PHILLIS, STEPHEN RICHARD

Name: Stephen Richard Phillis
Rank/Branch: Captain/US Air Force
Unit:
Age: 30
Home City: Rock Island IL
Date of Loss: 15 February 1991
Country of Loss: Northwestern Kuwait
Loss Coordinates:
Status: Missing in Action
Status in 2002: Killed in Action/Body Recovered
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: A10

Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 09 March 1991 from one or more of
the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, published
sources, interviews. Updated by the POW NETWORK 2002.

REMARKS: OPERATION DESERT STORM

SYNOPSIS: The A10 "Warthog" is a close-air-support aircraft originally
designed as a tank killer. The missions assigned to the A10 require them to
fly low, making them vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire.

On 15 February 1991, an A10 "Warthog" flown by Air Force Capt. Stephen
Richard Phillis was shot down over northwestern Kuwait. Phillis was declared
Missing in Action. Details of the mission have not yet been made public.

Phillis' family last spoke with him in early February when he called home.
His parents, Richard and Diane Phillis, anxiously await news of his fate.
His brother, Michael, currently serves with the Seabees, a Navy construction
unit, in the Persian Gulf. Phillis is the oldest of five children and is
unmarried.

The Iraqis have stated that Allied prisoners of war would be used as "human
shields" to protect their important military sites from attack by Allied
forces. Amidst clearly inflated shoot-down reports issued by the Iraqis, and
reluctance by the Pentagon to release premature information, observers wait
for news of missing and captured military personnel, speculating on the
treatment they will receive as prisoners if they are captured.

Those who recall the torture and degradation American POWs were subjected to
by the North Vietnamese can only wait and pray.  Those who recall the
abandonment of American POWs in World War II, Korea and Vietnam are watching
carefully, determined that all our men and women will be returned alive, or
fully accounted for, before American troops leave the Middle East when
hostilities cease.

Stephen Phillis graduated from Rock Island Alleman High School and later
graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 1982.