www.thedailyworld.com -- Former East County resident Jamie (Krausse) Campbell, 25, of Fort Wainwright, Alaska, was among 12 people killed over the weekend in Iraq when the Black Hawk helicopter she was piloting crashed, family members said this morning.
Campbell, who loved animals and flying, is believed to be the first soldier with Harbor ties killed in the Iraq war.
Campbell and three others from the Alaska Army National Guard died when their helicopter crashed near the town of Tal Afar in Iraq. They were on a two-ship night operation transporting soldiers and civilians from Mosul to a location near Tal Afar.
No names have been officially released by the Department of Defense. The next of kin have been notified and procedures call for a 24-hour waiting period before the names are released publicly.
Campbell grew up in East County, where she attended grade school, and moved to Ephrata when she was in junior high. Her parents, Miki and Jeff Krausse, live in Ephrata. Many relatives, including grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, live on Grays Harbor. Grandmother Leona Krausse lives in Elma and grandmother Patti Hill lives in McCleary.
Campbell joined the ROTC to help pay for college, but liked the idea of flying so much she made it her career, her aunt, Elsie Chiles of Elma, said this morning. She graduated from Washington State University with a degree in sales.
She was a pilot in the Army National Guard and a member of the Arctic Eagles in Alaska. She moved to Alaska last year with her husband of three years, Sam Campbell. He is a captain in the Army and was also in Iraq when she died. He will accompany her body home sometime this week, according to Chiles.
She was the kind of kid every parent dreams of a straight As in high school, said her aunt. She worked for (former Brady veterinarian) Doc Mustard for a number of years as his vet tech when she was young. She was Washington State Rodeo queen. She was one of the most caring people you would ever come across. She was always smiling, and whatever she set her mind to, she did. She was just very goal oriented and whatever she decided she was going to do she went and she did it. She was just very sweet, very kind. She loved animals. She loved her family. I just don't even think anybody could ever say a bad word about her because she was just that kind of person.”
The four Alaskans were with the Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 207th Aviation Regiment. They are the Alaska Army Guard’s first combat deaths since World War II, according to the Anchorage Daily News.
It's unknown why the Black Hawk went down. Brig. Gen. Craig Christensen said the weather was “not optimal” at the time, but he could not provide additional details, the newspaper reported.
Chiles said the family has been told lightning may have hit the helicopter, forcing it to crash. “They’re almost 100 percent sure it was hit by lightening,” she said.
Chiles said her niece proudly served her country and was part of a military family. Her father, Jeff, had just returned from Iraq and several other relatives have served there as well.
“We’re not doing good,” Chiles said this morning. “We’re not big Bush fans anyway. We support our troops — 100 percent, but we’re not doing very well. We always thought we’d have to worry about my brother or Sam. We just didn’t think we’d have to worry about Jamie. She was so smart.”
The 1st Battalion, 207th Aviation Regiment deployed overseas during the last week of August and the first week of September in 2005. They are presently based in Mosul and at a forward operating base in western Iraq named Q-West, according to the Alaska Army National Guard’s Web site. The unit’s 56 soldiers consisted of 52 men and four women. They deployed as two flight platoons of 22 each, and a maintenance detachment of 12 soldiers.
The remains of the Alaska crew members will be flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and then returned to the families in about a week, Christensen said.
A second helicopter was involved in the operation Saturday. The helicopters were providing support for the 101st Airborne Division. It was the deadliest helicopter crash in Iraq since about a year ago, when a CH-53 Sea Stallion went down in bad weather in western Iraq, killing 31 U.S. service members.
“She was just one of those kids that every parent dreams of,” Chiles said. “She just had so much goodness and love in her heart. She had so much more to give.”
Link: http://www.timeofremembrance.org/campbell.html