In late January students, friends, and faculty gathered on the Pullman campus for a memorial service and candlelight vigil for First Lieutenant Jaime (Krausse) Campbell, who died when the BlackHawk helicopter she was flying went down in northern Iraq January 7. The 25-year-old graduated from WSU in 2002 with a degree in apparel, merchandising, and textiles.
Campbell grew up in Ephrata and had been the Washington State Rodeo Queen. At WSU, she was a member of the Army ROTC program, where she developed an interest in flying. After finishing her degree, she chose to pursue a career in aviation with the National Guard. She and her husband, Army Captain Sam Campbell, had been stationed in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Campbell is the third Cougar to have died in Iraq since the start of the war.
The first fatality came in November 2003, when Captain James Shull of the Army’s 4th Batallion, 1st Field Artillery Division was killed in Baghdad in an accidental shooting. Shull graduated from WSU in 1995 with a major in criminal justice. He was 32 and married, with three young children.
Sergeant Damien Ficek, a student serving with the Army National Guard 1st Batallion, was killed on patrol in Baghdad December 2004 when his patrol was attacked. He left behind a wife.
The names of all three soldiers will be cast in bronze and will join the names of more than 300 other casualties of war memorialized at the WSU Veterans Memorial near Murrow Hall.
In the three years since the start of the war in Iraq, more than 100 students and many more alumni have served and worked in the Middle East. About 30 WSU students were stationed there this spring.