by John Dowd
Military service can be a hard concept for many to understand who have not served. According to one man, whose life in many ways has revolved around service, this is because service is often a very nuanced and complicated thing. It often involves experiences and decisions that can change the course of one’s life.
For Meade Phillips of Hamilton, one of these decisions came when he decided to join the United States Marine Corps (USMC) Reserve during the Vietnam era.
Phillips loves the time he served, and says he was given the same training as active duty Marines. He even went through boot camp with them, as well as receiving the same rifle training, stating that “every Marine is a rifleman.” To him this is unique among the branches, as every Marine, no matter what their job, will go through the same rigorous rifle training and basic infantryman instruction. After training, he went to Twentynine Palms, also known as the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center today. The large Marine base is located in California. At that time, the massive 1,100-square-mile base was primarily used for artillery training.
After his artillery training, he was sent home. During his service with the reserves, he trained back at Twentynine Palms once a year, and trained one weekend every month, always on standby in case Uncle Sam needed him.
Phillips served in a 155mm self-propelled artillery unit. These were indirect-fire support weapons, similar to large Howitzers or emplaced cannons, but with the added ability to self-transport. Phillips explained that these mobile gun-emplacements were often confused with tanks in the way they look, but are very different in how they operate. The same caliber is used today, but the guns are now towed, instead of being self-propelled. According to Phillips, it was found that these types of artillery, when towed, were more efficient to maneuver and provided more options, able to be dropped in by aircraft or transported by vehicles.
The self-propelled weapons did not see significant use during the Vietnam conflict. Phillips believes this might have been influenced by their weight, saying that “they probably didn’t do too well in the rice paddies.” This likely led Phillips, to his chagrin, to not being called to serve in Southeast Asia. As Phillips stated, the USMC Reserve has historically been called to serve in every conflict since their inception except, notably, the Vietnam war. He remained in the Reserves until 1967, but eventually a different path would take his attention.
When asked why he went into the reserves instead of active duty, his answer was multifaceted. “I always had an interest in the Marines,” said Phillips. In fact, after college he tried. He wanted to be an active duty Marine, and attempted to get in through Officer Candidate School (OCS). However, he was notified that he had the intelligence but not the physicality they were looking for. Phillips believes they were looking for high school football stars and men 40 pounds heavier than he was. In fact, he was actually eligible to be a United States Army officer, but was bent on pursuing the Marines.
Eventually, a recruiter suggested the reserves, telling Phillips that it would be a good way to get his feet wet and try the Marines out, earning the same basic training, but without the commitment. At the time, that sounded like a good option because he was then going to graduate school for a degree in economics, finance and banking.
While in school, another calling took him by surprise. Phillips got a job at the Federal Reserve Bank, working out of the Denver Branch. He came in and was asked to take a programmer’s test, but explained he had no interest in computers. Computers were still room-sized devices that had nowhere near the storage they have today and Phillips never figured himself to be the programming type.
However, they told him everyone was required to take the exam. “Evidently, I did well,” said Phillips, because the next thing he knew, he was being asked to determine the feasibility of including computers in one of the most important parts of the Federal Reserve, involving the processing of checks. Before computers, checks were manually counted and organized by human check processors.
That work led Phillips to being on the cutting edge of programming and setting up these machines. Phillips explained they were always combating the idea of “float,” which was where money in transit stayed “in limbo” before it was sent where it needed to go. The turnaround could be as much as a week or more. Their hope was that bank systems at the time could use computers to lessen the float time and speed up turnaround at every level.
Today, the idea of such extreme float times seems hard to imagine, as entering checks into a bank means money and payments are instantaneous and at the press of a button. In fact, what Phillips did not realize at the time was that he was a part of the process that would change the fabric of how money moved in the United States. This remained a reality Phillips still did not realize until the option came back up to continue with the Marines, but this time on active duty.
For him, this go round was more assured, as through basic training he had bulked up by at least 40 pounds, and he was now more qualified, having gone through basic training already. The decision weighed on his mind and he eventually had a discussion with his employer, who pulled him aside to shed light on what he was involved in. The employer told him, in no uncertain terms, there were not many people that could do what he was doing and that his work was surely, “critical to the economic well being of the United States.”
Throughout the process of programming the complex new computer systems, he worked with other branches and main offices in his district of the Federal Reserve to change the face of finance, not only in America but across the world. They developed what Phillips called “reader-sorter” machines. These would take inserted checks and organize them all without much effort from the user. They could process over 1,000 checks a minute. Prior to that, check processors used proof machines and everything was done manually. The process was exponentially slower, and was prone to human error.
Phillips made the decision to stay with the Federal Reserve Bank to finish what he had started, and worked with computers and similar machines, eventually working with other institutions as a consultant. When asked why he decided to stay with the USMC Reserve and continue with the computers, Phillips said, “I felt like I made a contribution that carried well beyond.”
He has some remorse for not having gone active, especially after hearing many of the horror stories that came out of the war. That may have played a significant part in another contribution Phillips would make, joining the Marine Corps League. This organization is similar to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, but is Marine Corps specific.
“It was an opportunity to work with Marines and their families and to contribute something after the fact,” said Phillips.
The organization is smaller than other similar organizations, but has done a lot for Marines and their families. They participate heavily with Toys for Tots, and do numerous other fundraisers and events across the country. He would eventually become Vice Commandant, in charge of several states in the West, a high ranking position within the organization.
For him, it all came back to “service.” Phillips spoke highly of the Marine Corps, saying, “It does have a tendency to change your life and the way you look at things.” According to Phillips, “90% of people that go through boot camp say it was the best thing that ever happened to them.” He firmly believes it was a big part of his life.
Phillips talked about the challenge many veterans of all branches face. He spoke chiefly on the awkward moment where community members approach them to thank them for their service. He did not mean this in a negative way, explaining that it is more about how to answer with as meaningful a response as their statement of thanks. It seems so strange to him just to say “thank you” back.
He believes this moment is difficult because it involves a mixture of memories and desires. For most who serve, there is a high level of patriotism and dedication in their service that is hard to convey in words, especially to someone who may not be familiar with the military experience.
Phillips wanted to serve active duty, but life called him to serve in a different way. He has always been the kind of person that, “if this is something that’s needed, I accept the challenge.” However, he was always conflicted over his decision, and likely many he knew that did go on to serve in Vietnam never came home. Part of Phillips believes he should have been there to help. As Phillips says, “freedom isn’t free.”
For Phillips, and many other service men and women, “thank you” just does not cover all of what can be said about what they have experienced, sacrificed and striven to become. But he has settled on a response that sums it all up for him: “You are worth it.”