Grandpa & Grandma Campbell's DC Trip

I copied this off of my cousin Katrina's Blog. Thanks Katrina! I am so happy that Grandpa and Grandma were able to go and so thankful to Uncle Gary and Aunt Teri for making it all happen!

The following is an article that was in the Daily Harold, Utah County's newspaper this morning. It is about a trip my grandparents made to see the WWII Memorial in Washington DC. It's pretty cool. Courtesy photo Nephi and Elaine Campbell of American Fork visit the U.S.Marine Corps War Memorial in Washinton, D.C., better known as the Iwo Jima Memorial, with a daughter-in-law and three great-grandsons.

The couple's children and grandchildren pitched in money to make the trip possible.Saturday, 11 October 2008Veteran visit a family affair: Family, vets group pays for AF couple to visit WWII memorial Caleb Warnock DAILY HERALD Gary Campbell was sitting in the American Fork home of his parent, talking about his upcoming Vietnam War reunion in Washington D.C., when a thought struck him."I said, 'Dad would you like to see the World War II memorial they just built in honor of vets,' and he surprised me by saying, 'I wouldn't mind seeing it,' because he never goes anywhere. He never leaves the house," Campbell said.There was a small problem."He won't fly," Campbell said. "He's never been on a plane."At a family reunion, Campbell asked the couple's children to pitch in $100 apiece and the grandchildren $50 apiece toward the trip, raising $2,700 in total.And when Campbell's fellow Vietnam veterans, the India Company Third Battalion Fifth Marines, heard he was bringing his father to see the memorial, they donated $1,000 to put the family in hotel rooms."That was not cheap, what a wonderful gesture," Gary Campbell said. "So many of the World War II vets never got a chance to see it [the WWII Memorial] because they were gone before it was built. They built it 30 years too late. I didn't want my dad to miss seeing it, along with Mother. Sometimes we forget the sacrifice the women made."With everything in place, Nephi and Elaine Campbell, 86 and 84, Gary Campbell and his wife, and three of the elder couple's great-grandchildren arrived in Washington after a 50-hour train ride.There had been one small mishap -- during a layover in Chicago, Gary Campbell hit a bump in the street while pushing his father's wheelchair. His father spilled onto the pavement, hurting his knees, banging his head and blackening his eye.Because the train arrived a day and a half later than scheduled, the family had a hectic trip, visiting the WWII, Vietnam and Korean war memorials the morning after arriving."I saw tears in Dad's eyes, though he won't admit it," Gary Campbell said. "It was beautiful."Many Vietnam and Korean war veterans, upon spotting the elder Campbell in his WWII vet cap, stopped to express their thanks for his service, something neither the elder Campbell nor his wife had anticipated."You can't imagine the men coming up to him and say 'I want to thank you,' " Elaine Campbell said with emotion."It felt good to be there and see all that," Nephi Campbell said.When asked what he thought about at the memorial, pain creeps into his eyes. "I lost a close buddy of mine, from Cedar City. We were both in the same rifle company. He got killed and I managed to get out of it.""It was really emotional," Gary Campbell said.The family also went to Arlington National Cemetery, viewed the outside of the White House, visited the Lincoln Memorial and other sites, and Mount Vernon."This couple has been married for 67 years," Gary Campbell said. "That is a long time with one woman, as Dad says, and even longer with one man, Mom says. They have 42 grandkids, approximately 125 great-grandkids, and I think around 20 great-great grandkids."When drafted in 1944, Nephi Campbell was a Geneva Steel worker, married and living in American Fork "with two kids and a third one on the way," said Elaine Campbell.After boot camp in Texas, the elder Campbell was part of General Douglas MacArthur's liberation force in the Philippines, after which he went to Japan as part of the occupation. He earned the bronze star, among many medals, which are displayed in cases in the family's living room.After returning from the war, Campbell spent another decade at Geneva before deciding to go out on his own as a bricklayer, a job he did not retire from until he was 80.Having never been east of the Mississippi, the trip to the nation's capital touched the couple."I never thought we'd see anything," Elaine Campbell said. "All those grandchildren and my children, I just can't believe they would think enough of us to give money for us to go."Elaine begins weeping. A silence falls over the room."They are a bunch of sweethearts, I tell you," she says, still crying.