Los Angeles Times - CA,USA
James Elms Swett was awarded the Medal of Honor after shooting down seven Japanese bombers within 15 minutes over the Solomon Islands in World War II.
Swett was awarded the Medal of Honor after shooting down seven Japanese bombers in 15 minutes over the Solomon Islands.
By Claire Noland
January 24, 2009
James E. Swett, a former U.S. Marine Corps pilot who was awarded the Medal of Honor after shooting down seven Japanese bombers in 15 minutes over the Solomon Islands during World War II, died Sunday of congestive heart failure at Mercy Medical Center in Redding, Calif. He was 88.
On the morning of April 7, 1943, Swett, then a 22-year-old first lieutenant on his first combat mission, led his division of F4F-4 Wildcats to the skies over Guadalcanal in the western Pacific Ocean, where a wave of 150 Japanese bombers and fighter escorts was headed.
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