The Story Of The Unit Coin

It was back in 2010 that TigerBlog set out to figure out who the "Campbell" was in "Campbell Field."

If you've ever been to the Princeton Stadium/Jadwin Gym/DeNunzio Pool area, you may have noticed the practice fields that are adjacent to those facilities and Lot 21. Their names are Finney Field, the one closest to the stadium, and Campbell Field, the one next to that.

Finney Field is named after John Finney, Class of 1884.

As TB wrote few weeks ago, John apparently is the only person ever to play football for both Princeton and Harvard, where he attended medical school. Finney went on to build the medical school at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore into a leader in the field, and he was part of the first modern surgical treatment of soldiers in battle during World War I.

It also appears that he came very close to being the president of the University after Woodrow Wilson left in 1910.

Two of his sons would go on to become surgeons, and one of his sons and a grandson would become Princeton trustees, as he had been. The grandson, Redmond Finney, was a football/lacrosse star at Princeton before graduating in 1951. That Finney was the headmaster at the Gilman School in Baltimore from 1968-92, the longest tenure ever by a Gilman headmaster.

Finney Field has been called that since 1957, when the family donated the field in John M.T.'s memory, 15 years after he passed away at the age of 79.

As for Campbell Field, it turned out was named for Tyler Campbell, Class of 1943, and a member of the Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

From the Princeton Companion:
"Tyler Campbell graduated from Officers' Candidate School as a 2nd lieutenant, he led his men on the invasion beachheads of Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, and southern France, was wounded twice and twice promoted in the field, reaching the grade of captain. He was killed in action in France while commanding an infantry company of the 7th Army, two years after leaving college."

His family created Campbell Field in 1962 in his memory.

TigerBlog, after first learning that, set out to find out more about Tyler Campbell. What he'd end up finding out was extraordinary.

TB set out to find any relatives of Campbell's that he could, and he ended up connecting with a niece who, as luck had it, held on to all kinds of letters that Campbell had written and that had been sent to the family after his death. It's some of the most moving stuff TB has ever read.

Eventually, he took everything he found and turned it into THIS feature story. It's one of his better efforts, largely because of how the letters put him right into the moments before and after Campbell's death. The title - "So Long, Ty" - refers to the way he signed his last letter to his brother before his death a few days later.

More than nine years passed, and then TigerBlog received an email recently from a man named James Osborne, a retired Lt. Colonel in the Air Force. Lt. Colonel Osborne's father Paul had served in the same unit in France - Company A - as Tyler Campbell, and James had become something of a unit historian. That's how he found the feature story.

TB still had all of the materials he received from Campbell's niece, and he was able to forward them to Lt. Colonel Osborne, who then responded. 

This is from Lt. Colonel Osborne's email:

There are so many details in these letters which really hit home for me. For example, Cpl Roberts said there were five men who cried over Capt Campbell's death, Pasquale, Page, Nadler, McComel and himself. Sgt Urbano Di Pasquale was KIA 18 Mar 45 on the Siegfried Line and is buried in Laureldale, PA. SSgt Frank Page survived the war, but was seriously wounded in action 27 Apr 45 and never fully recovered. He was the best friend of one of the Company A veterans I was fortunate enough to meet, Andy Macke. Andy named his first son after Frank. I visited Frank's grave in Uhrichsville, OH last year.  His grave is in the powerpoint presentation I'm attaching. Nadler could be either Abraham or Bernard.  The two brothers were both in Company A.  Once again I could go on and on, but I'm trying to say that every bit of information you provided is important to me.  I am very grateful.

The email included a Power Point presentation that told more of the unit's story, with a lot of information about Tyler Campbell.

As a history major, all of this was fascinating for TigerBlog. It became even more fascinating after his trip to Normandy this past summer.

Finally, after emailing back and forth, Lt. Colonel Osborne sent TB this:

In the military it is a tradition to create unit coins and pass them along to friends and comrades as mementos.  I created a coin for Company A which I would like to send to you in appreciation of the invaluable help you have given to me as well as the wonderful memorial tribute you gave to Capt Campbell.  I have given away about 150 of these coins to people in France who have helped me find very obscure sites, Company A veterans and relatives of Company A veterans, as well as people around the US who have helped me in many ways to research the men of Company A. 

And so it was that TigerBlog received a unit coin of Company A in the mail last week. It was a wonderful gesture, and it's something really special for TB to have it.

For that he is very thankful to James Osborne.

And for today, he'll end the same way he ended the feature story nine years ago:

Stand outside the gate and ask those who park their cars next to it or the athletes who practice on it what the name of the field is, and how many would know? And of those who do know it is Campbell Field, how many know who Campbell was?
How many would know that he was a young man, 20 years old, who made the decision to walk away from studying chemical engineering and playing three sports at Princeton, who made the decision to walk away from an Army desk job, who made the decision to put himself in danger during a war, who twice was wounded and who came back both times because he felt that it was the right thing for him to do at time?
Who would know that Campbell Field is named for Tyler Campbell, who died on Sept. 21, 1944 at the young age of 22 years old, a lifetime of unimaginable greatness denied him in sacrifice to his country's freedom?
Who would know that this field is named for a genuinely heroic figure, a person well worth learning about? Talk to the people who knew him, read what they wrote about him. And emulate him.
Would they know that any field named for Tyler Campbell, Princeton Class of 1943, is to be considered sacred, hallowed ground?