Major Fales was killed in action by enemy ground fire in the Tay Ninh Province of Vietnam on 16 November 1969 while flying the new OV-10 Bronco, as a Forward Air Controller.  Phil had volunteered in 1968 to go to Viet Nam following a two year assignment on Guam as a typhoon chaser in C-130s.

Phil was born in Neuilly Sur Seine France while his father, an Army Major, went to the French tank school.  In fact, his given names derived from the family’s close ties to a French Army Colonel.  Phil was schooled at Fessenden in West Newton, Mass., South Kent in Conn., and Sullivan’s in Washington D.C. prior to the Naval Academy.  Following graduation, Phil entered the Air Force and flew B-47s in Kansas and was assigned to Minuteman Missile silo duty in Montana where he earned a Master’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology.

Phil met Judy, a University of Arizona student, during flight training at Marana AB, AZ.  They were married in 1957 and had two children: Ellen and Eugene.  Following Phil’s death, Judy married a blue-chip West Pointer, Allan Renshaw, a friend and flight school classmate of Phil’s.  Phil had a profound love of life and the world about him.  He was the embodiment of “joie de vivre.”  Blessed with enormous talent, he was just plain good at everything.  Glad you came our way Phil!