Wasilla senior stays in the thick of life

By MARY SPEARS-For the Frontiersman

WASILLA -- If the man with the quick smile who brings your home-delivered meal seems to have a snappy military bearing, he comes by it naturally.

Hal Campbell is a retired U.S. Marine Corps major, and according to a Wasilla Area Seniors Inc., publication, the most decorated Marine World War II veteran in Alaska.

Interviewed on Wednesday as he prepared meals for delivery to homebound seniors in the Wasilla area, Campbell was too modest to talk about the decorations himself. That task fell to Dee Loesche of the WASI staff, who provided information that she had researched for an article about Campbell's military honors.

Campbell did mention that he fought at Guadalcanal as a member of the second Raiders Battalion, as well as on Iwo Jima, Saipan, Tarawa and in Korea. He said he also served as an advisor to the French in Indochina in 1953 and 1954, before that tiny country became known to the world as Vietnam.

After retiring from the Marine Corps, Campbell said he went back to school, finishing a degree at the University of Washington before accepting a teaching job at a technical school in Kotzebue with an old Navy friend, where he stayed for eight years.

According to Loesche's research, Campbell's military honors include the Navy Cross, the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, four Purple Hearts and a Naval Letter of Commendation.

Loesche's article recounts that Admiral Bull Halsey presented Campbell with the Navy Cross, the second-highest medal America can give its heroes, on Guadalcanal in 1943 for valor above and beyond the call of duty. He was awarded the medal for single-handedly destroying three machine gun nests that were stopping the advance of the Marines on Guadalcanal.

Loesche also found that Campbell was honored in 1992 at a Marine Corps dinner at the Marine base in Quantico, Va.

After such an exciting early life, Campbell said he is enjoying his retirement in the Wasilla area by pursuing his interests in gold mining and fishing. And, of course, working at the Wasilla Area Seniors Inc.