Roll Call Tribute

The Association was notified of this Aggie's passing on 03/01/1969.

[Photo from findagrave.com]
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From Diane Campbell June 7, 2012

Capt Clyde
William Campbell '66. Clyde was a pilot for the US Air Force during the Vietnam War. His A1-J Skyraider was shot down over Laos Mar 1, 1969, and he was listed as Missing in Action. Clyde's remains have been recovered from Southeast Asia and returned to his family for burial. Funeral and burial will take place at Arlington National Cemetery on June 21, 2012. Clyde is survived by his wife, Diane, daughters Deanna Lisle and Jennifer Romero, brother, Bob Campbell, and grandchildren Tucker Campbell, Clyde and Sara Lisle, Melvin, Duval, and Daisy Romero.

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From www.virtualwall.org

Clyde William Campbell
Captain
602ND SPECIAL OPS SQDN, 56TH SPECIAL OPS WING, 7TH AF
United States Air Force
Longview, Texas
July 26, 1944 to March 01, 1969
CLYDE W CAMPBELL is on the Wall at Panel 31W Line 099
See the full profile for Clyde Campbell
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From findagrave.com

Clyde William Campbell
Birth: Jul. 26, 1944, USA
Death: Mar. 1, 1969, Vietnam

Sources:

CPT, 602nd Special Operations Squadron, 56th Special Operations Wing, 7th Air Force, Vietnam

Vietnam Memorial
Panel 31W, Line 099

From Longview, Texas

US Air Force Pilot

1Lt. Clyde W. Campbell was the pilot of a J-model Spad on an operational mission over Laos on March 1, 1969. His precise role on that day is unclear. The mission took him in northern Xiangkhoang Province near the city of Na Khang. This area was in Military Region II and on the northern edge of the Plain of Jars region.

At a point about 10 miles west of Na Khang, Campbell's aircraft was shot down. Others in the area reported that Campbell was dead, and the Air Force listed him Killed in Action, Body Not Recovered.

Source is http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/c/c358.htm

Many thanks to fellow findagraver Phillip Fazzini for furnishing the following information:

News Release
Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (Public Affairs)
Washington, DC 20301-2900

June 19, 2012
AIRMAN MISSING FROM VIETNAM WAR IDENTIFIED
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.
Air Force Capt. Clyde W. Campbell, 24, of Longview, Texas, will be buried June 21, at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. On March 1, 1969, Campbell was a pilot aboard an A-1J Skyraider aircraft that crashed while carrying out a close air-support mission in Houaphan Province, Laos. American forward air controllers, directing the mission nearby, reported hearing an explosion—they believed to be Campbell's bombs—later learned Campbell's aircraft had crashed. No parachutes were seen in the area.
In 1997, a joint U.S./Lao People's Democratic Republic (L.P.D.R.) team investigated a crash site in Houaphan Province, Laos, within 100 meters of the last known location of Campbell. In addition to human remains, the team located aircraft wreckage and military equipment, which correlated with Campbell's aircraft.
From 2009 to 2010, additional joint U.S./L.P.D.R. recovery teams investigated and excavated the crash site three times. Teams recovered additional human remains, military equipment — including an aircraft data plate—and a .38-caliber pistol matching the serial number issued to Campbell. Scientists from the JPAC used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools in the identification of Campbell.
- END –

Source:
http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/news/news_releases/2012/release_campbell.pdf

From
news-journal.com Longview, Texas, 14 Jun 2012.

More than 43 years after being shot down during an air raid over Laos, the remains of U.S. Air Force Capt. Clyde William Campbell will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Campbell, a 1962 graduate of Longview High School, will be buried with full military honors June 21, said his widow, Diane Campbell.

"It is bittersweet," Campbell said of her late husband's burial. "We've waited so long."

Clyde Campbell was piloting a single-seat Douglas A-1 Skyraider on March 1, 1969, when his plane was shot down in Houaphan Province in northeastern Laos. She said he was flying a strike mission at the time of his death.

"His primary assignment was to fly cover for search and rescue missions," Campbell said. "He would fly cover for helicopters that were going in to rescue people. But on that day he was flying a strike mission."

Diane Campbell, who now lives in Albuquerque, N.M., said she was notified by the Air Force in 2010 that her late husband's remains had been recovered from the Houaphan Province.

"We met as a family with the Air Force mortuary," she said. "They brought us the evidence. We looked at it, talked about it as a family and decided to accept their determination."

Campbell said she traveled to Hawaii and brought her husband's remains home on Veterans Day 2010.

"It has taken us a time, as a family, to know how we wanted him buried," she said. "We knew we wanted him in some place that would honor him – where others could honor him. In Vietnam, a lot of the guys came back and they were spat upon. For me, after all of that, it was very important to have him in a place where he would be honored and his memory respected."

Campbell said she and their daughters, Deanna Lisle and Jennifer Romero, struggled over whether to bury Campbell in Texas, where he was raised, or in a military cemetery.

"It was a tough decision," she said.

Ultimately, Campbell said, she and her daughters determined to bury the fallen officer in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

"For the girls, that means their children and their children's children have a place that is significant nationally and in the context of what he gave — his life — to go and to see him and to remember him. That's really important to the girls, that their dad is remembered," she said.

After graduating from Texas A & M University in 1967, Campbell attended flight school at Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, graduating there in 1968. He was 24 when he died.

Still considered missing in action on July 26, 2007, Campbell was honored, posthumously, during ceremonies at First Baptist Church in Longview. Veterans service officer, retired Marine Col. Randy Smith, acted as master of ceremonies for that event, commemorating what would have been Campbell's 63rd birthday.

"I'm delighted to learn this for the sake of the Campbell family," Smith said. "Not only for the family to have closure but because it's still part of the brotherhood, that we leave no one behind. Even though it's been more than 40 years — we're still able to bring our fallen back home."

Family links: 
 Parents:
  Robert H Campbell (1918 - 1995)

Burial:
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington
Arlington County
Virginia, USA
 
Created by: Robert Fowler
Record added: Aug 08, 2010
Find A Grave Memorial# 56667214