One from here: Jacksonville SEAL Killed In Helicopter Attack

WCTI12.com
VERBATIM POST
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ONSLOW COUNTY -- A man from Jacksonville was among the Navy SEALs killed in a Saturday attack in Afghanistan.Chris Campbell, 36, was among 30 who died after an attack on a helicopter.

He was a White Oak High School graduate.Many of Campbell's Jacksonville friends are remembering him this week. One of his classmates went on to become an officer in the U.S. Army."I guarantee you he would not want us to mourn for his death but celebrate his life of service to others and his fellow man," said Chief Warrant Officer John Fleshman, a classmate of Campbell's and a 1993 graduate of White Oak High School. "That is the least we can do for Chris and the other Americans in his chosen profession who have given so much and never asked a thing in return."

Jack Baile was Campbell's varsity football coach when he started to play his Junior year, even though he was small for football."He didn't have a whole lot of fear of anything," Jack said.Jack's son, Joe, was a teammate and close friend of Campbell's."Chris was one of the first guys that kind of approached me, he was just real easy going, fun-loving guy, great personality, but you know, he kind of reached out to me," said Joe, "I think he knew I was struggling a little at White Oak."They took classes together and played ball, building a friendship that was hard to keep up over the past 10 years, because of Campbell's career."It would be three or four years in a row without seeing him and then we'd be at somebody's house and they'd stop by when everyone was home for Christmas or something like that and play basketball together," Joe said.

Anytime they heard something about Navy SEALs, like when the news of Bin Laden's death came out, they wondered if Campbell had been a part of that. And then they heard about the Chinook crash."When you sign up, you know, I'm sure that's always in the back of your mind somewhere," Jack said.The news of Campbell's death was their worst fear for their friend come true."Stuff started just popping up on Facebook and friends started talking to each other and stuff like that, you know, word got around pretty quick," Joe said.The Bailes can't imagine what Campbell's family is going through."As hard as it is for us, I can't imagine what it is for them," Joe said.