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S/Sgt James Schwoegler
Radio Operator

The plane made it out over the ocean, but then the third engine's propeller broke off, slicing the plane's fuselage from the middle to the top and cutting the control the plane's fourth engine. They had only one working engine left.

The pilot made the decision for the crew to bail out, and it was Schwoegler's job to radio in their location. They planned to ditch near a location code named "Lot's Wife," which was actually named Sofugan, described by Schwoegler as "a rock sticking out of the ocean."

The crew began to jump out of the airplane through a hatch leading to the landing wheel well in the nose. The problem for Schwoegler was that lifting the door to the wheel well blocked him in the radio area. After the rest of the crew had jumped out, Schwoegler closed the hatch door so he could get through, much to the pilot's surprise.

"The pilot said 'Jim, get the hell out!'"

Schwoegler re-opened the hatch door and jumped. He did not know how high he was, and he had never taken a parachute dive in his life. The pilot, after aiming the plane away from the crew, was the last to jump. Schwoegler successfully deployed his parachute and was still in the air when the saw the plane explode against the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

"Even with a parachute you hit that water hard," Schwoegler recalled. "Half the Pacific Ocean went up my nose." Schwoegler managed to swim to the surface where he attempted to inflate a lifeboat that was part of his gear.

"I pulled it open and nothing…," he said. Fortunately he was able to manipulate the CO2 cartridge that inflated his raft and get it to work. The plane's crew was spread over a broad area, but thanks to Schwoegler's signal a B-17 rescue plane was able to locate the crew and drop them a Higgins lifeboat with food and medical supplies.

Of the 11 men in the crew, 10 were found. The flight engineer, Schwoegler's best friend on the crew, did not know how to swim. The co-pilot had taken him on his back when he jumped from the stricken plane, hoping to assist the engineer when they hit the water, but the force of the air tore the engineer from the pilot's back and they fell separately.

"We didn't talk about it afterwards," Schwoegler said. "We just didn't. I don't know why."

Safe in the lifeboat, the ordeal of the 10 survivors was not over.

"The morning brought so much fog, you couldn't see from here to the next house," Schwoegler explained. This hampered rescue efforts and forced the crew to use a "Gibson Girl," a shapely radio designed to be held between the legs and operated with a crank. When cranked, the radio sent out a constant S.O.S. To send the signal, an antenna was raised on a kite. As the radioman, the job of cranking fell to Schwoegler.

"I don't know how long I cranked," he said. "I was real disappointed no one volunteered to take it except the navigator." His efforts bore fruit in the form of a submarine.

"Is it Japanese or American?" Schwoegler wondered. "Then I saw a guy with a flaming red beard and I knew it was an American. It was the best sight I ever saw."

Schwoegler and the crew spent the next three or four days aboard the sub before transferring to another sub that would take them back to Guam. He still has the kite antenna that led the rescuers to them, but he accidentally left the "Gibson Girl" on the first sub when they transferred.

"The (sub crew) loved having us," Schwoegler recalled. "They gave up their bunks and everything. The first night (aboard) we ate chicken and steak. We hadn't eaten like that in a while."

After the return to Guam, the crew enjoyed a 10-day furlough in Hawaii before getting back to duty in the Pacific, but the new plane they were assigned had a dubious history. Under the control of a different crew, the plane had reportedly done two loops after entering a thermal over Tokyo. Some believed B-29s were not capable of performing a loop, but this one did and Schwoegler believed it emerged worse for wear. The plane was plagued by mechanical problems including engine and cabin fires.

"We weren't real happy about flying anymore," Schwoegler said.

Fortunately the war would soon end. Schwoegler and his crewmates were among those who flew over the battleship Missouri when the surrender treaty was signed just in case the Japanese attempted anything treacherous, "but we didn't have a bomb or bullet on board."

Schwoegler also was able to see the damage caused by the war from the air.

"Tokyo looked like a bunch of garden plots," he said.

As for the second, rattletrap B-29, there is more to the story. Shortly after the war ended the pilot from Schwoegler's crew went home on personal business, and another crew took the plane on a search mission. They never returned. Schwoegler thinks he was lucky it wasn't him.

"We would have been flying that plane," he said. "A lot of people complain about dropping the H-bomb, but I wouldn't have been here today. I have all confidence in that."

Jim & Shirley Schwoegler

With the war over, Schwoegler had accumulated enough points to come home. Not terribly confidant in other crews and other planes, he took a boat. He returned to Wisconsin, and in the fall of 1946 he re-enrolled at the UW where he would receive his degree in agriculture. He parlayed his degree into a 30-year career with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, working at many locations throughout Wisconsin.

On Sept. 4, 1948, he married Shirley, a Madison girl, and together they raised seven children. The couple moved to Verona in 1972. Following his retirement from the USDA, Schwoegler worked for 10 years at Four Winds Manor in Verona. He was in charge of laundry, housekeeping, and maintenance.

This story will come as a surprise to many people, even some who have known Schwoegler for a long time. Until now, he has kept much of his war story to himself.

"As a group, the vets just didn't talk about it much," he said. But now he thinks the time is right.

For his service Schwoegler received the Air Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Purple Heart, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Pacific Theater Ribbon and the Good Conduct Medal.

James E. Schwoegler took his Final Flight 19 May 2010.
A Mass of Christian Burial was held May 22 at 11am.
Burial was at Resurrection Catholic Cemetery.

Source:Steve Evans, Son in-law of Jim Schwoegler, RO
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