{"id":14168,"date":"2016-04-07T19:00:18","date_gmt":"2016-04-08T00:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcstx.org\/?p=14168"},"modified":"2016-04-07T19:00:18","modified_gmt":"2016-04-08T00:00:18","slug":"profiles-in-courage-usmc-wildcat-ace-downs-7-japanese-bombers-on-his-first-combat-patrol-during-wwii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2016\/04\/07\/profiles-in-courage-usmc-wildcat-ace-downs-7-japanese-bombers-on-his-first-combat-patrol-during-wwii\/","title":{"rendered":"Profiles in Courage: USMC Wildcat Ace Downs 7 Japanese Bombers on his First Combat Patrol During WWII"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"postSubtitle\">\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"James Swett, Medal of Honor, WWII\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eVvPAr8ozJw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"postSubtitle\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"articlePostSubtitle\">\n<div class=\"postSubtitle\">During WWII, Marine 1st Lt. James E. Swett attacked 15 enemy bombers, destroying 7, on his first combat patrol.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"postSubtitle\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"postSubtitle\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"articlePostBody\">\n<div class=\"articlePostContent\">\n<div class=\"postContent\">\n<p>On April 7, 1943, Medal of Honor recipient and Marine fighter ace James E. Swett shot down 7 Japanese bombers, taking out four all on his own after he became separated from his wingmen.<\/p>\n<p>He was also on his first combat patrol.<\/p>\n<p>Born on June 15, 1920 in Seattle, Washington, Swett grew up in San Mateo, California and attended college there in 1939, where learned to fly. After the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Swett enlisted in the Naval reserves. He began flight training at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas in 1941 and graduated at the top 10% of his class, <a class=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/local\/obituaries\/la-me-swett24-2009jan24-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">according to the Los Angeles Times<\/a>. Following his graduation from flight training, Swett accepted a commission in the Marine Corps as a second lieutenant.<\/p>\n<p>In December of 1942, Swett shipped out to the Pacific where he served in the skies over Guadalcanal, the scene of brutal jungle warfare between entrenched Japanese forces and beleaguered U.S. Marines.<\/p>\n<p>After returning from a routine patrol off the coast of the island word came down that 150 Japanese fighters were heading toward the Marines\u2019 position from the north.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cmohs.org\/recipient-detail\/3013\/swett-james-elms.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">According to his Medal of Honor citation,<\/a> Swett took to the air in his Wildcat fighter and \u201cunhesitatingly hurled his 4-plane division into action against a formation of 15 enemy bombers and personally exploded 3 hostile planes in midair with accurate and deadly fire during his dive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the dogfight, Swett became separated from his three fellow pilots, but continued fighting, destroying four more enemy bombers. Though his aircraft\u2019s left wing had been hit and badly damaged during the fighting, Swett engaged an eighth enemy bomber, but its tail gunner opened fire on him, shattering his windshield and damaging his engine.<\/p>\n<p>In total, the battle lasted just 15 minutes, and though Swett had downed a number of enemy aircraft, he wasn\u2019t clear of danger.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was cut up around the face by flying glass,\u201d Swett told told The Oregonian, the newspaper in Portland, in 1991, <a class=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/01\/26\/washington\/26swett.html?_r=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">reports the New York Times. <\/a>\u201cI made a good water landing, but my shoulder straps were too loose and I hit my head on the instrument panel and broke my nose. I struggled to get out of the cockpit as the plane sank, but my parachute straps got caught and dragged me under. I don\u2019t know how deep I was before my life raft inflated and popped me to the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, a Coast Guard vessel was nearby and came to his aid. As the ship approached Swett, one of the crewmen called out:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre you an American?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To which Swett replied, \u201cDamn right I am.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Afterward he was taken to a nearby harbor and given Scotch and morphine to ease the pain.<\/p>\n<p>Swett retired from the Marines in 1970 as a colonel and on Jan. 24, 2009, he passed away of congestive heart failure at Mercy Medical Center in Redding, California. He was 88.<\/p>\n<p>Read the Original Article at<strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/taskandpurpose.com\/watch-marine-wwii-ace-describe-downing-7-japanese-bombers-first-combat-patrol\/?utm_source=newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=tp-today\">Task and Purpose<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Be Sure and Subscribe to<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCFggYNhgU-m4W-meF9BXbCw?nohtml5=False\"> Medal of Honor: Oral Histories YouTube Channel<\/a><\/strong> for more Amazing Stories Like this one!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During WWII, Marine 1st Lt. James E. Swett attacked 15 enemy bombers, destroying 7, on his first combat patrol. On April 7, 1943, Medal of Honor recipient and Marine fighter ace James E. Swett shot down 7 Japanese bombers, taking out four all on his own after he became separated from his wingmen. He was&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6899,3563,1860,1899],"tags":[10988,10989,10990,4667,763,1582,10991,10992,3122],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14168"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}