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00:00Welcome to Operation Healing Heroes. Join us in the boat today as we feature Gold Star
00:09spouse Kelly Campbell Goodnow. They served for us. They sacrificed for us. Their stories
00:23deserve to be told. Every military veteran has a story to tell. Join our host Jay Garstecki
00:35as we honor the stories of our true American heroes, one soldier at a time. The mission
00:43today is Operation Healing Heroes. Brought to you by Great Clips.
00:53It's been said that the strength of our nation is our military servicemen and women and their
01:06strength comes from their families. It's just outside of Kansas City where we connect with
01:13Gold Star wife Kelly Campbell Goodnow. Our viewers may or may not know what a Gold Star
01:21family is, right? And it almost sounds like it's a prestigious thing if you don't know
01:28any better, right? So, Gold Star family is not something that you'd want to ever be.
01:33Right. Yeah, you know, we say, Gold Star wives will say it's a club you never want to be in.
01:42Mm-hmm. But once you are, you're never alone. Yeah.
01:49I remember being at a Memorial Day event and my daughter Kate, she had her Gold Star pin on her shirt
02:00and somebody looked at it and said, oh, Gold Star, what's that? You know, how do I get a Gold Star?
02:05You know, your heart just drops in that moment when you have to explain, you know, again to a stranger.
02:13And, of course, then they feel bad, you know. But, yeah, it's a badge no one wants to wear at all.
02:21When Sean explained to me what he was headed into with the Marine Corps, after we knew we were headed
02:28towards marriage, he came to me with a list of questions on a yellow legal pad. And he had written
02:34out all of these what-ifs, just things he wanted me to consider, things he had had to consider.
02:40You know, questions like, do you realize, you know, my job, I may have to take someone's life.
02:45Do you realize that I may lose my life someday? Very serious what-ifs when it comes to the military.
02:50And we went through those questions, and we cried through those questions.
02:59And then we put that piece of paper away, and we never thought about the what-ifs again.
03:06And I think back on that conversation, and I'm just so thankful that he had the care and the wisdom
03:17to bring that up, and to address it, and to talk about it as hard as it was, but then for us
03:25to be able to look at it and say, we are not going to live in fear.
03:32And we didn't.
03:36So Sean was going into the Marine Corps to be a pilot, correct?
03:39Mm-hmm. Yeah.
03:40And when did he actually get his wings?
03:42He pinned on his wings in December of 2003.
03:46And by the time he pinned on his wings, I was very pregnant with our first son.
03:50I remember a couple times when Sean would, you know, he would sing the Marine Corps hymn
03:55at the top of his lungs in the shower or, you know, once we were camping, actually in college.
04:01So he was just about to become a Marine, and we were on a camping trip with other people,
04:06and it's dark, and everybody's in tents, and he's singing at the top of his lungs in the tent.
04:12He just, he had a lot of pride in the Marine Corps.
04:18Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Great Cliffs,
04:23Operation Healing Heroes is a nonprofit organization dedicated to documenting the lives of our U.S. military veterans.
04:40In addition, we also provide financial support and treatment for post-traumatic stress.
04:45Your donation will help heal our heroes.
04:54January 14, 2016, about 18 months into living in Hawaii, that was the day that everything changed.
05:04Sean had a night flight scheduled, so he was home that morning.
05:08He was going to go into work later, and we were all together.
05:12We had just kind of come down off of Christmas break high.
05:16You know, we had family visiting, and we'd spent 10 days just being tourists on the island together
05:22and enjoying that time, and Sean had taken some time off.
05:25So I know now what a blessing that was.
05:28And then that day, he was home, and we were all, well, we were all kind of grumpy.
05:33We weren't ready to go back to work and school and normal life, but that's what we were working on.
05:39And I remember, you know, I had come down kind of sick that day and, you know, just a normal kind of day for a family of six.
05:50And Sean being Sean, he didn't want to leave for work and leave us in that state.
05:56And so, you know, I just remember him.
05:59He was in his flight suit, ready to go, but he gathered us all in the living room.
06:03And we all sat down and just to kind of take a breath as a family.
06:09And he just wanted us to hit reset, you know.
06:12So he prayed for us.
06:16And we were a praying family, you know, always, but he didn't necessarily sit us down every day before he left for work.
06:22And so it was unusual, and yet I know it was just something in his spirit slowed him down that day.
06:29He prayed that we would love one another well.
06:37And that was it.
06:38And then he hugged us goodbye.
06:42And he said he'd be home in the morning.
06:47And I know that he was.
06:52I know that Sean was home in heaven before that next morning.
06:59So we went to bed that night, you know, just sure he would come in in the middle of the night, like always.
07:04And I remember I was woke up by a phone call at 4 o'clock in the morning.
07:11And it was my dad.
07:12He was calling from Kansas because of the time zone difference.
07:15He was awake and watching the news, and there was news of a crash in Hawaii.
07:21A massive search continues in the waters off Oahu's North Shore.
07:24Twelve Marines are still missing after the two helicopters they were on crashed.
07:28He had hesitated to call, but just couldn't stand it anymore and woke me up just to make sure that Sean was home.
07:36And that's when I realized he was not home.
07:38And that was when I reached over.
07:44I remember putting my hand on his pillow.
07:49The news was saying that the crash was two CH-53s from Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
07:54He had gone out to fly a night flight with two helicopters, and so I knew in that moment it was him.
08:00But you can't.
08:03It wouldn't process.
08:05Mm-hmm.
08:07So I remember I got up and just kind of, I didn't really know what to do.
08:12Like, you're standing there thinking, do I get dressed?
08:15Do I go to the squadron?
08:16Do I wake up the kids?
08:17What do I do?
08:19But I remember making some calls and trying to figure out, you know, who can tell me something.
08:25And I think in the back of my mind I knew, like, he's not home.
08:30This crash was him.
08:32But you can't process that.
08:34And so, and I needed to hear the words from somebody.
08:38And I waited and waited.
08:40And I remember at one point sitting down in my living room and picking up my Bible, and I don't think I read anything.
08:49I just sat there with it.
08:50And just knowing, knowing, you know, I had no other comfort.
08:59And the sun came up.
09:02I remember sitting outside on the sidewalk outside of my house.
09:06Maybe I was trying not to scare my kids.
09:09At that point they had woken up and were asking questions.
09:11And I was sitting outside on the phone with a friend, and she was on her way over.
09:16As I was talking to her, I looked up, and our front yard was surrounded by this stone wall.
09:22And I saw three officers.
09:26Somebody appeared, you know, around the bushes, and they were coming around that wall.
09:29And I remember my daughter, Katie, running to the gate to let them in.
09:36And it felt like in that moment, maybe she thought one of them was her dad.
09:41But they came in and, you know, they're in dress uniforms.
09:45And so I knew what they were there to say.
09:52And I had been waiting just for somebody to just tell me.
09:57And I looked up, and one of them was Sean's closest friend from the squadron.
10:01And so I grabbed him and said, just tell me.
10:03And his answer was, we don't know, we don't know.
10:11Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Great Cliffs, Power Pole, and by St. Croix Rods.
10:28Were they on? Were they on you?
10:29Yeah, he was on. He pulled it under.
10:31Did you get the worm?
10:34Yeah, of course.
10:36There's a tiny bit of it there.
10:38Yeah, there's a little chunk on there. They'll still leave it.
10:40Okay, come on, little fish.
10:42If you'd like to see more behind-the-scenes footage, follow us on social media and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
10:48If you're a U.S. military veteran in Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, or beautiful sunny Florida,
10:56log on to our website, takeavetfishing.org, to find an event near you.
11:01After a nighttime training mission, Major Sean Campbell's helicopter was missing.
11:11And so he took me inside, and they read the official report.
11:14And, you know, it said, missing collision, missing ocean.
11:21And my kids are hearing this, and they're suddenly thinking, okay, Dad's out in a lifeboat somewhere.
11:27And I'm hearing this and thinking, you know, I knew.
11:35The one blessing of that week, you know, it was five days of searching and waiting.
11:40And so in that time, our family and friends all came out to be with us.
11:44And on that last day, when the final report came and they had, you know, DNA evidence that they knew there were no survivors,
11:53you know, there was a crowd of people in my yard.
11:56I mean, there were so many people, we had to go in the yard.
12:01And they read that report.
12:03And, you know, my mom was there with Ann.
12:05And then we sat down in the living room with the kids, just grandparents and me.
12:15And, you know, each child at that point was in someone's lap when I had to tell them that their dad was not coming home.
12:22And I'm glad it was, it was that moment and not that first day when we were by ourselves.
12:35So how do you get through something like that?
12:37I mean, just prayer.
12:43You kind of go into survival mode, which means you, you end up relying on habits you didn't know you had.
12:50You know, I remember that morning as I waited and didn't know what to do, picking up my Bible and just holding it.
12:58If I read, I don't remember.
13:00But, you know, I just remember I didn't know what to do, but I knew, I knew the God we trusted in had not changed.
13:09And so our faith really got us through that time.
13:12And our faith really, I think, and because I have an extended family that also feels that way,
13:19we just were surrounded by comfort and prayer and peace.
13:24Peace is what, that morning when we were waiting, there was so much peace that I can't explain.
13:32And that really stayed with us.
13:34You know, I think about Sean praying for us as he left and sort of instilling peace in our home.
13:39Mm-hmm.
13:40And it didn't leave.
13:41We had a squadron memorial on the base right after.
13:46A squadron memorial on the base right after.
13:49A squadron memorial on the base right after.
13:53Leon Peake, Marshall Oliver, our family.
13:54John McCoy, Marshall, our paisley, staff and police.
13:59Red-dee.
14:01AquÃ.
14:02Red-dee.
14:03AquÃ.
14:04Red-dee.
14:05acha.
14:06AquÃ.
14:08Major Campbell.
14:10Major Sean Campbell.
14:11Major Sean Campbell.
14:13Major Sean Campbell!
14:20Major Sean M. Campbell!
14:43The Heart of America Patriot Foundation provides educational support and scholarships for dependents of deceased or 100% disabled veterans.
14:58If you'd like to personally thank a veteran that you've seen in one of our episodes or nominate a veteran to be featured in a future episode, log on to our website, OperationHealingHeroes.org.
15:11Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Recon Boats, XL Automotive, and by Temple Bay Lodge.
15:26I remember getting on that plane in Hawaii to leave without my husband.
15:36And up until that day it had been getting ready and doing the next thing and doing the next thing and one thing after another after another.
15:42And life is just moving and you're just surviving and then suddenly it gets really quiet.
15:49And I think that's when it really sets in like, so this is my life now.
15:55What do I do?
15:58I didn't know how, but I knew I needed to get back to something normal, you know.
16:04But I didn't know what normal looked like anymore.
16:07Right.
16:08And I didn't know where to live.
16:09Where do you live when the Marine Corps is not telling you where to live?
16:11Right.
16:12So I didn't know how to choose my own zip code.
16:14And so moving into a house in Leawood, Kansas with my children and me, it was weird.
16:22It was also really scary and sad, you know, to, to find a home that was just me and my kids.
16:28It just felt so lonely.
16:31I have to believe at that point your faith played a big part in it also.
16:35Very big.
16:37Yeah.
16:38During that time, I, I just, I clung to God and I knew he had a plan.
16:47Mm-hmm.
16:48And I knew it was good.
16:52I just couldn't see it.
16:54Mm-hmm.
16:55How do you move on and actually pick up the pieces and, and move on with your life?
17:02Um, you don't expect to find yourself thinking about dating as a single mom of four when you're
17:0838, you know.
17:09You don't move on, but you move forward.
17:11Mm-hmm.
17:12You know, and you take it all with you.
17:14So I, I, it was a weird time and, and I probably started thinking, you know, out of loneliness.
17:19And you get lonely and, um, you know, watching my kids go through life without a dad, um, oh, it's hard.
17:28But God brought along Mike, uh, who is just a miracle.
17:32Four years after Sean's death, Kelly and Mike Goodnow were married right before the COVID pandemic shut the world down.
17:41That was the hugest gift for us to bond and to see the kids just really, really attached to Mike.
17:48And, um, and throughout for him to, to be willing to talk about Sean and to tell them when he saw things in them that they got from their dad.
17:57And you've got to know that Sean would have wanted you to be happy.
18:00Definitely.
18:01Definitely.
18:02I, I like to think they would have been good friends.
18:05You know, Sean had always wanted to, to take Tristan out hunting, shooting and, you know, it was something they loved, but didn't get a lot of opportunities.
18:13And Mike's a big hunter.
18:14And so, you know, I just remember him after the first time he took Tristan out hunting, um, telling me about, you know, he was a great shot.
18:22And he looked at him and said, you got that from your dad.
18:25And, you know, there's nothing better as a mom, um, to see this man step into that role and love your kids so well.
18:37But also he has a love for Sean, their dad.
18:41Um, and he knows what a big role he stepped into, um, but he still did it.
18:46And that took a lot of courage.
18:49The words of Isaiah 41, 13 came to me.
18:52And at some point, uh, I am your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, do not be afraid.
19:02I will help you.
19:04And even now I'm struck by those words because it reminds me how true they are and how true they've been, how I've seen that.
19:14Um, you know, God took hold of my hand, not just on the day Sean died, but long before, you know, he was preparing us for this because he knew.
19:25And, um, you know, I know now that all those years of building community and friends and, you know, being, Sean being the parent he was and praying his last prayer for us to love each other.
19:38That was, that was God working in him to prepare us.
19:41I almost feel silly giving you a gift, but I just want to say thank you for sharing your story with us.
19:47And I want to give you this custom St. Croix rod that we had made for you.
19:52It says Kelly Campbell and appreciation of your sacrifice.
19:55And it's, uh, all the Marine, all the, uh, the branches of service on there.
20:00That's for you.
20:01That's really cool.
20:02And then we've also got your own Operation Healing Heroes jersey.
20:05Awesome.
20:06To commemorate our time together.
20:07Thank you so much.
20:08I will use it.
20:10Of course.
20:12Thank you for sharing Sean's story.
20:13Thank you for preserving his legacy.
20:15Thank you for sharing his story.
20:16I appreciate it.
20:17It means a lot to us.
20:18And, uh, I hope that we can just honor him the way he deserves to be honored because.
20:23Yeah.
20:24He's a true American hero.
20:25If you'd like to personally thank a veteran that you've seen in one of our episodes.
20:34Or nominate a veteran to be featured in a future episode.
20:37Log on to our website, OperationHealingHeroes.org.
20:40And click on the nominate button.
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