Hawthorne resident Lt. Col. (Ret.) Robert E. Swift will take his place as the grand marshal of the 73rd annual Armed Forces Day parade on Saturday.
Robert E. Swift
Lt. Col. (Ret.) Robert E. Swift, 93, was born and raised in Pontiac, Illinois. He joined the United States Air Force in 1952 as an Aviation Cadet. Swift graduated from Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas as a 2nd Lieutenant and received his Wings as a Radar Navigator.
Swift’s first assignment was with the 40th Bomb Wing at Smokey Hill Air Force Base (later renamed Schilling Air Force Base), Salina, Kansas, where he was stationed for eight years. This period coincided with the Cold War era, during which the B29 was his primary combat aircraft. However, this tenure was brief, as the Boeing B-47, a six-engine jet bomber, soon replaced the B-29.
As a Radar Navigator aboard the B-47, Swift was tasked with both bombing and celestial navigation duties. There were numerous temporary duty assignments to England, as well as additional missions to Spain, North Africa, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, for Swift. His last few years with the 40th Bomb Wing were as a Flight Instructor and Wing Navigation Officer.
Swift’s subsequent duty led him to Larson Air Force Base in Washington, immersing him in the realm of strategic missiles. His assignment was Crew Guidance Control Officer, a job that found Swift underground about every three days. Swift then had a short-lived stay at Keeser Air Force Base, Biloxi, Mississippi, where he took the Communications Staff Officers course.
From there, Swift went to Goose Bay, Canada, which was the first duty station in which he was not in the Strategic Air Command. He became the Chief of Maintenance for the 1932d Communications Squadron — this included all navigation aids, precision approach control radars, radios, teletype and high-speed data transmission, the tropospheric scatter radio, and a television station. Swift mentioned that were it not for the senior non-commissioned officers, the ship might have been in jeopardy. It proved to be one of the most formative periods during Swift’s years of service, and he credits the senior NCOs for their expertise in various navigation aids, data relay center equipment, and the TV station.
In October 1967, Swift left Canada and headed back to the United States, and he landed in Cheyenne, Wyoming, as the Chief of Maintenance for the 90 Communications Squadron. This unit supported the Minute Man Missile System, and Swift’s final year and a half there was as the commander of the unit.
Swift’s next assignment was to Detachment 12 1st Combat Evaluation Group in Hawthorne, Nevada, as the Detachment Operations Officer. The year was 1970, amidst the ongoing Vietnam conflict, Swift received notice that he would be deployed on temporary duty to Vietnam in the following months. He assumed the role of commander of a Sky Spot Site, a responsibility he fulfilled in both 1971 and 1972. Upon returning to the U.S., he resumed his position as commander, which he held until his retirement in 1974, marking the end of his 22-year military career. Since then, for the past 50 years, Hawthorne, Nevada, has been his home.
