Badge:  394
Age:  35
Served: 1½ years
June 22, 2008 to December 15, 2009

Tony Campbell, after graduating from Boone County High School in 1992, immediately enlisted in the United States Air Force.  Upon discharge in 1995, he joined the Air Force Reserves.  On June 22, 2008, he joined the Cincinnati Police Department as a Police Recruit and graduated the Police Academy in December 21, 2008.  As a Police Officer he was assigned to District One.  Officer Campbell served there until July 6, 2009, when the Air Force Reserves call him up as a Technical Sergeant and explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) operator with the 932nd Civil Engineer Unit.  He was deployed to southern Afghanistan during October 2009.

On December 14, 2009, he and his wife, Emily, were ‘talking’ by email when he had to log off to leave for an overnight mission.  Early the next morning she received word that he died December 15, 2009, of wounds suffered from the detonation of an improvised explosive device.

Officer Campbell was survived by his parents, his wife, a daughter, Jordan (7), a son, Ryker (2), and stepson, Devin Ruberg (11).

Officer Campbell's body was flown from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton on Monday, December 21, 2009.   From there, multiple police agencies escorted him to a funeral home in Erlanger, Kentucky.  Visitation was held from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, December 22, 2009, at Florence Baptist Church at Mount Zion, 642 Mt. Zion Road in Florence.  The funeral service was 1 p.m. at the church.  After the service, they processed to the Kentucky Veterans Cemetery in Williamstown where he is buried.

He is the second Cincinnati officer to have died in military action; the first being Patrolman Biddle during World War II.  He is also at least the second Cincinnati officer issued Badge 394 and killed in the service of his community; Patrolman Boers being the first in 1917. 

If you have further information, artifacts, or pictures of this officer, please contact the Museum Director at Director@GCPHS.com.