The Four Campbell Brothers

WORLD WAR II – THE FOUR CAMPBELL BROTHERS
PHIL ZACK, JOHN, AND ROBBY

Phil (Buddy) was the oldest brother, in his late 20’s and single in 1940 when the war in Europe was going strong. He was drafted into the Army Combat Engineers and trained one year at Fort Polk, Louisiana. Then he was sent back home. A few weeks later the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He was immediately called back into the Army and was shipped out to England. Buddy went to France on D-Day, fought across Europe and helped build a pontoon bridge across the Rhine River. The Germans were firing artillery fragment shells that hit in his area. He received life-threatening wounds. Many large and small shell fragments injured him. Large fragments were removed and small fragments remained in his body.
After getting out of the hospital, Buddy was discharged and returned home to Mt. Vernon, Texas and married the girl he had dated for many years. Buddy and an Army buddy bought a Pontiac car dealership and auto store with their G.I. bill. They also bought farmland all around Mt. Vernon and raised cattle.
I never talked with Buddy about his time or my time in W.W. II. What I have written here is what he told to our mother.
What I remember most about Buddy is how much he enjoyed hard work. He liked to work cattle, build fences, clear land, and bale hay – all kinds of farm work. Until I finished college, I worked with Buddy doing farm work. Our special time together was when we bird hunted together. Buddy had two great bird dogs, Lady and Bo. We had such great times hunting quail. What I remember most about Buddy is he never complained about anything and never said anything bad about anyone.

Zack was married, so it was late in the war when he was drafted. He mainly served in the occupation army in Germany. Zack was just your regular good ole guy who worked hard and took care of his family.

John (Bo) was a junior at Southern Methodist University on a football scholarship when he joined the Army Air Force. His job was ferrying B-24’s, B-17’s and B-29’s to all of the war fronts. Bo was a good student, liked by everyone, worked hard all his life, and took care of his family.

I (Robby) was a sophomore in high school when the war broke out on December 7, 1941. I graduate from high school in 1944 and two weeks later was in Navy boot camp in San Diego, California. After boot camp training, I was immediately assigned to a ship, an AVP 40, Floyd’s bay, a sea plane tender. We had a few weeks of shake downs for this brand new ship. After that, we sailed to Pearl Harbor, Guam and on to Buckner Bay, Okinawa. We dropped anchor in a protected area of Buckner Bay with hundreds of other ships. Our location in the bay area was at the end of the airport runway where all land based aircraft was taking off to go in and bomb Japan. This is where I remained until the end of the war with Japan.
Like all veterans, I have quite a few stories I could tell, but the one I most remember is in honor of a young sailor, a gunner’s mate 3rd class. He was on his second tour of duty in the Pacific Theater of War.
We were sailing from San Diego to Pearl Harbor. My understanding is that this part of the ocean is always rough. It was especially rough at this time because of a spring storm. The sea was pretty calm until we sailed into the storm area. Joe, the gunner’s mate was working on a 5 inch gun on the bow of our ship. When we hit the rough water, Joe stopped work and went below deck. Our captain who was on the bridge looked down and saw the 5 inch gun did not have a cover on it. The captain got on the intercom and told Joe to go back and put a cover on the gun. Joe put on his short foul weather gear and went to the bow of the ship. This day was dark with rain and waves 15 to 20 feet high. When Joe got to the bow of the ship we hit a 20 foot wave and the bow went completely under water. Joe was washed overboard. He was an excellent swimmer. We spotted him a few times when he was on top of a wave or our ship was on top of a wave. We could never maneuver the ship in place to pick up Joe. This happened at mid day. Our ship tried to pick up Joe for four hours. By then it was dark and we sailed on to Pearl Harbor. He next day we had burial at sea for Joe. You never forget what it is like to bury a mate at sea.
After more time and experience at sea, I know this should never have happened. Our captain was inexperienced. This was his first command of a ship. He was a Navy pilot of PBY’s for thirty years. He was too old to fly, so he was placed in command of the AVP 40. When Joe went overboard, we should have had a lookout on the fan tail of our ship (also a depth charge watch) with a life buoy at his side to throw to Joe to hold on to. If this did not work, we had three small motor boats on the ship. I was coxswain of the motor whale boat that should have been put in the water to pick up Joe. This could only be done with orders from the captain. Our captain was a good man but did not have command experience, so Joe died. Later two other men died because of our captain’s inexperience.