Longview News-Journal from Longview, Texas • Page 17

Sunday, May 7, 1995, Longview News-Journal 17A Swanzy From 13A 1989 when a memorial was emotional. After the loss of her believes there is hope for future the La Tour D'Aigues mayor, erected in honor of the two air- husband, life was never the same, generations. "But we do have the power to men, declined her invitation to she said. "We can do nothing to change change the future if we recognize the street-naming because she But through prayer, wisdom the past that was a nightmare to our responsibility of building a said the experience was too and common sense, Prince all of us," she wrote in a letter to better tomorrow." r0 ft! Jack Rhodes I i kvC flJ 1 er, and Lt. Robert B.

Thomas of Oceanside, the crew's navigator and historian, will represent Capt. Swanzy's family and friends at the ceremony. In a narrative he prepared after government documents were declassified, David Swanzy determined that the July 12, 1944 mission which later was listed as the squadron's toughest battle began as fairly routine. Capt. Swanzy was in the first of two bomber groups who flew in formation across Corsica, then 50 miles inland of Southern France.

Enemy fighters had not been expected, but about 15 minutes before they reached Avignon, Messerschmitts (ME)-109s launched an attack. In one of more than 100 encounters the bomb group had with enemy planes, four ME-109s attacked Capt. Swanzy's B-24 head-on. JTheir bullets went right over the nose and into the cockpit and instrument panel," a crew member remembers in David Swanzy's narrative. "I saw their guns blinking and heard shells hitting the ship.

I looked up at (Capt.) Swanzy's feet hoping that he was going to level the ship offandflyon." Capt. Swanzy, crew members believe, took a direct hit and was killed instantly. Montana also was killed, and the men remaining abandoned the aircraft. "The first thing I saw after I bailed out were the German fighters coming straight toward me," one surviving crew member told the late-pilot's brother. "I was sure this was the final moment.

They flew so close to me that I could see the pilots, and they gave me the Air Force 'thumbs up' for good luck." "Section 8" survivors descended to the enemy-occupied ground below in parachutes. After a six-week ordeal and the help of the French Underground, they eventually returned safely to the United States. Less than two months after Capt. Swanzy was killed, his daughter Carolyn Swanzy Brewer of White Oak was born. In 1948, under Prince's direction, Swanzy's remains were repatriated to Memory Park Cemetery in Longview.

Capt. Robert Swanzy was one of nearly 40 million people who died in the European Theater before Germany surrendered to the Allies on May 7, 1945. The exact casualty figure will never be known. Prince, who visited France in Billy Decker i. i 3 Maxine Hunter Melba Langston Dan Malone Top Producer Million Dollar Producers Rising Stars Seated, Ken Golden, Sharon Hartley, Gene Austin, Elaine Rainey Roxanne Gibbons.

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-1 i -K III 1 To Our World War II Veterans A mighty nation salutes you today A nation, still strong and free Pauses, to remember when world crisis held sway And you faced them land, sky and sea! To answer the colors, even battle's sharp din To be transported afar; You responded with courage and stamina, when Your young lives were interrupted by war. Oh, 50 years have marched on, as Time surely will With more wars, but much peace at hand; Two generations have advanced, their places to fill They can thrive in our beautiful, free land. And now, to our veterans, the rest of us bestow A gift more precious than a gem When we, at every opportunity show Our genuine, American patriotism! About the author: Mrs. Mary Lucille Henson of Gilmer, is a retired Upshur County teacher who has done historic and poetic presentations in a number of East Texas counties. Mrs.

Hen-sons' husband, the late Noble J. Henson, was a highly decorated veteran of World War II. He fought in the campaigns of Leyte and Okinawa and was wounded at Okinawa. He died June 17, 1994, on his 72nd birthday. I.

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