Captain Kim "KC" Campbell, USAF, is assigned to the 75th Fighter Squadron, 23rd Fighter Group at Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina. To open the lecture series, Captain Campbell will offer a firsthand account of her combat missions during the 23rd Fighter Group's deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in spring 2003. She will share highlights of her encounter with enemy fire while patrolling the Iraq "no fly zone," as well as her 20 combat missions while posted to Afghanistan. While flying a mission over Baghdad on April 7, 2003, her A-10 was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire, rolled left, and pointed toward the ground. The A-10 sustained damage to one engine and to the redundant hydraulic systems, disabling the flight controls, landing gear and brakes, and horizontal stabilizer. However, Captain Campbell found that the manual flight controls still worked and she was able to fly her crippled A-10 back to base, 100 miles away. On the ground, an inspection of the aircraft revealed hundreds of holes in the airframe and that large sections of the stabilizer and hydraulic controls were missing. By the way, "KC" stands for "Killer Chick."
It's unbelieveable that the plane stayed up with all that damage! She did a great job flying that baby home!
