11/8/2022 0 Comments Air force one commander![]() ![]() “Jim said, ‘If all the seats are taken you could ride up here with us,' ” Stoughton recalled. “The day of the assassination was one of the closest I got to Jim, when the president passed away,” said Stoughton, who did not have a designated seat on the plane that day. ![]() Kennedy had appointed Swindal to colonel a year earlier. Years later, Swindal served during Kennedy's administration, including on November 22, 1963, when the president was assassinated. ![]() He was selected as a flying cadet in the Air Corps. He worked as a crane operator at a cast iron pipe shop in Birmingham, Alabama, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, which prompted him to enlist in the Army in 1942, said his 68-year-old son, James Swindal. Swindal was born August 18, 1917, in West Blocton, Alabama, the son of the late Samuel and Miranda Swindal. “Jim Swindal will always be a hero to me,” said Cecil Stoughton of Merritt Island, who served as an in-house White House photographer. Swindal died Tuesday at Cape Canaveral Hospital. The Cocoa Beach resident probably would've told you that he was happily married to his high school sweetheart, Emily Swindal, for 70 years and that he's proud of his family. Johnson as Air Force One's aircraft commander.īut he probably wouldn't have told you that or that he flew missions between China and Burma during World War II. Reserved, patriotic and seeing it as his devout duty, he flew presidents John F. Kennedy, the same year Kennedy is assassinated. 18 in West Blocton, Alabamaġ936: Marries his high school sweetheart, Emily.ġ941: Encouraged to join military when Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.ġ963: Flies with President John F. Here are a few key years in Retired Air Force Colonel James Swindal's life.ġ917: Born Aug. Swindal, former commander of Air Force One during the terms of Kennedy and President Lyndon Johnson, died Tuesday at 88 Kennedy at his Cocoa Beach home in this 2003 photo. Swindal displays a photo signed by President John F. Cocoa Beach resident flew for JFK, LBJ Presidential pilot. ![]()
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