Geoff, my friend who took the time to transcribe Phil's letters, wrote me last night to update the story with a few more details (provided by his grandmother), about Phil's life. Here is a portion of his message:
Phil was engaged at the time of his enlistment, to a girl referred to as Rusty. She left him shortly after he joined (though probably after the letter where he refers to his plans revolving around "my sweetheart") which is presumably why he later refers to his experience as a failure.
His father, Phil Wood Sr. was a veteran of the First World War, and was a fairly accomplished actor, appearing in a Marx Brothers film and a film version of Our Town. Sadly, he died in 1940, leaving 19 year old Phil as the man of the family. Phil Sr. died on March 4, which is where the refernence on the letter [to be posted soon] of that date comes in.
The other members of Phil's "Agony Quartette" were: 1st Lt. Theodore "Ted" K. Johnson (killed on Namur), Lt. Harry Reynolds (the "Harry" mentioned throughout), and Lt. Fred "Fireball" Stott. The latter two survived the war.
There are a couple of others, but they're mostly just family names and connections. The rest camp was probably somewhere in Hawaii, according to the Regimental history, which makes sense given the references to Pearl Harbor and leave in Honolulu.