I've joined the ranks of descendants of Charles Muir CAMPBELL (born 1 Sep 1795 Scotland) who are trying to crack through our common brick wall ancestor to identify his parents and the rest of his story that led him to from Scotland to Jamaica (or Grenada?) then to the US and by 1802 or 1803 to Basking Ridge NJ, then Princeton NJ, and finally on to Illinois.

I'm also researching the crew of B-24A 40-2371 which is frequently cited as the first American aircraft destroyed (on the ground) during the 7 Dec 1941 raid on Hickam Field in the Territory of Hawaii. (Next to Naval Station Pearl Harbor). This was one of two B-24A aircraft that had been assigned to this "super secret" pre-war Aerial Reconnaissance of Japanese Islands. Characterized as the "1941 Spy Flight" by Air Force historian and author, Dr. Maurer Maurer. The pilot of the B-24A was (then) 1Lt Ted S. Faulkner, along with my uncle Bill as co-pilot, (then) 2Lt William H. Campbell, "Sr". This aircraft, crew and mission is plagued by accumulated errors in the history books which blossomed due to the early secrecy of the mission. Dr. Maurer said it wasn't briefed to Congress until Dec 1945 - well after WW-II ended. It was accurately publicized in 1962, but portions appear to have remained classified until 1992, by which time the history books had all been written. Citing earlier works, the errors have been compounding and reinforced. I'm accumulating corrections and trying to assemble a more accurate telling of the story. In the meantime, I've created some virtual cemetery collections to aid in collecting the information. Caution - these are all still "works in progress".

I'm also interested in my dad's cousin, Curt Campbell. He was the right waist gunner on a B-17F "Sir Baboon McGoon" which flew out of Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire, England. It was featured in the June 1944 issue of Popular Science in an article which described it's recovery from a belly landing in an English Sugar Beet field near ____. It was returned to service on __ Feb ? 1944, flew about 7 more combat missions. It's final combat mission was flown to Brunswick / Braunschweig in Germany. Forced to divert to their secondary target due to weather, the plane's final woes began when initially damaged by a bomb released from a bomber higher up in their formation. (No, not the famous wing falling off in midair.) Their reduced speed forced them from the formation where they were attacked by German fighters and were limping home towards England for more than an hour. Also attacked by anti-aircraft fire, they were eventually flying on just one faltering engine and were 20+ nm out over the North Sea with about 90nm before reaching England. Crashing without power would likely have proved fatal. They ditched with limited power & the entire 10 man crew got out, into two 5 man rafts & survived. They were picked up by a German "Schnell Boot" or eBoat from Ijmuiden and all were taken POW and held for just over a year until the end of WW-II.

I've joined the ranks of descendants of Charles Muir CAMPBELL (born 1 Sep 1795 Scotland) who are trying to crack through our common brick wall ancestor to identify his parents and the rest of his story that led him to from Scotland to Jamaica (or Grenada?) then to the US and by 1802 or 1803 to Basking Ridge NJ, then Princeton NJ, and finally on to Illinois.

I'm also researching the crew of B-24A 40-2371 which is frequently cited as the first American aircraft destroyed (on the ground) during the 7 Dec 1941 raid on Hickam Field in the Territory of Hawaii. (Next to Naval Station Pearl Harbor). This was one of two B-24A aircraft that had been assigned to this "super secret" pre-war Aerial Reconnaissance of Japanese Islands. Characterized as the "1941 Spy Flight" by Air Force historian and author, Dr. Maurer Maurer. The pilot of the B-24A was (then) 1Lt Ted S. Faulkner, along with my uncle Bill as co-pilot, (then) 2Lt William H. Campbell, "Sr". This aircraft, crew and mission is plagued by accumulated errors in the history books which blossomed due to the early secrecy of the mission. Dr. Maurer said it wasn't briefed to Congress until Dec 1945 - well after WW-II ended. It was accurately publicized in 1962, but portions appear to have remained classified until 1992, by which time the history books had all been written. Citing earlier works, the errors have been compounding and reinforced. I'm accumulating corrections and trying to assemble a more accurate telling of the story. In the meantime, I've created some virtual cemetery collections to aid in collecting the information. Caution - these are all still "works in progress".

I'm also interested in my dad's cousin, Curt Campbell. He was the right waist gunner on a B-17F "Sir Baboon McGoon" which flew out of Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire, England. It was featured in the June 1944 issue of Popular Science in an article which described it's recovery from a belly landing in an English Sugar Beet field near ____. It was returned to service on __ Feb ? 1944, flew about 7 more combat missions. It's final combat mission was flown to Brunswick / Braunschweig in Germany. Forced to divert to their secondary target due to weather, the plane's final woes began when initially damaged by a bomb released from a bomber higher up in their formation. (No, not the famous wing falling off in midair.) Their reduced speed forced them from the formation where they were attacked by German fighters and were limping home towards England for more than an hour. Also attacked by anti-aircraft fire, they were eventually flying on just one faltering engine and were 20+ nm out over the North Sea with about 90nm before reaching England. Crashing without power would likely have proved fatal. They ditched with limited power & the entire 10 man crew got out, into two 5 man rafts & survived. They were picked up by a German "Schnell Boot" or eBoat from Ijmuiden and all were taken POW and held for just over a year until the end of WW-II.