Does this mean that phantom turret kills are actually grunt kills? Interesting. In Halo 3 on Crow's Nest, I Meleed a phantom turret and got the achievement for destroying a vehicle with a certain amount of enemies in it.
Nice find!
Think about the phantom like you would a spectre, except that the driver is piloting the gun in front. You destroy the gun, which serves as a vehicle, and since the side gunners are on the turrets (attached to the vehicle), it counts as a vehicle with three occupants. So, even though you didn't get a triple kill, the game sees it as you destroying a vehicle that has three occupants. Voila!
Of course, this has probably been thought of by tons of people in the three years or so that Halo 3's been out
As forthe grunt that CIA found, it's considered part of the same Object as the Phantom. So yea, it'll spawn and despawn with the phantom if it's not killed. Isn't this the first time that we know of that a grunt has gotten off of the side turret?