Phil Batt - Career

Career

Batt enlisted in the service on his 17th birthday in 1944; with a brother-in-law killed at Guadalcanal (and a brother who later lost an arm at Okinawa), he aimed to be a fighter pilot to avenge the damage to his family.

Still not eighteen, he briefly attended the University of Idaho in Moscow in north Idaho, then entered the Army Air Forces in 1945 and was in basic training during V-J Day.

With the war over, fighter pilots were not needed so Batt served sixteen months at Lowry Field in Denver as a clerk, discharging veterans before being discharged himself. He then returned to the UI and studied chemical engineering, lived in the dorms, and led a dance band, playing clarinet and tenor saxophone.

A year later in January 1948, he eloped with Jacque Fallis of Spokane, a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. The newlyweds had to leave school a month later when Batt's 66 year-old father was involved in a serious automobile accident which left him with limited strength and speech. Though the young Batts initially hoped to return to college, economic circumstances changed their plans and they reluctantly did not.

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