Ken Campbell: The Old Man at 23
By Mollie Allen
mollie@thenewsobserver.com
“Anybody always remembers the first time when your base is hit, a combat situation, which always stands out,” Ken Campbell, a Vietnam veteran, said.
“It was the Fourth of July, 1970, and they hit us just before dark, and I’m talking full perimeter attack, mortars, everything. ... I was 23. I was the old man when I was there. It’ll turn your hair white, but we did what we had to do.”
Originally from Key West, Florida, and with two years of college under his belt after graduating high school in 1964, Campbell joined the military once heavy drafting began.
“I knew I was going to the military because, 1966 everybody was drafting,” Campbell said. “You had two choices, little and none.”
Following the earlier footsteps of his brother, Campbell chose to enlist in the Air Force.
“My wife and I were married 27 days before I got in,” he said. “I was in the reserves at the time. I hadn’t gone to boot camp, then they wiped it out and said, ‘Guess what? You’re active.’”
During a period of six years, four years active duty and two years active reserve, from 1966 to 1972, Campbell served as a jet engine mechanic.
“I was the jet engine mechanic, and a lot of other things,” he said.
Despite a need for 250 mechanics, they were lucky if they had 84, he said.
“We worked seven, 12- hour days,” he said. “We were very short of personnel. ... Everybody did everything.”
Campbell was first sent to Lackland Air Force Base in Texas for boot camp, and then went to Illinois for specialty training.
“Then, I had a really nice, about three year assignment at Warner Robins, Georgia, known as Robins Air Force Base,” he said.
Following the assignment, Campbell was sent to specialty combat training.
“They put us in like an air commando 31st combat support unit” before sending him around the world to Tuy Hoa Air Base in Vietnam, where he spent his final year in service, he said.
Having been sent to Vietnam while his wife was pregnant, Campbell said his daughter was six months old before he got to hold her.
“That was the hard part,” he said. “Other than being in a war zone.
“We were air and ground troop support even if it meant going across the DMZ (demilitarized zone).
“The news media only zeroed-in on Vietnam. There was still a war in Laos and Cambodia combined, so if you were KIA, killed in action, in Laos, your paperwork said Vietnam. And when you’re with a specialty or special ops type group, we were in a lot of classified areas.”
While overseas, Campbell said they flew an F-100 Super Sabre aircraft, and missions at the time were to disrupt any and all supply lines they came across.
Once discharged, Campbell finished his degrees and worked as a mechanical engineer, pipe fitter and later a construction manager.
While working for a company that contracts operations for phosphate mining in Vietnam, Campbell was asked to make the journey all over again.
He made it to Kunming, China, which is at the Vietnamese boarder, before he was denied admission back into Vietnam.
Of the country, he said, “It’s like stepping back 2,000 years in time: the mindset, the culture, the stink, the heat.”
His accomplishments during his time in service resulted in several recognitions: Republic of Vietnam (RVN) Campaign Medal with two battle stars, Vietnam Gallantry Cross with an oak leaf cluster, Vietnam Service Medal, RVN Presidential Unit Citation, Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with an oak leaf cluster, Air Force Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medal and Small Arms Expert Award Ribbon.
Campbell worked his way to Sergeant E4 before being honorably discharged.
On the other hand, there are memories that don’t honor his service.
“To this day, I still get angry for being spit on, called baby killer, things like that. Discriminated at work, told ‘Don’t tell anybody you were in Vietnam. If you were in service, you didn’t go overseas,’ stuff like that. And I’m like, you know, I survived. I’m proud of what I did. I came from a military family. My family goes back to pre-Revoluntionary days from Scotland to here. ... I knew what I had to do, and I’d do it again.”
Campbell is commander of the Fannin County Veterans of Foreign Wars, a member of the Disabled American Veterans Chapter 28, and North Georgia Honor Guard. “The guys are great here,” he said.
Additionally, he serves as the Fannin County Veterans Center custodian and helps with maintenance at the center.
Fannin County veterans organizations are actively recruiting members.
Anyone interested in learning more about any of the organizations may contact Ray Arthur by email at fanninveterans@yahoo.com.