Yesterday, I caught a news report stating he was born in 1955. I immediately doubted his bio of being a Vietnam War vet, as reported in the news. He would have been 18 in 1973, a time when the Marines had already been pulled out for two years and almost no combat troops from the Army or Navy were in country. I found this article this morning with a simple Google search.
https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2019/01/21/nathan-phillips-not-vietnam-war-veteran-richard-blumenthal-problem/
It appears that Mr. Phillips stops short of claiming to be a war vet, but has taken no action to correct the false portrayal by media.