General Joseph Swing, the Father of the 11th Airborne Division - Part 1

In this episode, show host and 11th Airborne Division historian Jeremy C. Holm delves into the life of Major General Joseph May Swing, the Father of the 11th Airborne Division. Known as "Jumping Joe" to his men, General Swing is a legend in America's airborne history and this episode will cover the first half of his military service, including his experiences in Mexico during the Punitive Expedition against Pancho Villa and in France during World War I. 

We'll also follow young Joe Swing's career as an aide to General Peyton C. March, his early run-ins with General Douglas MacArthur and his accomplishments on the polo field, in the field artillery and the airborne, as well as his initial impacts on both of those branches of the United States military. 

General Joseph May Swing's name deserves to be remembered in the same class as James Gavin, Maxwell Taylor, William Miley and Matthew Ridgeway.

For more information, visit www.511pir.com or www.11thairborne.com today, or you can email jeremy at Jeremy@jeremycholm.com.

You can follow Jeremy on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/11thairbornediv

To purchase copies of Jeremy's books on the 11th Airborne Division, please visit:

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Or to visit our full 11th Airborne Division online store, please visit:

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Down From Heaven Comes Eleven! Airborne All the Way!

Transcript

Hello there, friends, thank you for joining me today for our discussion on the 11th Airborne Division’s Major General Joseph May Swing.

My name is Jeremy Holm, and I am an 11th Airborne Division historian as well as the editor of the online museums dedicated to the Angels, 511pir.com and 11thairborne.com. 

I am also the author of the book WHEN ANGELS FALL: THE 511TH PARACHUTE INFANTRY REGIMENT IN WORLD WAR II 

Think of it as “The Band of Brothers of the Pacific”

And we just published our BRAND-NEW book, DOWN FROM HEAVEN: THE 11TH AIRBORNE DIVISION IN WORLD WAR II – VOLUME 1 CAMP TOCCOA THROUGH THE LEYTE CAMPAIGN

This is a broader-scope history of the 11th Airborne in World War II and it has been exciting to see how many readers around the world are discovering the Angels through it. 

You can find both books on Amazon and other online book outlets. I am hard at work on Volume 2 of the Angels’ history, so keep your eye out for that as well.

Now, I have wanted to do this video for a while now, partially because we just celebrated what would have been General Swing’s 129th birthday on February 28.

The other reason I wanted to do this video is because General Joseph May Swing is a too-frequently overlooked legend in America’s airborne history. 

Most historians and airborne enthusiasts are at least familiar with names like Mathew Ridgeway, William Miley, William Lee and James Gavin.

But when I mention Joe Swing… crickets. Some have heard the name, but many don’t know the achievements of this incredible leader and just how much he affected airborne history.

I want to change that. 

General Swing deserves to be honored, not just for his impact on airborne history in the United States, but also for his leadership of the 11th Airborne Division in World War II. 

As one writer put it, “General Swing and 11th Airborne became synonymous; the man was the division, and the division was the man.”

Those who served with General Swing throughout his five decades of military service used a range of adjectives to describe him: Forceful, energetic, courageous, self-disciplined, purposeful, farsighted, innovative, reasonable, sentimental, short-tempered, forgiving, sincere, considerate, and demanding.

Throughout the 11th Airborne’s 130-plus days of combat in World War II, General Swing demonstrated his steadfast courage, his clear sense of tactics, his ability to decentralize to his commanders, his sincere concern for his troops, and his unwillingness to commit them haphazardly.

Indeed, if you look up the word “hero” in the Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, it says:

“An illustrious warrior, A person admired for achievements and noble qualities, and One who shows great courage.”

And as Lieutenant General Edward M. “Fly” Flanagan, who served with the Angels during the war, once wrote:

“When Webster and his successors wrote the above definitions of a hero, they could have been thinking of and describing the traits of character and the accomplishments in peace and war of one man: Joseph May Swing.”

General Flanagan then added:

“To those of us who knew him and served with him, General Swing measured up to a hero's qualities. As such a man and model, he lives on in our hearts and minds.”

So, let’s jump right into the life and legacy of this great man, General Joseph Swing.

This will actually be Part 1 of Swing’s history, covering his life leading up to World War II.

We’ll be posting Part 2 later this year, so stay tuned.

Joseph May Swing was born on February 28, 1894, in Jersey City, New Jersey to parents Joseph and Mary Ann. Swing was the third son born to the family and his father worked as a contractor and foreman. 

The general went to elementary and secondary schools in Jersey City then in 1911 he graduated from Barringer High School. Barringer is one of the oldest high schools in the United States, having first opened its doors in 1838.

Shortly after graduation, Joseph Swing received his appointment to the West Point Military Academy where his roommate was none other than Dwight Edward Eisenhower. 

Joe Swing and Dwight played football together under head coach Charles Dudley Daly along with their teammate, Omar Bradley, another name you might recognize. 

The team had a 5-3-1 season and were thrilled to win the annual Army–Navy Game, 14–0.

Swing was part of the Class of 1915, “the Class the Stars Fell Upon” since this graduating class produced more general officers than any other class in the history of the academy. 

Of the 164 graduates, 59 attained the rank of general, including our beloved Joseph May Swing who held the rank of Lieutenant General.

Most people don’t know this, but the phrase “the Class the Stars Fell Upon” was used before with the class of 1886 which produced 25 general officers out of a class of 77. 

Two years later, Joseph Swing’s future father-in-law, Peyton C. March graduated from West Point, but we’ll come back to that later.

Attending West Point had always been Joe Swing’s goal. 

He said decades later, “I went through the usual public school system, always with the idea, having been taken by my Daddy to West Point on the Hudson a number of times, of going to West Point and being a soldier.” 

As a cadet Joe Swing was described as, “A rough-house kid with a happy-go-lucky disposition. This man is undoubtedly at the bottom of more mischief and practical jokes than any other cadet in the place…” 

“…he is bright and versatile and, had he (worked even harder), (he) could have shown the way to most of the boys… we have no doubt of his success.”

Swing graduated 38th in his class, so ahead of both Dwight Eisenhower and Omar Bradley.  

He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant on June 12, 1915, and assigned to Battery A of the horse and mule-mounted 4th Field Artillery Regiment. 

And so, begins General Swing’s five decade-long military career. 

But as a young lieutenant, Swing was thrown right into the fire when he took part in America’s Punitive Expedition into Mexico against José Doroteo Arango Arámbula, otherwise known as Pancho Villa. 

On January 11, 1916, Pancho Villa's forces attacked officials from the American Smelting and Refining Company in Mexico and executed sixteen of them.

Villa then raided the town of Columbus, New Mexico, on March 9, resulting in the death of over twenty civilians from Columbus and soldiers from nearby Camp Furlong. 

The attacks kicked things into gear and Joseph Swing, who was promoted to First Lieutenant on July 1st, took part in the United States’ actions across the border to prevent Pancho Villa from making additional raids. 

Then in October of 1916, Lieutenant Swing was reassigned to the new 8th Field Artillery Regiment out of Fort Bliss, Texas. 

The 8th was organized because it was becoming clear that the United States would be drawn into the massive war going on in Europe which we now call World War I. 

Indeed, the United States officially entered the Great War on April 6, 1917, and one month later, on May 15, Joseph Swing was promoted to Captain. 

Captain Swing’s 8th Field Artillery was commanded at Fort Bliss by the legendary Colonel Peyton Conway March and after war was declared, March was promoted to brigadier general and given command of the 1st Field Artillery Brigade, 1st Division in Europe.

When General March’s aide-de-camp Lieutenant Stanley Reinhart was given a command in the 17th Field Artillery, the General needed a new aide, so he called on a young Captain that he had come to respect and trust from the 8th Field Artillery Regiment.

And you guessed it, it was Captain Joseph May Swing. 

General March was so impressed with Captain Swing’s intelligence, character and skills that Swing remained with the general when he was recalled to Washington to become the acting Army Chief of Staff on March 4, 1918. 

So, Joe Swing was only in France for about a year before he came back to the states.

On May 20, 1918, General March was made the Army Chief of Staff and kept Captain Swing on as his aide-de-camp. 

There’s actually a funny story of a reporter who used to go through the offices at the War Department when everyone was at lunch, trying to dig up something to report. 

General March got so fed up that he had Captain Swing escort the man off the premises and ban him from ever entering again. 

After less than three years of official duty, Joseph Swing’s star was rising quickly and 1918 proved to be a big year for our future general.

Not only was he serving in the office of the highest office in the Army, but he was also promoted to Major AND on June 8 he married Josephine Mary "Bootsie" March, General March’s daughter. 

The wedding was a bright celebration for the Marches who were still mourning the death of their son and brother Lieutenant Peyton March who was killed in a plane crash on February 13th.

1918 would bring a loss to Major Swing as well whose father passed that same year. 

And although the first years of their marriage would endure the added strains of Army-life, after remarrying in 1925, (Yes, I said remarrying) Joseph and Mary Ann Swing would have two children together and enjoyed fifty years together before Bootsie’s death in 1972. 

Now in 1918, Major Swing labored to assist General Peyton March with his goals to establish the power and importance of the Chief of Staff in the Army hierarchy.  

In addition to supervising the buildup of American forces in the First World War, General March also centralized control over the military’s supply chain, and created an Air Service, Tank Corps, and Chemical Warfare School. 

This of course led to some controversies since change is not always embraced, especially in the old military. 

But these expansions and adjustments also allowed Major Swing to meet with some of the biggest names is the United States military and government, a factor that will come into play as we go on with his story. 

In late 1918, Major Swing joined the 19th Field Artillery Regiment at Fort Myer, Virginia. 

A few months later on April 16, 1919, he and his wife Bootise welcomed the birth of their son, Joseph May Swing, Junior who they would affectionately call “Pug”. 

One interesting experience Major Swing had at Fort Myer was a dinner he attended on Thursday, March 25, 1920, with several other officers at the famous Rauscher’s Restaurant.

The dinner was held in the upstairs ballroom and was sponsored by Major General Inouye, the military attaché to the Japanese embassy in Washington. 

This was Swing’s first taste of dealing with the Japanese military. 

It certainly would not be his last. 

In February of 1921, Major Swing was transferred to Honolulu’s Schofield Barracks where he was given command of 1st Battalion, 11th Field Artillery Regiment. 

Called malahinis, or newcomers, the Major and his family immediately fell in love with Oahu’s beautiful environment and people.

They took part in the normal military social activities of the day, including beach parties, and I found a record from June of 1921 where the highly competitive Swing judged a Dispatch Carrying Competition.

This involved four teams transmitting a fifty-word message by semaphore flags that would then be carried by motorcycle messenger one mile to the finish line. 

Swing also established himself as quite the bridge and Polo player. He competed in Polo competitions with his fellow officers, including several which he sailed back to the mainland for.

The Field Artillery Journal said of Swing’s team, “Their teamwork, and individual play was of a high quality and their ponies equal to those of any civilian team on the coast.”

Major Swing also coached the 11th Field Artillery’s football team and was given high marks for his efforts.

But the strain of Army life and Major Swing’s constant travel schedule caused a rift in his marriage and as I mentioned earlier, he and Bootsie divorced in September of 1923. 

They would remarry about two years later on May 3, 1925, but not before Major Swing set sail for the mainland on February 26 on the SS Cambrai, a transport which would later be sunk by a German U-Boat during World War II.

Swing’s ultimate destination was Fort Sill, Oklahoma where the Major took command of the 9th Field Artillery Regiment. 

Swing then entered Fort Sill’s Field Artillery School where he furthered his understanding of tactics, techniques and procedures for the use of fire support systems in combat as well as leadership. 

After a few months Major Swing was on his way to Fort Des Moines, Iowa where he and his ex-wife Bootise were remarried again in May of 1925.

One year later on July 2, 1926, they celebrated the birth of their daughter Mary Ann Swing.

At the time, Major Swing was attending the Command and General Staff School at Leavenworth, Kentucky during the 1926-1927 course.

Upon completion of the course, Swing was one of the group’s 18 Honor Graduates, which is like graduating magna cum laude.

After graduation, Major Swing went back to Fort Sill’s Artillery School where he would serve as an instructor for four years and spent plenty of time on the Polo field where he coached his fellow officers and countless students. 

This was an interesting time in the history of the artillery since many of Swing’s fellow staff-members and instructors were helping to develop new fire direction techniques to make fire support more responsive. 

One development was the fire direction center which centralized command and control and to facilitate massing fire. 

Swing and the Field Artillery School instructors were also working to replace their horse and mule teams with motorized vehicles to better move their guns around the battlefield. 

So, let’s review. After only ten years of military service, Major Joseph Swing had already taken part in two campaigns, the Pancho Villa Punitive Expedition and World War I. 

He had served as an aide-de-camp to General Peyton March, the Army’s Chief of Staff and while there Swing helped March make significant changes to the way the Army was run.

And then, after attending the Field Artillery School and the Command and General Staff School at Leavenworth Major Swing was right in the middle of modernization efforts to move the field artillery from the old way of doing things to many of the techniques and tactics that we would recognize today. 

All this was done before he celebrated his thirty-fifth birthday.

Major Swing also continued to play Polo for the Army and was racking up quite a name for himself. One newspaper article called him, “a sensational hitter…” and said his Fort Sill team “was the team to beat.”

Swing played with a handicap of 3 per the U.S. Polo Association and after a string of wins against teams from other posts and countries, his team from Fort Sill found themselves in the Western Division Championships which they won. 

The Field Artillery Journal noted, “For the new champions, the play of Lieutenant Barden on the offensive, and Major Swing on the defensive is especially noteworthy.”

Now, that was in August of 1930. 

In July the Army’s 1st United States Cavalry Division team had lost to the Mexican Army team in a match held in Texas at Fort Russell. 

Mexico’s victory was seen throughout the American military as a tremendous loss since the Mexican Army had also defeated the United States’ Army team the year before. 

Keep that in mind.

But during the summer of 1931, Swing took his wife and children back to Washington, DC where he was assigned to the Office of the Chief of the Artillery. This was the second time the Swings were stationed in Washington, so this was familiar ground for the family. 

They socialized with their neighbors, other officers, and politicians. 

Major Swing also continued to excel in Polo, including in a match against a team from Fort Myer which Swing’s team won. 

Here he is accepting the victory cup in 1933 from none other than America’s first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. 

But in 1932, the Field Artillery Association’s president appointed Major Swing to a two-man auditing committee which reviewed the association’s Treasury report for the year. 

This of course was during The Great Depression, so funding was tight. Luckily Major Swing was able to report that the association’s financial affairs were in order. 

Two years later, with Swing’s Polo career at an all-time high, the Mexican Army once again beat the United States Army’s team for what I believe was the seventh time in a row. 

And as you can imagine America’s senior leadership was tired of losing, including the US Polo Association who had tried sending civilian teams to Mexico with similar defeats.

One person who was extremely disappointed with the Army’s losses was General Douglas MacArthur who was the Army’s Chief of Staff at the time.

MacArthur, who had followed the Polo career of Major Joe Swing with interest, wanted an American victory and if the Army’s regular team couldn’t cut it, perhaps Joe Swing’s team of War Department officers could. 

Major Swing had actually been asking to play the Mexican team for years, but said he was having a hard time getting official authorization. 

That’s when General MacArthur stepped in. 

He called Swing to his office and said, “Joe, you can go down there. If you don’t beat them and you come back here to Washington, you can find another place to be stationed."

Remember, Major Swing was serving in the office of the Chief of Field Artillery and was head of the war plans department, so MacArthur’s threat held serious weight for the career soldier. 

In late March of 1934, Major Swing and his team went down to Chultapec to face the Mexican Army team. Several Americans who attended the match said they saw event flyers all over town that bragged, “Mexico has not lost one of the last seven international championships that they have played in.”

While the people of Mexico were confident of another easy victory, on April 8, Major Joseph Swing and his team from the War Department did what no other American team had been able to do for years: they beat the Mexican Army team 12 to 4 on their own home turf. 

This of course caused a huge uproar throughout Mexico. 

One reporter noted, “…the overwhelming success of the American Team was considered somewhat of an upset. Many jubilant Americans testified to the long odds that they had received…” when placing their bets.

The sentiments were so strong that the Mexican delegation asked for a rematch. 

So, one week later, on April 15th, Major Swing’s team faced the Mexican Army team once more and although there were some questionable penalties called on the Americans which cost them two goals, Major Swing and his teammates were again victorious, this time with a score of 9 to 8. 

Well, the Mexican delegation asked for a THIRD game which the Americans agreed to and on April 22, the two teams faced each other again and this time Major Swing’s team won 7 to 5. 

Well, everyone in Mexico was shocked. They just couldn’t believe that this group of Americans could beat their former champions three matches in a row. 

Major Henry Burgess, who would later serve under Joseph Swing in the 11th Airborne Division, shared the common sentiment at the time: 

“Not only did Swing beat the Mexican polo team; he humiliated them...”

Major Joseph Swing returned to the United States a hero. 

A few months later during the summer of 1934 he left the office of the Chief of Artillery and enrolled in the Army War College at what was then called Fort Humphreys. 

Swing graduated in 1935 and was assigned to the 6th Field Artillery Regiment out of Fort Hoyle, Maryland where he served as Regimental Executive Officers under Colonel William Ennis. 

Major Swing continued to win horse competitions around the East Coast and his son, Joseph Junior, also competed and won his own accolades.

To add to his accomplishments on and off the field, on June 24, 1936, Joseph May Swing was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. 

The following year, the Swings proudly celebrated the appointment of their son Joseph Junior to the West Point Military Academy in September of 1937.

Three months later, just before Christmas Lieutenant Colonel Swing received orders to head for Fort Sam Houston in Texas where he would serve as the Assistant Chief of Staff in the 2nd Infantry Division. 

His role involved Operations and Training for the 2nd and as a member of the General Staff Corps, Swing would remain in that position for about two years.

Then, in April of 1939, Colonel Swing was given a big and rather unexpected assignment by his new division commander, General Walter Krueger: 

Krueger told him he was to organize and direct “La Noche de Militares” during the Fiesta de San Jacinto. 

This was a full-scale reenactment of the Battle of the Alamo that would involve hundreds of soldiers from the Second Provisional Division. 

Some of the division’s officers were selected to play the roles of William Travis, Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett.  

This must have been a huge undertaking since the Army built an exact replica of both the Alamo and the Alamo Plaza inside Fort Sam Houston’s Christy Mathewson Baseball Stadium. 

During the reenactment on April 19, 1939, the participating soldiers and reenactors fired blanks from their rifles and added to the realism with fireworks and by firing blanks with their 75-millimeter artillery pieces. 

It must have been quite an experience, I kind of wish I could have seen it. I haven’t been able to find any footage of the event, but if any of you know where some is, let me know in the comments below.

Colonel Swing was also the Grand Marshall for the fiesta’s five-mile-long Battle of the Flowers Parade which you can see a portion of here.

Shortly after the parade, General Walter Krueger officially made Colonel Swing his Chief of Staff. Now this is significant because Swing would serve under General Krueger again during the battle to retake Luzon in 1945 during World War II. 

Swing noted that Krueger was a dedicated man and a great leader, but that he had a hard time thinking outside the box when it came to combat operations. 

About a year after he became Krueger’s Chief of Staff, in November of 1940, Colonel Swing received orders to head to El Paso’s Fort Bliss where he was given command of the 82nd Horse Artillery Regiment. 

Part of the reason for this change of station was that General Walter Krueger felt that the 2nd Infantry Division deserved an INFANTRYMAN as Chief of Staff. 

Remember, Colonel Swing was an old artillery soldier, and Krueger was pretty strict in his way of seeing things. General Swing never said much about this, but I get the feeling he resented Krueger’s actions.

So, out went Colonel Swing, but it all worked out in the end since Swing was made 1st Cavalry Division’s Artillery Commander. This meant that Joe Swing played a major role in organizing 1st Cav’s artillery units and hand-picked many of the initial senior officers. 

Swing’s history with 1st Cav would last nearly six years and involve a rivalry between his old command, the First, and his later one, the 11th Airborne Division. 

But we’ll get to that in Part Two of this series. 

Now 1940 marked Colonel Swing’s twenty-fifth year of military service, most of which was spent in the field artillery which led some 11th Airborne Division officers to call him “The Old Horse Soldier”. 

Colonel Swing was, to use a Marine term, part of the Army’s “Old Breed” and was highly recognized for his leadership skills and discipline. He had fought in Mexico and France and spent nearly two decades in positions of high responsibility. 

A seasoned soldier, Swing could see that the world was heading towards another war, one to equal or surpass The Great War. 

Nazi Germany had already invaded France, Central Europe, Scandinavia, and North Africa.

Imperial Japan had moved on China and French Indochina and was obviously preparing to expand its influence militarily across the entire Pacific. 

As they say, “the writing was on the wall.”

Lieutenant Colonel Swing stayed with 1st Calvary Division at Fort Bliss for just under two years during which he made full-bird colonel, albeit temporarily, on June 26, 1941. 

This was a busy time for 1st Cav as the division saw the organization of the Army’s first anti-tank troop. Swing became friends with his acting division commander, Brigadier General Innis P. Swift whom he would meet again on Luzon four years later.  

And then, six months after Swing’s promotion to Colonel, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Shocked and enraged, the United States was now officially at war.  

Two weeks later, Colonel Swing watched 1st Cav’s 8th Cavalry Regiment play an exhibition football game under coach Captain Ernie Massad. Massad would soon serve under Swing as commander of the 11th Airborne Division’s 675th Glider Field Artillery Battalion.   

In researching Swing’s life for this video, it was fascinating to see all his early interactions with officers who would later serve with him in the 11th Airborne. 

Some would prove their worth in combat while others tested his patience to the limit. 

A handful would find themselves kicked out of Swing’s division when they failed to measure up to his high standards. 

But Joe Swing’s high standards were being recognized across the service and on February 16, 1942, he was advanced in rank to Brigadier General at age 47. 

His promotion came two weeks after he received orders to head for Camp Claiborne, Louisiana to join the iconic 82nd Infantry Division, the All-Americans from World War I. 

General Swing arrived on March 25, and reported to his old West Point roommate, General Omar Bradley who personally asked Swing to come organize the newly reactivated 82nd Infantry’s artillery units. 

General Bradley made General Swing the division’s Artillery Commander and Swing immediately got to work. He set high expectations and saw to it that they were met… or else. 

One newspaper article described the general as “a hard-driving West Pointer…”

Swing repeatedly told the men in his command that when it comes to any artillery mission, it is the results that count. 

One of the general’s many contributions to the 82nd’s Artillery was to construct an artillery range at Camp Claiborne which eliminated the much-detested 60-mile daily trip to Leesville. 

And as one 1942 newspaper article noted, “A week on the range… will bring out that artillery swagger at Claiborne.”

General Swing did take a break from his duties on April 12, 1942, to attend a special Army Day Parade in Alexandria, Louisiana alongside Generals Walter Krueger, Oscar Griswold and Omar Bradley. 

One month later General Swing and the 82nd Infantry Division assembled at Camp Claiborne on May 7, 1942, to listen to a speech made by the legendary Sergeant Alvin C. York who won the Medal of Honor in World War I.

Sergeant York, who can be seen in this photo, addressed the 15,000 gathered men of his old unit in their first retreat ceremony. 

York, now a Major, gave the All-Americans a rousing speech and told them in his southern drawl:

“Freedom is not a thing that you can win once and for all. We never owned freedom; we only got a lease on it. A payment came due in 1917 and 1918. Now another one is due, but this time we’re going to make such a big payment that it will be many a’ year before another one is demanded of us.”

General Bradley and his commanders like General Swing did such a good job training their men to make Major York’s “payment” for freedom that when the War Department reviewed records to see which division was in the best position to become airborne, the 82nd was selected. 

On August 15, 1942, the 82nd conducted its final parade then listened as their new commander, Major General Mathew Ridgeway read orders stating that the 82nd Infantry Division was now deactivated and was thereby reactivated as the 82nd Airborne Division.

This is where Swing’s legacy in the airborne began since the 82nd was now America’s first airborne division. 

Remember, General Swing was “an old horse soldier” with over 25 years in the artillery. 

But the airborne, well, that was a new form of warfighting that Swing quickly made himself an expert in. We have to remember that America’s airborne arm was still brand new and that General Swing and the 82nd were some of the first parachute and glider qualified soldiers in the Army. 

The General’s Aide at the time, Captain Douglas Quandt, noted: 

“In the inexperienced world of the early airborne, (Swing) accurately foresaw its problems as well as its possibilities and he became an outspoken advocate of division and corps assaults, as opposed to those of regimental and smaller size; the joint training and stationing of airborne and troop carrier units; the transfer from the airborne to the Air Force of the responsibility for accurate placement of the paratroopers on the ground ... These were not popular views at the time, but they have long since been accepted and adopted.”

What a lot of airborne enthusiasts and even airborne veterans don’t know is that the airborne as we know it only exists BECAUSE of General Joe Swing. But we will get to that part of his life a little later.

With his early and incredibly deep understanding of airborne doctrines and tactics, General Swing spent the next three months laboring to get the 82nd’s division artillery units airborne ready and did a fantastic job with the task.

While researching my latest book DOWN FROM HEAVEN, I found this historic and rarely-seen photo of The Jumping Generals of the 82nd Airborne Division. 

On the far left we have General Mathew Ridgeway who was the 82nd’s division commander.

Next to him is our own General Joseph Swing who, again, was the 82nds Artillery commander.

To Swing’s right we have General William M. Miley who was the 82nd’s Assistant Division Commander. Miley had several years of jump experience, so his expertise helped the 82nd Airborne tremendously in those early days. 

Second from the right is the jumpmaster for the group, Major Warren Williams of the 504th Parachute Infantry who was a parachute veteran with numerous jumps. 

And on the far right is First Lieutenant Don Faith, General Ridgeway’s aide. Faith would go on to serve as a Battalion commander during the Korean War with the 32nd Infantry Regiment. 

Don was killed in action while leading his men from the front on December 1, 1950. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

General Swing and his Commanding General Mathew Ridgeway were actually almost killed in these early days of the 82nd Airborne Division. 

The two generals were riding in a glider for a test flight. The pilot was future-general Fredrick Dent, Jr. Dent and when the glider came in for a landing at 100 miles per hour, the brakes failed and their “plywood hearse” nearly crashed into a B-24 that was warming up on the runway. 

Someone shouted, “Jump!” so Generals Swing and Ridgeway leapt out of the glider, only to hit their heads on an external cable. Bloodied, but intact, the two generals limped back to Operations while their pilot Fredrick Dent managed to avoid the looming B-24.

Then in November of 1942, America’s War Department ordered the formation of its third airborne division to be numbered the 11th. 

When names were considered for command of the new division, given his penchant for daring leadership and understanding of airborne tactics, Joseph Swing was selected.

Swing was promoted to Major General and to be honest, his new command came as no surprise to those who knew the general. 

MAJ Douglas Quandt, who would later serve as Swing’s G-3, noted, “He thinks big, and has amazing perspective which, to a large extent, is derived from a great respect for, and an encyclopedic knowledge of, the traditions, precedents, and accomplishments of the service, as well as a remarkably accurate and infallible memory.”

Swing’s new 11th Airborne was to form at the planned airborne camp outside Hoffman in November of 1942. 

This began for General Swing a tenure of service which was unique and remains a record, one that has for far too long been overlooked by airborne historians who focus, perhaps myopically, on William Lee, Mathew Ridgeway, Maxwell Taylor and Jim Gavin. 

For example, Major General Joseph Swing was division commander of one division for five consecutive years, during which he activated the division, trained it, and commanded it in combat and during its subsequent occupation of Japan. 

No other airborne commander in World War II could boast of such a resume.

So, in late 1942, General Swing and a handful of his new staff officers traveled to Washington, DC to meet with General Lesley McNair, commander of Army Ground Forces. 

McNair greeted the officers in his office and then they began four days of briefings and orientations. 

After one of those long days of meetings, General Swing presented his idea for the new 11th Airborne Division’s shoulder patch, a blue shield with white wings crested around a red circle and the number 11. 

In the meeting were Colonel Francis W. Farrell, his Chief of Staff, and General Albert Pierson, his assistant division commander, and General Wyburn D. Brown, the division’s artillery commander. 

All the officers enthusiastically approved of the design and the 11th Airborne’s iconic “Angel” emblem is still in use today by the recently reactivated 11th Airborne Division.

I hope that whenever our modern Arctic Angels see this historic crest, they give some thought to General Joseph May Swing.

Now General Swing was able to handpick his staff which came to be called his “Royal Family.” 

After finishing four days in Washington Swing and a few of his earliest staff officers spent four days at Fort Holabird, Maryland where they underwent “refresher” courses on the operation and maintenance of the Army’s motorized vehicles. 

Swing’s staff then traveled to the nearby Aberdeen Proving grounds for weapons orientation, after which the general and his Chief of Staff Colonel Francis W. Farrell went to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas to select the division’s original chiefs of staff.

They then made their way to the new unnamed airborne camp outside Hoffman, North Carolina and General Swing was less than impressed. 

The camp was surrounded by tall Carolina pines. The whole place was a cold, dreary hive of construction: roads were still being bulldozed, tarpaper barracks were half completed and many support buildings remained nothing more than drawings on engineering blueprints.

Captain Luis Burris of the Division’s 457th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion described the post as “a freshly drained swamp 20 miles west of Fort Bragg...”

The 188th Glider Infantry Regiment’s PFC Edward A. Hammrich wrote decades later:

“My first impression on seeing the camp was one of surprise, thinking that these tar-paper shacks must be the temporary buildings until the regular barracks are put up. It did not take us long to find out otherwise... It was nice being able to see what was going on outside of the buildings without going to a window; just look through the cracks.”

What happened was the builders had used wood that was too green causing it to shrink and leave gaps that allowed wind, rain and even weeds and other foliage to creep through.

As such, many of General Swing’s men later said they would rather be in combat than at Hoffman.

Well, things were so bad when Swing arrived that he told his Assistant Division Commander Brigadier General Albert Pierson to call the chief of engineers in Washington to report on Hoffman’s deplorable conditions. 

General Swing wanted things improved, and he wanted it done now. 

The message was received, and the engineers got to work, although their projects were not totally completed when Swing’s men began arriving in mid-February of 1943.

If you want to see what the camp looked like at the time during the 11th Airborne Division’s stay, watch MGM’s movie See Here, Private Hargrove which was filmed on location.

There was an added layer of challenge to General Swing’s new command. Remember, the 82nd and 101st Airborne Division’s had been formed from existing Infantry Divisions.

That would not be the case with the 11th Airborne. General Swing’s new command would be formed from scratch, although he would take a few existing regiments and battalions to form the backbone of the division. 

On February 25, 1943, General Swing’s 11th Airborne Division was officially activated by Second Army, though several division officers remarked that the “ceremony” was rather uneventful, just a small luncheon whose main guest was Denver, Colorado’s Major General Elbridge Gerry Chapman Jr. of Airborne Command.

Five months later, General Chapman was so impressed with the progress made by General Swing’s fully formed 11th Airborne that he told the gathered troopers, “Your Division, which was the first to activate at Camp Mackall, has set a high standard for future units which will come here to train.”

I think we’ll leave General Swing’s story there and continue it in Part 2. 

As you can see, he was a highly capable soldier with a long, disciplined career before he was given command of the historic 11th Airborne Division. 

And what kind of leader was General Swing? 

His Acting G-2 Major Henry Muller said, “I suppose there are two ways to lead a division: one is to ‘drive’ the other is to ‘lead.’ Both seem to work, but if you are going to drive, you have got to be awfully good, almost infallible... and General Swing was.”

Major Muller, who would retire a Lieutenant General himself, then added:

“He was the motion picture version of the American general... The excellence of the 11th Airborne was a reflection of this capable, driving leader.”

I hope to see you next time for Part 2 of General Swing’s story. 

If you’d like to learn more about General Swing and the 11th Airborne Division, please pick up a copy of our books: 

WHEN ANGELS FALL: THE 511TH PARACHUTE INFANTRY REGIMENT IN WORLD WAR II 

And

DOWN FROM HEAVEN: THE 11TH AIRBORNE DIVISION IN WORLD WAR II – VOLUMES 1 &2

Thank you for joining me today. As always, Down From Heaven, Comes Eleven! 

Airborne All the Way.