Kimberley''S Flight: The Story of Captain Kimberly Hampton, Americas First Woman Combat Pilot Killed in Battle

U.S. Army Captain Kimberly N. Hampton was living her dream, flying armed helicopters in combat and commanding D Troop, 1st Squadron, 17th Cavalry, the armed reconnaissance aviation squadron of the 82nd Airborne Division, when in January 2, 2004, whilst flying above Fallujah, Iraq, searching for an illusive sniper on the rooftops of the city, the helicopter crashed, killing her. A little past noon her helicopter was wracked by an explosion; a heat-seeking air-to-ground missile had gone into the exhaust and knocked off the helicopters tail boom. Kimberlys Flight is the story of Captain Hamptons exemplary life. This story is told through nearly fifty interviews and her own e-mails to family and friends, and is entwined with Ann Hamptons narrative of loving and losing a child. About the Authors Award-winning journalist Anna Simon has been a reporter with The Greenville News in South Carolina since 1990. She received the South Carolina Press Associations first place award for Reporting in Depth in 2009, and is a past recipient of multiple awards in education reporting, the press associations Judson Chapman Award for Community Service, and other news and feature writing awards. Kimberlys mother, Ann Hampton, first met Anna Simon immediately following her daughters death, when Ms. Simon wrote a series of stories for The Greenville News about Kimberly. Ann has travelled twice to Iraq, most recently in November 2010 as a Gold Star Mom in aHugs for Healing program where American and Iraqi mothers grieving the deaths of their children worked side-by-side on humanitarian projects. See more