My first exposure to my father's service in World War II came when my mother pulled out a scrapbook containing his memorabilia. Over the years this collection grew to include things that could not be put into a scrapbook such as my father's uniform.
Documents
My father kept several documents related to his experience in the war. The most telling of these is the journal he kept from the time he left California until his final mission.
- Joe C. Swann's Journal
- Article in The Volunteer, a publication of Consolidated Vultee's PR Department
Pictures
My father's scrapbook has long since fallen apart, but the pictures still exist. Many of them are presented on the pages referenced here.
- Artwork Pictures
- Awards
- B-17 Training Pictures
- B-29 Interior Pictures
- Contact Prints
- Crew Pictures
- Fighter Escort Pictures
- Iwo Jima Pictures
- Miscellaneous Pictures
- Mission Pictures
- Saipan Pictures
- Target Pictures
These pages contain lots of pictures. Give them time to load if you are on a slow connection or surfing at a peak time. Click any picture to see a full resolution view of the image. Pictures were scanned at 300 dpi. Most were 3x5 inch or larger. Some were small contact prints (roughly wallet sized).
The information in the picture captions was either written on the back of the photograph or learned by talking to Bob Stangland, Achilles Stathas, Carl Barthold, and Bill Lind.
It is assumed these pictures are in the public domain as they were taken by soldiers while performing their duties in the US Army.
16 mm Film
A short segment of 16 mm film of B-29s in flight was found in my father's things. It appears to have been taken from my dad's position while flying in formation with other B-29s. You will need QuickTime to view this movie.
