JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas –
In February 1952, Air Force Lt. Col. Maynard Swartz was
leading a squadron of several RF-80 jets from Lawson Air Force Base, Ga., to
Germany when he suddenly lost his vision while in the air.
Fortunately for Swartz, Lt. Col. Tommy Temple, his wingman
and a World War II veteran, was flying beside him. It was through the quick
thinking actions of Temple that Swartz survived and landed safely in a base in
Iceland.
Swartz passed away in 1995. His son, Jerry, got to meet the
man who saved his father’s life Oct. 30 at the invitation of the 12th Flying
Training Wing at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph.
It was the first meeting between Temple and Jerry Swartz.
The meeting occurred on Temple’s 92nd birthday.
Jerry Swartz told the story of how Temple saved his father’s
life before Temple’s family members gathered at the 435th Flying Training
Squadron. Swartz said the incident occurred two years before he was born.
“I wouldn’t have been here had it not been for Tommy,”
Swartz said. “My dad held an extremely high regard for Tommy. He seriously
considered naming me after Tommy, which I thought was quite a tribute.”
Swartz said his father and Temple were flying from Greenland
to Iceland, on their way to Germany, when the elder Swartz began to lose his
vision because of depressurization in the cockpit.
Without his vision, Swartz said his father could not read
the instruments in the cockpit and could only distinguish between light and
dark shades. Temple took control by talking and guiding Maynard Swartz to a
safe landing at Keflavik Airfield in Iceland.
Swartz said he was online a month ago doing research when he
came upon an article about the incident from a 1952 Air Force safety magazine.
Coincidentally, the article had been posted onto a blog by Warren Andrews, a
great-nephew of Temple.
That led to Swartz contacting Temple’s family members, who
helped him get in touch with Temple and arrange the meeting between the two at
JBSA-Randolph.
Temple said getting to meet the son of his squadron leader
and friend Maynard Swartz was “tremendous.” He said was happy to learn that
Maynard Swartz had considered naming his son after him.
“I thought he was a very remarkable man, a very wonderful
man,” Temple said.
Lt. Col. Scott Di Gioia, 12th FTW chief of safety, said
Temple is an example for all pilots in training to follow.
“I hope our wingmen can take something from it as they go
forward in their careers,” Di Gioia said.
Temple, who was accompanied by his wife Tawana, got to see
and get pictures taken in front of a P-51 Mustang and T-33 aircraft displays
that were part of the Joint Base San Antonio Air Show held Oct. 31-Nov. 1.
Temple flew P-51 Mustangs while serving in the Army Air Corps in World War II,
providing fighter support for bombers attacking Japanese targets.
He also saw the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds perform their
practice run before the air show, an experience Temple said was exciting.
Temple entered the military in 1944 and retired from the Air
Force in 1975, in a career that included service in both the Korean and Vietnam
wars.
Swartz was in the service from 1941 to 1953, participating
in the D-Day invasion in 1944 by piloting a C-47 Skytrain that parachuted
members of the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions into France. In 1952, he
became commanding officer of the 160th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron in Germany.
The squadron’s mission was to support Air Force and Army intelligence in Europe
to support the Marshall Plan in rebuilding western European nations after World
War II.