FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Author Sid Phillips will be at Page & Palette, 32 S. Section St. in Fairhope, June 19, from 2-4 p.m., to sign copies “You’ll Be Sor-Ree!,” the intimate, first-hand account of his service as a 17-year-old Marine in the WWII island battles against the Japanese.

Of the quickly diminishing Greatest Generation, the story and legend of WWII, Phillips is growing by the day. Hollywood has celebrated his fantastic life story in more ways than one.

Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg made “Sid” the central character of their gritty $200 million HBO mini-series, “The Pacific.”

Phillips also became a household name as a star of Ken Burns’ PBS documentary, “The War.”

Now, with legions of fans asking, “Will you ever write your war memoirs?” he rewards them with this book.

In “You’ll Be Sor-ree!” Phillips speaks in his humble, candid voice as he reveals memories of the Pacific, from enduring a siege by battleships on Guadalcanal, to battling monsoons on Cape Gloucester, to the romance and rebellion of R&R in wartime Australia.

Though a lowly Marine PFC, Phillips’ military career is considered among the most remarkable of WWII.

In this true story, the author describes serving in the same heavy weapons company as machine gunner Robert Leckie, who later wrote the epic, “Helmet for My Pillow.”

Phillips relates encounters with his boyhood friend, Eugene B. Sledge, who followed Phillips into the Marines and later wrote “With the Old Breed,” one of the top 10 war books ever.

He even describes his run-ins with famous figures of his time, like Eleanor Roosevelt, Marine legend Chesty Puller and General A.A. Vandergrift.

This is the story of how humor and good old American nonsense helped Phillips and his comrades cope with the brutality they experienced and how they discovered in one another, the faith needed to survive World War II in the Pacific.

Phillips was born Sept. 2, 1924, and enlisted in the USMC the day after Pearl Harbor because the Marines promised to put him “eyeball to eyeball” with the Japanese.

Passing beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, he departed his land a nervous 17-year-old. Two years later, when he kissed the docks in San Diego, he had come home a hero.

Together, Phillips and his brothers in the legendary 1st Marine Division won the first epic victory of the war, saved Australia, and stopped the Japanese juggernaut in the Pacific.

Today, he enjoys his golden years surrounded by his family.

Phillips and his sister, Katharine, have become internationally-known after their notable roles in Ken Burns’ documentary, “The War,” and the Hanks-Steven Spielberg-Gary Goetzman miniseries, “The Pacific.”