An Unusual Story BUT TRUE by Chuck Sweeney

Recently I flew to the Midwest to conduct two Oral History interviews for the Distinguished Flying Cross Society (DFCS). The fact that a retired Tailhooker flew to Kansas City and then drove to an Army base (Fort Leavenworth) to interview two Air Force pilots is a little unusual but that is not the point of the story.

About two years ago I convinced Major Kim “Killer Chick” Campbell USAF to join the DFC Society as our first female pilot member who was awarded a DFC in combat. Since then I have been trying to figure how to conduct a interview with her for our Oral History Program but wasn’t successful because of schedules, workload etc. I finally was able to turn that around after I learned that she was attending the Army’s Command and General Staff College. Kim was awarded her DFC for a harrowing mission flying the A-10 Warthog in Iraq on April 7, 2003 and there was a lot of press when the event happened.

I also wanted to interview another A-10 pilot who was awarded three DFCs in Afghanistan during Operation Anaconda in March 2002. I thought my being awarded three DFCs in one week was a little unusual but being awarded three in four days is simply amazing. The second pilot is Major Scott “Soup” Campbell. Yes he does have the same last name as Kim because they are husband and wife. Kim and Scott met at the Air Force Academy, they were married while Kim was going through flight training, both flew the A-10 and now have a beautiful baby boy named Colin Reed Campbell. I was mesmerized while listening to both Kim and Scott described the events that led to their DFCs and feel extremely lucky to have met them.

Well, the unusual part of the story is having a husband and wife each being awarded DFCs for heroism in combat while flying the same aircraft type but I am asking the help of Tailhookers to determine if this is truly unique. We feel pretty confident that they are the only married couple flying US Air Force fighters that have each been awarded a DFC. In order to make this a truly unique story we need to find out if any other married couple in any of the services have both been awarded a DFC for combat.

This has also opened up a couple of other interesting questions concerning families with multiple DFC recipients. I know there are several father/son recipients and I also read of one father/daughter (USAF) and I’m sure there are probably brothers with DFCs but what about brother/sister or sister/sister? If anyone can answer these questions with some details, the DFCS would appreciate hearing about it so that we can make contact and write a story about them. Please email Chuck Sweeney at dfcs@dfcsociety.org or reply through the DFCS website at www.dfcsociety.org if you have any answers.