PFC Phillip Oliver Hammond

Pfc. Phillip Hammond was a Florida native who attended Fletcher High School where he played football before joining the Marine Corps in May 1948. He is one of 8,000 Americans listed as Missing in Action from the Korean War. In 2022, a street sign was placed in his honor in the 400 block of 3rd Street South in Jacksonville Beach, near his wartime home of record.

Hammond, who was born in Orlando, Florida, on Feb. 21, 1931, was stationed in Guam when the Korean War broke out in 1950. He served as a mortar man in a Marine Corps rifle company during the infamous Chosin Reservoir Campaign in North Korea. He was wounded in action on November 3, 1950, while assigned to Item Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, at Sudong, Korea, but recovered and was returned to his unit the same month. He was listed as missing in action on Dec. 6, 1950, and was officially declared dead in December 1953. In 1956, a finding of non-recoverability of remains was issued by the Board of Officers. He is memorialized in the cemetery with a marker located near the grave of his mother, Georgia Hammond.