Isaac C. Phillips, better known as Curtis, served with Company D of the 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division in World War II. After the war he married and settled down in Belgium.
Curtis was born in Georgia on June 10, 1924. His mother died when he was very young, and he was raised by his father, along with four brothers and two sisters. He worked on the family farm until he entered the US Army on November 29, 1943. He was trained in infantry heavy weapons, including mortars, bazooka and heavy machine gun.
On May 2, 1944 he departed for England, arriving there on May 16. What little time he spent in England was occupied with more training, until, on June 3, 1944 he embarked with the 4th Infantry Division headed for France. He landed in the second wave on Utah beach, on D-Day June 6, 1944, as part of Company D, 1st Battalion 22nd Infantry Regiment. He fought as a machine gunner in the drive to capture Cherbourg, in Operation Cobra ( the break-out from Normandy ), the drive to Paris, and into Belgium.
Curtis was wounded three times, and on September 27, 1944, in the fighting along the Sigfried Line, he received serious wounds from artillery fire, which caused him to be evacuated from the front lines. He was in a coma in the hospital for 2 or 3 weeks, and when he awoke from the coma it was some time before he regained his speech. His wounds kept him in the rear echelon for the remainder of the war. In Binche, Belgium he met Arlette HAUTMONT, his future wife. After the war they lived in the US for one year, before moving permanently to Belgium, where they have lived ever since.
