13:59):
others systems, it did not rely on radar. It would
track in the infrared and the electro optical spectrum, meaning
that the aircraft would get no electronic warning that it
was being shot. And it was a raid with overlapping
fields of fire throughout this Republican Guard unit. So Steve
and Rob launched for their afternoon mission at about two
(14:22):
pm local. They go up, they conduct a pre strike
refueling to top off on fuel, and they take their
fully loaded a tens one hundred miles north to try
and find military targets against the Republican Guards and targets
they find. Steve is getting ready to roll in and
do a strafing pass and Rob is in an orbit
at ten thousand feet And the way that they ran
(14:45):
the tactics here is that one guy would roll in
an attack and the other fighter in a supporting role
would orbit overhead to look out for anti aircraft artillery
and surfaced air missile launches. So Steve rolls in, comes
off target, and as he looks up, he notices that
a surface to air missile has been launched at Rob's
(15:07):
sweet and Steve keys the mic and calls enfield break
SAM launch, and about the same time Rob looks out
and sees the surface to air missile has been launched,
a thin trail of white smoke, and the missile is
stationary on his canopy, a sign that it is.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Tracking toward him.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Not moving left or right, is track and toward him,
So Steve calls out the break. Rob dispenses chaff and flares,
does a high G maneuver and successfully defeats the first
surface to air missile that Robin had experienced in his
Desert Storm missions. At this point, perhaps it was time
to leave, but the atens had decided early in the
(15:48):
war that if anybody on the ground shot at them,
they were going to immediately return lethal fire. They were
trying to discourage these SAM operators from shooting at coalition aircraft,
and there's no better way to dissuade someone from shooting
than to shoot back at them. So consistent with their tactics,
Steve rolls in, comes off a strafing pass, starts to
(16:11):
make a turn, and now it's Rob's turn to roll
in and deliver lethal fire against the surfaced air missile
launch site. At that moment, Steve sees that a second
surfaced air missile launch from a different location is guiding
on Rob's airplane calls for the break too late. Sweet
doesn't see it, and he's in his left hand turn
(16:33):
when he feels a little bit of a thump and
this airplane is now rolled wings level. It's not a
violent explosion, there's no big bang. And he looks down
and there's a bunch of lights on in the cockpit now,
and he looks out to his right wing and sees
a big hole where the right wing used to be.
Most of it is gone. There's some residual fire from
(16:53):
the fuel and hydraulic lines, and now all sorts of
lights start to come on in the cockpit indicating that
there's a your malfunctions going on in the airplane.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
And you're listening to Brigadier General Jim Boots Demris tell
the story of Captain Steve Phyllis and his raid from
a base in Saudi Arabia one hundred miles north coming
in contact with the Medina Division, the most ferocious division
of Sodom. Hussein's what happens next, Well, we'll continue with
(17:23):
this story. We'll continue with Jim Demeris story of Steve
Phyllis here on our American stories, and we continue with
(18:09):
our American stories and with Brigadier General Jim Boots Demors
telling the story of Captain Steve Phyllis in a raid
that cost him his life in nineteen ninety one. Let's
return to Brigadier General Demors with the rest of this story.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
The controls are not responding, and so he reaches down
and pulls the ejection handles and now is under parachute,
descending on top of the troops that he and Steve
just got done bombing. Sweet takes off his helmet checks
(18:48):
has got a good parachute. He can hear bullets whizzing
by his head as he's making this five minute parachute descent,
low on fuel alone, orbiting at ten thousand feet in
a slow moving airplane over ten thousand emboldened Iraqi troops.
After about a minute following Sweet's ejection, Steve has earned
(19:12):
the right to leave, yet the thought of leaving never
crosses his mind. So it gets back on the radio
after getting the search and rescue started and starts to
call other a tens in the local area and connects
with a flight called Pakmeyer three and four and begins
to talk to the flight lead and what I think
(19:32):
it's important to understand is that the A ten is
not equipped with a radar, and so in order for
A ten piles to find some then they have to
visually acquire it. There's no radar or other g whiz
equipment that helps them find each other. So Steve is
on the radio, orbiting in a left hand turn at
ten thousand feet. Everybody on the ground with a rifle,
(19:54):
with an anti aircraft artillery or with a SAM system
is now shooting at Steve, and Steve is trying to
talk this flight of A tens to come over his
position to help provide additional firepower and support because he's
not willing to concede the fact that Sweet's.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Going to get captured.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Three minutes after Sweet ejects, Steve is still orbiting over
the target, and unfortunately, the inbound atens are unable to
find Steve and locate Sweet's position, and so, in an
act that can only be considered selfless and heroic, Steve
reaches down and purposely dispenses high visibility pyrotechnic flares. His
(20:36):
intent there is to use those as a visual signal
to get the A tens eyes on. What in fact
it also does is that anybody on the ground that
had not yet seen Steve Now season three minutes and
forty five seconds after Sweet ejects an eternity in a
combat zone, orbiting over an entire division of Iraqi troops,
(21:02):
Steve's A ten is struck by an SA thirteen, and
he quickly identifies the fact that it's mortally wounded. What
does he do? The first thing he does is he
gets on the radio and tells the guys that are inbound, Hey, guys,
it's too hot here. You should not come then, and
(21:25):
only after making sure that his inbound friends are safe,
he turns the airplane south to try and put additional
distance between himself and Rob's ejection location. Knowing that search
and rescue forces are on their way to Rob, Steve
makes it about fifteen miles south, his airplane falling apart.
(21:49):
He keys the mic on his way out of the area,
and in a voice as cool and calm as I'm
telling the story today, using the code word for the
day for aircraft down, keys the mic and says Enfield
thirty seven is bagged as well. Just a few minutes later,
(22:12):
unbeknownst to his friends, his fellow fighter pilots his wingman,
his family. His A ten is struck by another surface
to air missile shot from a different Republican guard unit
that knocks the tail off of his A ten, and
the mortally wounded airplane cartwheels into the desert, killing Steve.
(22:33):
Phyllis on impact, rob sweet lands fifty meters from a
Russian built T seventy two tank and is swarmed by
dozens of Iraqi soldiers beating him with fists and rifle butts.
(22:56):
Had it not been for a couple of Iraqi officers
that came out and rug him out of there, he
may not have survived his first minute on the ground.
He has taken to an underground facility. He's transferred to Baghdad.
He is beaten and tortured and interrogated. But nineteen days
after he was shot down, the Coalition Air Force has
(23:22):
got word that Iraq was going to liberate all the
prisoners of war, and at the time, Steve was awarded
and earned the Silver Star and the Purple Heart for
his heroism. That day, Air Force Magazine wrote a great
(23:44):
article summarizing Steve's heroics and making the case and asking
the question, what does it take for a fighter pilot
to earn the Medal of Honor, because although we've been
in aerial combat for the last thirty years, no fire
pilot has earned the Medal of Honor since Vietnam. And look,
Steve is a hero because the Silver Star recognizes gallantry
(24:09):
and action, and the Medal of Honor standard is very high,
as it should be. But to be awarded the Medal
of Honor, a member has to display conspicuous gallantry at
the risk of life, above and beyond the call of duty,
so conspicuous as to clearly distinguish the individual from his comrades.
(24:31):
It must have involved risk of life, and it has
to be against a military enemy and a named operation.
And so when you look at those standards and the
heroism of the story that I just told, I think
that Steve Phyllis and his heroics check all those boxes.
And I'm not the only one. I've been able to
(24:52):
garner the support of not only our entire class, but
Steve's wing commander, now retur tired Major General Sandy Sharp,
who was a colonel at the time and indirectly involved
in Steve's combat Valor award, agrees that upon further review
of the evidence, that Steve's heroics are worthy of the
(25:13):
Medal of Honor. But the Medal of Honor upgrade process
is difficult and long, and there's a political component to it,
meaning that after we assemble all this evidence as to
what Steve did and all these sworn statements, a member
of Congress has to come forward and endorse the fact
(25:33):
that they support the upgrade of the Combat Valor Award.
And I am very pleased to announce that. While I
cannot mention the name of the United States senator quite yet,
a prominent senator has stepped up and said that they
intend to endorse the package and put Steve Phillis's award
forward to upgrade his Silver Star to the Medal of Honor.
(25:57):
And whether it gets upgraded or not is be on
my control. But what is in my control is to
share Steve's story of heroics in any way that I can.
And I think that sentiment is best expressed by the
dedication of the book five Nichols, because I made the
dedication to my children, to Gabby and Chad, so that
(26:19):
you will know a true hero when you see one,
and that is the story of Air Force Captain Steve Phillis.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
And a great job on the production by Greg Hangler,
and a special thanks to Brigadier General Jim Boots Demris
for telling and sharing in the story of heroism of
Captain Steve Phyllis and his work during the Gulf War
in nineteen ninety one. And history repeats itself again and
again and again and again. Men and women in this
(26:51):
great country step up and do things like Captain Steve
did on that day, for his buddy, for his brother
in arms. And by the way, if you love the
story and want to know more, Brigadier General Demerist has
written a book called Five Nichols, The True Story of
the Desert Storm, Heroics and sacrifice of Air Force Captain
Steve Phyllis. Go to your local bookstore and order it,
(27:14):
or go to Amazon and the usual suspects. The story
of Captain Steve Phillis here on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories
to show where America is the star and the American people,
and send your stories to our American Stories dot com.
There's some of our favorites up next to story that
comes to us from an Air Force fighter pilot and
top gun graduate. Let's take a listen.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
My name is Brigadier General Jim Boots Demorest. I was
a classmate at the United States Air Force Academy of
God by the name of Captain Steve Phyllis. And I'm
going to tell the story about Steve and his life
and the heroic circumstances around his shootdown and untimely death
on the fifteenth of February nineteen ninety one during Operation
(00:54):
Desert Storm. Steve was a miss Western kid born and
raised in Rock Island, Illinois. He was the oldest of
five children and described by both his mom and his
dad as Dobson's strong willed child. Early on in his life,
his dad was in the Air Force. They had moved
(01:16):
to Wyoming, and Steve thought his parents so oppressive that
he decided to run away. So he packed all those
earthly belongings at age four and went out the front
door and his parents washed him walk all the.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Way to the parade field.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
He got underneath the bleachers and had packed a peanut
butter jelly sandwich and lasted about six hours under the
bleachers before coming back and realizing that perhaps his mother
and father's rules were not as ownerous as he originally thought.
But as the oldest of five, he was a leader
within the family. And you know, we hear that a
lot about the oldest children, but in Steve's case, one
(01:50):
of the examples that I think that kind of brings
this out is that in Rock Island, Illinois, the family
lived in a neighborhood full of children, and so there
were constantly sports games going on outside. They would play
street hockey and flag football and soccer, and as was
often the case, the kids that were better athletes tried
to put themselves all on the same team to compete
(02:13):
against the kids that were not as athletic, and Steve
was the kind of kid that would be almost always
selected as a captain. And unlike most of his peers,
Steve would pick all the kids that nobody else picked
to be on his team, but he would take a
few minutes before the start of a soccer game and
coach them all up, and nine times out of ten,
(02:35):
the less athletic kids, through Steve's leadership and coaching, would
come up on top of the neighborhood sports games.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
And it was kind of a testament to the kind
of guy he was.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
He was very much an informal and a formal leader
later in his life, but he he was an inspiring
kind of guy, very quiet as a child, but kind
of led by example and through action.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
He was a high school football player.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
He played in the marching band, but early on in
his adult life he determined that there was something more
for him out there, and he couldn't quite put his
finger on it. But as he approached his senior year
in high school, it became evident to him that a
future in the military would align with his organized, fastidious
personality and also with the fact that Steve felt a
(03:23):
calling to serve. He was an altar boy. He was
a captain of whatever sport he was on, and so
in late nineteen seventy seven he wrote a letter and
applied to go to the United States Air Force Academy
in Colorado Springs. And the letter that he wrote to
his congressman is a classic because unlike a lot of
(03:45):
others who wrote their congressman to talk about the free
education and that, Steve's letter to his congressman was very
focused on the fact that he felt that it was
his duty as an American citizen to serve in the military,
and that the Air Force Academy would provide him with
the greatest opportunity to serve. He also thought it might
(04:05):
be neat to be a pilot, which he mentioned in
his application, but it was much more about service and
his obligation to his country than for his own personal game.
So in the summer of nineteen seventy eight, Steve shows
up in Colorado Springs with fifteen hundred of his new
friends to attend the United States Air Force Academy, and
his parents made the trip that many parents do. They
(04:28):
loaded up the family station wagon with all of Steve's
worldly possessions the other four children, and they made the
long drive from Rock Island, Illinois to Colorado Springs. Were
on a sunny, bright morning in June of nineteen seventy eight,
Steve was dropped off and in short order taught to
march and marched off with a group of a dozen
(04:50):
or so of his new classmates. So when he graduated
from the Air Force Academy on June tewond of nineteen
eighty two, he was one of four one hundred and
fifty classmates off to undergraduate pilot training. And Steve went
off to pilot training with one goal in mind, and
that was to be fighter qualified and to fly the
(05:11):
A ten Warthog as an Air Force fighter pilot, and
his single minded, focused and determination drove him through the
fifty two week pilot training program. He excelled academically. He
was always extremely well prepared, He was a cool character
under pressure, and those things in the military aviation world
(05:31):
translated to success, and so on assignment night in late
nineteen eighty three, Steve was fortunate enough to get his
first choice, got assigned the A ten Warthog and was
on his way to Alex Louisiana to Suan Airbase in
the Republic of Korea. After being in Suan for a
(05:52):
while becoming upgrading to instructor pilot, it became clear to
Steve that he wanted to excel in the A ten
and that means that he wanted to compete to attend
the prestigious Air Forces Fighter Weapon School Now many may
know the Weapon School as Top Gun from the Navy movie,
but the Air Force Fighter Weapon School was more than
just a place to do great flying. Steve got over
(06:14):
two hundred hours of instruction and platform instruction to make
him not only a great fighter pilot, but a great instructor.
And he loved to teach and he loved to learn.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
About the A ten.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
And so while at Suan, he was selected for and
attended the prestigious Air Force Fighter Weapon School, where he
graduated as a distinguished Graduate, returning to Suwan Airbase to
complete his two year assignment in Korea.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
And you're listening to Brigadier General Jim Boots Demorrists tell
the story of Captain Steve Phillis, and you're learning about
a profile in character and a profile of some of
the men and women who serve this nation, and particularly
the ones that go to our academies. And that's at
West Point in Annapolis and in Colorado. That's the Air
(07:01):
Force Academy West Point, of course, the Army and the
Navy in Annapolis, Maryland. When we come back more of
the story of Captain Steve Phyllis. Here on our American stories.
(07:30):
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(08:12):
bring it to your general. Jim Boots Demrist telling the
story of Captain Steve Phyllis. Let's pick up where we
last left off.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Then it was time for another assignment, and Steve was
lucky enough to get a third assignment to fly the
A ten, this time in a much different environment as
he was shipped from Korea to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
And Steve is cruising along like the rest of us
until summer of nineteen ninety when Saddam Hussein's Republican Guards
(08:44):
roll south from Iraq into a little country that at
that time none of us had heard of, called Kuwait,
and Myrtle Beach was part of a quick reaction force
at the time, such that as soon as armor came
south into Kuwait, Myrtle Beach was put on recall and
told to get ready to deploy. And Steve as the
(09:06):
weapons officer and tactical leader of the Panthers, who were
designated to be the first squadron out the door within
a few weeks of the invasion, uploaded on a C
five and sent to Saudi Arabia, to a little air
base in the middle of nowhere. So they land and
the door comes down on the transport airplane, and Steve
(09:28):
and the others on the airplane are greeted by one
hundred and twenty degree blast of heat from the desert,
the likes of which they had never felt before. And
they quickly prepared for the arrival of a squadron of
twenty four A tens, which when they landed had half
a load of fuel. The only weapons they had on
board were gun and they were the only things standing
(09:49):
between the Republican guards and Saudi Arabia. And I think
what people have to remember is, at the time that
Iraq invaded Kuwait had the fifth largest standing army on
the face of the earth. They had just come out
of ten years of combat operations.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
With Iran, so they were very experienced.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
They were equipped with some of the most modern and
sophisticated Soviet built aircraft and surface to air missiles that
the world had seen. And so while we know in
the end that Desert Storm was a stunning victory, that
was anything but assured in the summer of nineteen ninety
(10:30):
and so the build up during Desert Shield was all
about getting people ready. Now, in the prelude to the war,
Steve had been promoted out of being the weapons officer
and now was the commander of Seaflight, and a flight
commander is essentially the officer in charge of about twelve
other pilots in the squadron. And one of Steve's important
(10:52):
pre war taskings was to make what we call combat pairings.
And the idea here is that you would take your
most experienced pilot and pair him with the least experienced
pilot to average out the experience of the flight so
that as we went out there, it increased the survivability
of the squadron overall. And so as Steve as the
(11:14):
high time a ten pilot in his flight, decided to
select as his combat wingman a Lieutenant Rob Sweet.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
What we have seen is a redoubling of Saddam Hussein's
efforts to destroy completely Kuwait and its people. I have
therefore directed General Norman Schwartzkoff, in conjunction with Coalition forces,
to use all forces available, including ground forces, to eject
(11:47):
the Iraqi Army from Kuwait.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
So Desert Storm kicks off, and Rob and Steve are
going to fly twenty nine of their first thirty combat
missions together. And it is everything from benign attacks of
unmanned targets to being shot out by surfaced air missiles
and anti aircraft artillery. And they had an incredible experience
back and forth. But the story really that I want
(12:12):
to focus on surrounds their thirtieth combat mission. On February
fifteenth of nineteen ninety one, Steve and Rob were tasked
on what was by far their most dangerous mission of
the war. They were tasked to fly one hundred miles
north of the Kuwait Saudi border and attack Saddam's elite
(12:34):
Republican Guards, the same units that had spearheaded the initial
invasion and who were equipped with the raq's most modern equipment.
So they're tasked against the Republican Guards, but not just
any Republican Guards. They happened to get tasked against the
Medina Division, which later became famous for the Battle of
(12:55):
Medina Ridge. They proved themselves throughout the war to be
the most ferocia and dedicated fighters of any unit in
the Iraqi Republican Guards, and the mission was very straightforward,
to prepare the battle space for an upcoming invasion. They
woure to target artillery, armor and military equipment. What would
(13:16):
make this mission even more difficult was that the Republican
Guards had concentrated their forces, So this unit of about
ten thousand elite Republican Guard troops were amassed in a
circle about three miles wide and six miles across, and
the idea behind that was to spread the equipment out
enough to make it hard to target, but to provide
(13:38):
overlapping fields of fire for the over one hundred and
fifty pieces of mobile anti aircraft artillery and the twenty
four SA thirteen batteries. Now the SAY thirteen was the
most modern and sophisticated surface to air missile that the
Iraqis owned. It was Soviet built and designed, and unlike
(13:59):
others systems, it did not rely on radar. It would
track in the infrared and the electro optical spectrum, meaning
that the aircraft would get no electronic warning that it
was being shot. And it was a raid with overlapping
fields of fire throughout this Republican Guard unit. So Steve
and Rob launched for their afternoon mission at about two
(14:22):
pm local. They go up, they conduct a pre strike
refueling to top off on fuel, and they take their
fully loaded a tens one hundred miles north to try
and find military targets against the Republican Guards and targets
they find. Steve is getting ready to roll in and
do a strafing pass and Rob is in an orbit
at ten thousand feet And the way that they ran
(14:45):
the tactics here is that one guy would roll in
an attack and the other fighter in a supporting role
would orbit overhead to look out for anti aircraft artillery
and surfaced air missile launches. So Steve rolls in, comes
off target, and as he looks up, he notices that
a surface to air missile has been launched at Rob's
(15:07):
sweet and Steve keys the mic and calls enfield break
SAM launch, and about the same time Rob looks out
and sees the surface to air missile has been launched,
a thin trail of white smoke, and the missile is
stationary on his canopy, a sign that it is.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Tracking toward him.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Not moving left or right, is track and toward him,
So Steve calls out the break. Rob dispenses chaff and flares,
does a high G maneuver and successfully defeats the first
surface to air missile that Robin had experienced in his
Desert Storm missions. At this point, perhaps it was time
to leave, but the atens had decided early in the
(15:48):
war that if anybody on the ground shot at them,
they were going to immediately return lethal fire. They were
trying to discourage these SAM operators from shooting at coalition aircraft,
and there's no better way to dissuade someone from shooting
than to shoot back at them. So consistent with their tactics,
Steve rolls in, comes off a strafing pass, starts to
(16:11):
make a turn, and now it's Rob's turn to roll
in and deliver lethal fire against the surfaced air missile
launch site. At that moment, Steve sees that a second
surfaced air missile launch from a different location is guiding
on Rob's airplane calls for the break too late. Sweet
doesn't see it, and he's in his left hand turn
(16:33):
when he feels a little bit of a thump and
this airplane is now rolled wings level. It's not a
violent explosion, there's no big bang. And he looks down
and there's a bunch of lights on in the cockpit now,
and he looks out to his right wing and sees
a big hole where the right wing used to be.
Most of it is gone. There's some residual fire from
(16:53):
the fuel and hydraulic lines, and now all sorts of
lights start to come on in the cockpit indicating that
there's a your malfunctions going on in the airplane.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
And you're listening to Brigadier General Jim Boots Demris tell
the story of Captain Steve Phyllis and his raid from
a base in Saudi Arabia one hundred miles north coming
in contact with the Medina Division, the most ferocious division
of Sodom. Hussein's what happens next, Well, we'll continue with
(17:23):
this story. We'll continue with Jim Demeris story of Steve
Phyllis here on our American stories, and we continue with
(18:09):
our American stories and with Brigadier General Jim Boots Demors
telling the story of Captain Steve Phyllis in a raid
that cost him his life in nineteen ninety one. Let's
return to Brigadier General Demors with the rest of this story.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
The controls are not responding, and so he reaches down
and pulls the ejection handles and now is under parachute,
descending on top of the troops that he and Steve
just got done bombing. Sweet takes off his helmet checks
(18:48):
has got a good parachute. He can hear bullets whizzing
by his head as he's making this five minute parachute descent,
low on fuel alone, orbiting at ten thousand feet in
a slow moving airplane over ten thousand emboldened Iraqi troops.
After about a minute following Sweet's ejection, Steve has earned
(19:12):
the right to leave, yet the thought of leaving never
crosses his mind. So it gets back on the radio
after getting the search and rescue started and starts to
call other a tens in the local area and connects
with a flight called Pakmeyer three and four and begins
to talk to the flight lead and what I think
(19:32):
it's important to understand is that the A ten is
not equipped with a radar, and so in order for
A ten piles to find some then they have to
visually acquire it. There's no radar or other g whiz
equipment that helps them find each other. So Steve is
on the radio, orbiting in a left hand turn at
ten thousand feet. Everybody on the ground with a rifle,
(19:54):
with an anti aircraft artillery or with a SAM system
is now shooting at Steve, and Steve is trying to
talk this flight of A tens to come over his
position to help provide additional firepower and support because he's
not willing to concede the fact that Sweet's.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Going to get captured.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Three minutes after Sweet ejects, Steve is still orbiting over
the target, and unfortunately, the inbound atens are unable to
find Steve and locate Sweet's position, and so, in an
act that can only be considered selfless and heroic, Steve
reaches down and purposely dispenses high visibility pyrotechnic flares. His
(20:36):
intent there is to use those as a visual signal
to get the A tens eyes on. What in fact
it also does is that anybody on the ground that
had not yet seen Steve Now season three minutes and
forty five seconds after Sweet ejects an eternity in a
combat zone, orbiting over an entire division of Iraqi troops,
(21:02):
Steve's A ten is struck by an SA thirteen, and
he quickly identifies the fact that it's mortally wounded. What
does he do? The first thing he does is he
gets on the radio and tells the guys that are inbound, Hey, guys,
it's too hot here. You should not come then, and
(21:25):
only after making sure that his inbound friends are safe,
he turns the airplane south to try and put additional
distance between himself and Rob's ejection location. Knowing that search
and rescue forces are on their way to Rob, Steve
makes it about fifteen miles south, his airplane falling apart.
(21:49):
He keys the mic on his way out of the area,
and in a voice as cool and calm as I'm
telling the story today, using the code word for the
day for aircraft down, keys the mic and says Enfield
thirty seven is bagged as well. Just a few minutes later,
(22:12):
unbeknownst to his friends, his fellow fighter pilots his wingman,
his family. His A ten is struck by another surface
to air missile shot from a different Republican guard unit
that knocks the tail off of his A ten, and
the mortally wounded airplane cartwheels into the desert, killing Steve.
(22:33):
Phyllis on impact, rob sweet lands fifty meters from a
Russian built T seventy two tank and is swarmed by
dozens of Iraqi soldiers beating him with fists and rifle butts.
(22:56):
Had it not been for a couple of Iraqi officers
that came out and rug him out of there, he
may not have survived his first minute on the ground.
He has taken to an underground facility. He's transferred to Baghdad.
He is beaten and tortured and interrogated. But nineteen days
after he was shot down, the Coalition Air Force has
(23:22):
got word that Iraq was going to liberate all the
prisoners of war, and at the time, Steve was awarded
and earned the Silver Star and the Purple Heart for
his heroism. That day, Air Force Magazine wrote a great
(23:44):
article summarizing Steve's heroics and making the case and asking
the question, what does it take for a fighter pilot
to earn the Medal of Honor, because although we've been
in aerial combat for the last thirty years, no fire
pilot has earned the Medal of Honor since Vietnam. And look,
Steve is a hero because the Silver Star recognizes gallantry
(24:09):
and action, and the Medal of Honor standard is very high,
as it should be. But to be awarded the Medal
of Honor, a member has to display conspicuous gallantry at
the risk of life, above and beyond the call of duty,
so conspicuous as to clearly distinguish the individual from his comrades.
(24:31):
It must have involved risk of life, and it has
to be against a military enemy and a named operation.
And so when you look at those standards and the
heroism of the story that I just told, I think
that Steve Phyllis and his heroics check all those boxes.
And I'm not the only one. I've been able to
(24:52):
garner the support of not only our entire class, but
Steve's wing commander, now retur tired Major General Sandy Sharp,
who was a colonel at the time and indirectly involved
in Steve's combat Valor award, agrees that upon further review
of the evidence, that Steve's heroics are worthy of the
(25:13):
Medal of Honor. But the Medal of Honor upgrade process
is difficult and long, and there's a political component to it,
meaning that after we assemble all this evidence as to
what Steve did and all these sworn statements, a member
of Congress has to come forward and endorse the fact
(25:33):
that they support the upgrade of the Combat Valor Award.
And I am very pleased to announce that. While I
cannot mention the name of the United States senator quite yet,
a prominent senator has stepped up and said that they
intend to endorse the package and put Steve Phillis's award
forward to upgrade his Silver Star to the Medal of Honor.
(25:57):
And whether it gets upgraded or not is be on
my control. But what is in my control is to
share Steve's story of heroics in any way that I can.
And I think that sentiment is best expressed by the
dedication of the book five Nichols, because I made the
dedication to my children, to Gabby and Chad, so that
(26:19):
you will know a true hero when you see one,
and that is the story of Air Force Captain Steve Phillis.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
And a great job on the production by Greg Hangler,
and a special thanks to Brigadier General Jim Boots Demris
for telling and sharing in the story of heroism of
Captain Steve Phyllis and his work during the Gulf War
in nineteen ninety one. And history repeats itself again and
again and again and again. Men and women in this
(26:51):
great country step up and do things like Captain Steve
did on that day, for his buddy, for his brother
in arms. And by the way, if you love the
story and want to know more, Brigadier General Demerist has
written a book called Five Nichols, The True Story of
the Desert Storm, Heroics and sacrifice of Air Force Captain
Steve Phyllis. Go to your local bookstore and order it,
(27:14):
or go to Amazon and the usual suspects. The story
of Captain Steve Phillis here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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