Harold T. Kamps was born September 15, 1936 in Marinette County, Wisconsin. After graduating from Lena High School, Kamps joined the United States Air Force, and was promoted to airman second class. On September 2, 1958, Kamps and sixteen other crew members set out on a reconnaissance mission in a C-130 plane that flew into Soviet controlled Armenian airspace. Soviet planes were deployed and shot the C-130 down, killing everyone on board. Due to the strained relations of the United States and the USSR during that time, the fate of Kamps, and several other crew members, was not brought to light until the 1990s.
