Capt. Kimberly Hampton was the commander of Delta Troop of the 1st Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. Serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, she was stationed near Fallujah when her OH-58 Kiowa helicopter was shot down on January 2, 2004. She was the first female pilot in US military history to fall in combat, as well as the first woman from South Carolina to die in the current conflict.

Capt. Hampton graduated with honors from Presbyterian College, where she was remembered as a “Renaissance Woman” for excelling in a wide-range of academic campus activities. She was from Easley, SC, where her family still resides.