Ragland native Michael Campbell surprised family members with a visit home for Thanksgiving. He is pictured with his mom Sue Burnham and his 5-year-old son Jax.
Campbell is a soldier in the United States Army and has been stationed at Ft. Sam Houston Texas since Sept. 2010, after sustaining gunshot wounds on Sept. 7, 2010, in Iraq, shot by an Iraqi soldier.
He was sent to a hospital in Germany where he stayed for some time before being moved to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, where he recovered.
On Oct. 5, 2010, Campbell was presented the Purple Heart by the Secretary of the Army Joseph Westphal for being wounded in action.
Campbell decided a week before Thanksgiving to ride with a buddy who was coming this way and surprise his family, especially his 5-year-old son Jax, and his mother Sue Burnham.
“I am no longer in the hospital and no longer having to do rehab,” Campbell said Friday while at home in Ragland. “Basically, every day is basically the same for me. I go to formation every morning at 6:45 a.m. If I have an appointment, I go to it. If not, I just hang around the company area or go to the gym and work out.”
Campbell said he should be getting out of the Army is about six months.
Campbell’s wife, Tanya, knew he was coming in.
“I arrived at 7 a.m. Thanksgiving morning,” Campbell said. “My dad picked me up in Birmingham. I saw Jax first around 10 a.m. He had spent the night with our cousin. They brought him home and I was just sitting on the couch.”
Jax was tickled to see his dad and he has always been a daddy’s boy.
“He just had all kinds of facial expressions,” Campbell said. “He jumped in my lap and said, ‘No more tricks, dad.’”
Campbell then went to his mom’s house around 11 a.m. for Thanksgiving dinner.
“She had no clue I was coming,” he said. “It was cool to see the look on her face when I walked in. It was just a good experience.”
“It was an emotional time,” Burnham said. “It was wonderful, and a Thanksgiving blessed beyond measure.”
Campbell’s visit was a short one as he left Sunday to be back at Ft. Sam Houston in Texas for formation Monday morning.
“It was just good to come in and see all the family,” Campbell said. “The main thing was to just come in and see everyone. Being with my wife Tanya, and two children, Jax and Dakota, was awesome.”
Campbell joined the United States Army Sept. 1, 2009. Basic training was at Ft. Benning, Ga. He was then stationed at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.
He deployed from Hawaii July 2, 2010, and arrived in Iraq a few days later as a member of the 2nd Platoon, 1-27th Infantry where he was a radio telecommunications operator.
He said he was coming back home in a couple of weeks to spend 25 days for Christmas.
Contact Gary Hanner at ghanner@thestclairtimes.com.
