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Bronze Relief

In our profile of sculptor and VVA member Andrew Chernak, “Sculpting Sorrow: Andrew Chernak & The Gold Star Mothers Monument” (September/October), we referenced a bronze relief at the medical school at Fort Sam Houston.

New Castle County, Delaware, Chapter 83 AVVA member and Gold Star representative Judy C. Campbell sent us more detail on the Chernak sculpture. In fact, she was the one who commissioned Chernak to create a bronze relief honoring the memory of her brother, Spec.4 Keith A. Campbell. Fort Sam Houston is the home of military medicine, and the artwork was hung in the library that had been rededicated in his honor, the Keith A. Campbell Library. Next to the bronze is a photo of Keith Campbell, along with his citation for the Distinguished Service Cross, the military’s second-highest award.

Campbell was twenty years old and had been in the Army for almost three years. He already had received the Bronze Star in the Dominican Republic. On his nineteenth day in Vietnam, he ran to a wounded soldier who was lying in an exposed area and dragged him to safety behind a small tree. While administering first aid Campbell was fatally wounded.

The bronze plaque depicting his heroism was unveiled at the library on January 7, 2009. Keith Campbell’s mother, Esther B. Gates, and his sister Judy attended the ceremony, as did many family and friends, as well as the sculptor and his wife. Maj. Gen. Russell Czerw, the commanding general of Fort Sam Houston and the Army Medical Department Center and School, delivered remarks.