My string of trips ended today as I came home from Philadelphia. On my way to Atlanta (it’s not even worth discussing why I had to go through Atlanta to get to Philadelphia) I had dinner sitting next to a young man coming home from Iraq on leave; he was on his way to Portland, Maine for two weeks. We talked for a while, and then it was time for him to head off to his gate.
On the flight from Philadelphia to Detroit, we were asked to wait in our seats while another young man, this one in full dress uniform, left the plane first and walked down the stairs to continue to escort his friend home.
“-- Army Spc. Joshua R. Campbell
The youngest of four brothers, 22-year-old Joshua Campbell grew up to enjoy working on cars and trucks, and fishing.
He had a favorite reservoir near Springfield, Ohio, where he once lived, and he and his stepfather, Mark Hamilton, liked to fish there. Then he followed in his three older brothers' footsteps in 2008 and joined the military. He became a heavy wheel vehicle driver in the Army, a job that let him work with trucks, as he liked to do.
"He loved to work on cars and trucks," his mother, Lori Pierce, told the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News. "If he saw something that needed to be fixed, he'd get in there and start working on it."
Campbell, of Bennett, Colo., and another soldier were killed in an attack on their unit in Helmand province. They had been assigned to Fort Bragg.
As a tribute, his brothers planned to take his ashes from Colorado to Dayton and North Carolina, and make stops at Campbell's favorite places along the way. Among the planned stops was Campbell's Ohio fishing hole, the C.J. Brown Reservoir at Buck State Park in Ohio.
"I love that they came up with this plan, because it's just such a beautiful tribute to their brother," his mother said.
Besides his mother, brothers and stepfather, Campbell's survivors include his father and stepmother, James "Reggie" and Tamara Campbell of Bennett.”
