THE WALL OF FACES

If I should die, and leave you here awhile, be not like others, sore undone, who keep long vigils by the silent dust, and weep...for MY sake, turn again to life, and smile...Nerving thy heart, and trembling hand to do something to comfort mother hearts than thine...Complete these dear, unfinished tasks of mine...and I, perchance, may therein comfort you.

Rest in peace with the warriors.

You gave your life for your country and for this we Salute You.

Philip is buried at Oakwood Annex Cemetery in Austin,TX. It is across from the Univ of Texas baseball stadium.

When P.T. (no one knew him as Philip) reported aboard USS Intrepid he lived in the junior officers' bunk room (affectionately known as "Boys Town"). Already living in Boys Town were five or six Yankees from NY and PA who played poker and many variations thereof, such as "Dr Pepper" for which 10's, 2's and 4's were wild. You have the idea. Spying a catch for their web, the Yanks invited P.T. to play. When P.T. asked how to play, they so very kindly offered to teach him as they licked their chops in delightful anticipation of a certain fleecing of their Texas prey. P.T.'s short flat top hair cut and his Texas drawl were wrongly interpreted by the Yanks as signs of a lamb to the slaughter for they had no idea that PT was really smart, counted cards and understood probabilities. When the game was over P.T. had all their money and the Yanks accepted PT as one of the boys. The Boys Town group played cards day after day until all the permutations and combinations of poker became boring to them, so they invented a game. Someone chosen to start would get a dictionary, randomly open it, close his eyes and then place an index finger somewhere on one of the opened pages. If he could define the word he won the pot; if not, he passed the book to the next player. I don't know if any of the dictionary gang could ever define any of the words, but their vocabulary definitely increased. I remember that one of the words selected was "salubrious." It seemed as everything became "salubrious". The word became an exclamation as well as an adjective. "We are having steak for supper," someone might say; and the response was "salubrious". Or, it might be announced "Mail Call", and the response was "salubrious." You get the idea. Everything was "salubrious." When I had known P.T. for a while I began to call him "Papa Tango" after the Navy's phonetic alphabet, and, then shortened it to "Papa." The nickname stuck and and P.T. good naturedly reponded to it...so, I close by saying goodby Papa Tango. You didn't have to volunteer for patrol boat duty, but you did. You are a hero, Papa, a hero gone but not forgotten.