Ships
- USS Oakland (CL-95) Captain from 17 July 1943 · Relieved on 8 August 1944
William Kearney Phillips commissioned the light cruiser Oakland (CL-95) on 17 July 1943 and had her until 8 August 1944. NavSource lists his final rank as admiral. He died in Sherman, Texas, in 1986.
Find a Grave, drawing on obituaries in the Sherman Democrat and the Denison Herald of 12 October 1986, says he was born in Tullahoma, Tennessee, on 11 March 1894, the son of Charles T. and Virginia May (Paschal) Phillips. The same account says he attended Massey School in Tulaski, Tennessee, before his appointment to the Naval Academy. Uboat.net gives the same birth date. Hall of Valor gives his home as Sherman, Texas.
Hall of Valor says he graduated from the Naval Academy with the class of 1918. The obituary paraphrase says he was commissioned an ensign in June 1917. The two are left as the sources state them. The obituary paraphrase says that on graduation he went to a cruiser on escort duty in the First World War, and that between the wars he commanded a submarine, taught at the Naval Academy, served as an intelligence officer in the Canal Zone, and commanded a cruiser. Uboat.net dates him a commander from 23 June 1938 and lists command of the destroyer Sampson (DD-394) from 29 June 1940 to 21 December 1940. It dates a temporary captaincy from 15 June 1942.
The obituary paraphrase says that early in the war he commanded a destroyer division in the North Atlantic, and then a cruiser in the Pacific. NavSource and uboat.net both date Oakland from 17 July 1943 to 8 August 1944. DANFS names him, as Captain William K. Phillips, only at the commissioning. Uboat.net dates a temporary rear admiral's rank from 23 September 1943, while he still had the ship. The citations for that command call him captain.
Hall of Valor prints a Silver Star for 18-26 November 1943, the occupation of the Gilberts, while he commanded Oakland in a task group that stayed within bombing range of enemy bases for eight days and was twice attacked by torpedo planes. A Gold Star in lieu of a second Silver Star covers 27 November to 10 December 1943, as commander of the sound screen and as commanding officer. It describes the night of 4-5 December, after the Kwajalein strikes, when his ship was stationed to break up aircraft trailing the task group. Japanese aircraft were nearby for seven hours, and aerial torpedo attacks went on for more than five. A Legion of Merit with Combat "V" covers 6 June to 8 August 1944: the Marianas landings, strikes on the Bonins, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the destruction of a Japanese convoy, and the bombardment of Chichi Jima harbor, as commanding officer and as commander of the screen. A Gold Star in lieu of a second Legion of Merit covers 12 August 1944 to 3 November 1945, after he left the ship, as aide and chief of staff to the commander of cruisers and then of destroyers of the Pacific Fleet. The citation speaks of the administration of about eight hundred combatant ships.
The obituary paraphrase says he was promoted to vice admiral in October 1953. It lists later duty as chief of staff to the Pacific Fleet's cruisers and destroyers, command of a cruiser division and of a destroyer fleet, command of the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, commandant of the Eighth Naval District (the paper prints "Eight"), assistant Chief of Naval Operations for the Naval Reserve, chief of staff to the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet, and command of the First Fleet. Hall of Valor's Navy Distinguished Service Medal is for February 1954 to 1 August 1955 as Commander First Fleet, and it styles him admiral, then vice admiral. The citation covers a deployment to the South China Sea in 1954 and, on 23 July 1954, the rescue of passengers from a civilian airliner shot down off Hainan, in which planes of his task force shot down two communist aircraft that tried to interfere. The obituary paraphrase says he retired on 1 August 1955. He had married Agnes Cherry in Sherman in 1920. She died in 1969. In 1971 he married Mrs. D. C. Enloe. He died in a hospital in Sherman on 8 October 1986, after a long illness, and was buried in the mausoleum at West Hill Cemetery there. Funeral services were at Saint Stephen's Episcopal Church.