Phillip Bailey

BAILEY, BRUNTLETT, LA FAYETTE

Posted By: volunteer
Date: 4/3/2009 at 20:01:28

Phillip Bailey, son of Mrs. Mabel Bailey of Letts, and the late George Bailey, was born May 31, 1916, at Letts. He was graduated from the Letts High School in 1933 and completed three years of animal husbandry at Iowa State College at Ames. He was employed for 16 months as a milk tester in Scott County for the Iowa State College Agricultural Extension Service before enlisting as an aviation cadet in the army air corps in November 1941. He received his wings and commission as second lieutenant on July 1, 1942 at Mission, Texas, and was married on July 9 to Katherine Bruntlett, of Minneapolis, Minn. Later he received additional training at Shreveport, La., and Fort Wayne, Ind., and was made first lieutenant shortly before going overseas in November 1942. He was returning from his first mission which was the bombing of Gabes, Africa, when forced to bail out with his crew on Dec. 31, 1942. Lt. Bailey is survived by his wife of Hyattsville, Md., his mother, Mrs. Mabel Bailey of Letts; one sister, Mrs. John La Fayette of Davenport; four brothers, Earl, Raymond and Arthur of Letts, and Lt. Lyman Bailey of the U.S. Army Air Corps now stationed on the island of Corsica.

(Lt. Bailey was killed in action Jan. 14, 1942, in the Mediterranean Sea, between Tripoli and Tarants, Italy, as a result of the destruction of the Italian submarine upon which he was a prisoner.)