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Philip Stockton May memoir, 1925-1965, Date acquired: 2018-07-02, bulk 1943-1948

 

Summary

Creator:
May, Philip Stockton
May, Philip Stockton
Extent:
1 folders
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[Title of Item], [Date of Item], [Box and Folder number], Philip Stockton May memoir, Special Collections & Archives, Florida State University Libraries, Tallahassee, Florida. http://purl.fcla.edu/fsu/WWII_18_0023.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection of Philip Stockton May contains a nine-page memoir. His memoir is about his experience from when he volunteered for the service in 1943 from Jacksonville, Florida to 1965 when he married a U.S. Navy widow.

Biographical / historical:

Philip Stockton May was born in 1925 and grew up in Avondale near Jacksonville, Florida. He graduated from Robert E. Lee Senior High School in 1943. He volunteered for the service in September 1943 and was sent Camp Blanding, FL, Ft. Benning, GA and Ft. Jackson, SC for basic training. In 1943, he was bussed to Camp Blanding and had hoped to join the Navy V-12 program but was not accepted. Instead, he was offered the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP). Then he was sent Ft. Benning for Infantry School and basic training. In 1944, the Army was phasing out the ASTP, so he chose the Infantry. May ended up with the 87th Infantry over in Europe. In August of 1944, he was sent to Ft. Mead and then shortly after that sent to the Hudson River piers and boarded the British steamship Mauritania II. His voyage took him to Liverpool, England. From there, the service men were trucked to a replacement camp near the town of Cheltenham for further training. From there they were sent to Dover and boarded a Landing Craft Infantry (LCI) to cross the English Channel to Omaha Beach. There was much debris from the earlier landing in June that still littered the beach. When they reached the headquarters of the 18th Infantry Regiment of the Division, they were assigned to other companies as replacements and sent to forward positions in the Hurtgen Forest. When he was over in Europe, the Germans sent a barrage of 88 shells and May was hit by shell fragment through his right thigh, he was taken to a nearby field hospital. He was in six or seven different hospitals and had about 35 surgical procedures done on his leg. Sometime in December he transferred to an American hospital in Paris, then in January was flown to a hospital near Oxford, England. He was then shipped on the Queen Elizabeth ship to the United States. He arrived in New York on April 12, 1945, the day Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) passed away, and then was sent by train to Finney General Hospital, outside of Thomasville, Georgia. While he was at Finney General Hospital, Helen Keller visited the hospital and chatted with May. In December 1945 he was sent to Oliver General Hospital in Augusta, Georgia. In December 1946 he was well enough to go home for Christmas. In Spring of 1947, he had one last major operation on his wounded leg. In January 1948 he was discharge from the hospital and the Army.  While he was at Finney General Hospital, Helen Keller visited the hospital and chatted with May. In Spring of 1947, he had his last major operation on his wounded leg. In January 1948, he was discharged from the hospital and the Army.

He attended Princeton College in the Fall of 1948 and graduated in 1952. After college, he worked with Macmillan Publishing company in their textbook division. In 1957, he started working for Johnson Lane Space & Co., an investment firm. In 1980, he switched careers one last time and worked for Mumford Library Books in Jacksonville, Florida. May later met his wife, Gloria Binzel Sullivan, who was a Navy pilot's widow with three children. The were married on May 1, 1965, and had one son together. The couple later retired to the Ortega Yacht Club condiminums and enjoyed traveling.

May's obituary can be found at https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/timesunion/obituary.aspx?n=phil-may&pid=191374378&fhid=12958.

Custodial history:

This collection was donated by Philip Stockton May. The collection was acquired by the Institute on World War II and the Human Experience on July 12, 2018.

Transferred from the Institute on World War II and the Human Experience to FSU Libraries Special Collections & Archives in July 2022.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

This collection is open to all researchers.

Terms of access:

All requests for permission to quote, publish, broadcast or otherwise reproduce from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Associate Dean for Special Collections & Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Florida State University Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Title of Item], [Date of Item], [Box and Folder number], Philip Stockton May memoir, Special Collections & Archives, Florida State University Libraries, Tallahassee, Florida. http://purl.fcla.edu/fsu/WWII_18_0023.

Location of this collection:
116 Honors Way
Tallahassee
FL
32306-2047
USA