With more than 16 million men and women serving in World War II, it was not uncommon for families to have more than one child departing home to serve in the military. For the Schwaller family of Jefferson City, they would suffer the anxiety of having three sons inducted into the military, one of whom survived an airplane crash off the coast of Great Britain.
Joseph Frederick Schwaller was a 1940 graduate of St. Peter High School and spent the next year and half working at a local bowling alley. Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, however, he was filled with patriotic fervor and became the first of the Schwaller sons to enlist.
"He began his active duty service at Jefferson Barracks (St. Louis) after he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces on Jan. 9, 1942," said Jeanne Schwaller, who has researched much of her late brother-in-law's military service.
Jefferson Barracks not only grew into one of the busiest recruitment centers for the military during WWII, but was also the first - and one of the largest - Army Air Corps training centers in the United States. (The Army Air Corps officially became the U.S. Army Air Forces on June 20, 1941.)
Upon completion of his basic training, Schwaller went on to complete several weeks of flexible gunnery training at Las Vegas Army Airfield in Nevada followed by additional gunnery training at Tyndall Army Airfield (now Tyndall Air Force Base) near Panama City, Florida.
In the "Army Air Forces Historical Studies: No. 31," it is noted the type of training Schwaller and his contemporaries were given imbued them with the proficiency to operate a turret gun on a B-17 Flying Fortress - a four-engine heavy bomber. As noted, students learned ballistics, sighting, aircraft recognition, methods of firing and turret manipulation.
Located in the rear of the plane, the tail gunner targeted enemy aircraft through a small window, and had the responsibility of protecting the rear quarter of their aircraft through the heavy firepower of twin .50-caliber machine guns.
"When his training was finished in the United States, he was assigned as a gunner and began flying bombing missions aboard a B-17 during Air Offensive Europe, the Tunisian and Sicilian campaigns," said Jeanne Schwaller, describing chronological campaigns of the war.
On Oct. 9, 1942, less than two months following his arrival overseas, Schwaller was thrust in the midst of a situation in which he faced overwhelming odds while serving with the 419th Bomb Squadron of the 301st Bombardment Group.
According to the Oct. 16, 1942, edition of the Spokane Chronicle (Spokane, Washington), the B-17 Schwaller was serving aboard as a tail gunner was participating in a bombing mission against targets near Lille in northern France.
During this mission, the newspaper reported, Schwaller's aircraft "was attacked on all sides by (German) yellow-nosed fighters. Two motors were shot up and a third crippled. Losing altitude on the lone good motor and being left farther behind the rest of the American formation the Fortress battled its way out of the German fighter screen."
The crew miraculously reached the English Channel, crashing their Fortress at a speed of more than 100 mph. All 10 members of the crew survived despite spending 45 minutes in the icy waters before being rescued. The Ironwood Daily Globe (Ironwood, Michigan) reported on Oct. 16, 1942, that the crew declared, "All we want is another plane. We've got a score to settle with those guys."
Reflecting on the incident, Jeanne Schwaller explained, "According to stories from the family, Gabriel Heatter, a radio commentator who started each evening's newscast with 'There's good news tonight,' announced that Joseph Schwaller of Jefferson City, Missouri, had been rescued from the English Channel by the British Navy."
She added, "His mother, Freida Schwaller, was listening to the news and knew her son had been saved. Some days later, military personnel came to her house to tell her that her son was missing in action. She told them he was in England, safe and recovering in a hospital."
Schwaller was soon back to flying missions and earned a Purple Heart medal for minor injuries sustained in the crash. He would go on to serve as an engineer and gunner during the North African campaign, earning a Distinguished Flying Cross after completing 25 sorties against the enemy.
Returning to the United States in early July 1943, Tech Sgt. Schwaller became a gunnery instructor at the Rapid City Army Air Base in South Dakota. He finished out the final weeks of his military career at an airfield in Oklahoma, receiving his discharge on Sept. 3, 1945, after nearly two years and nine months in the military.
"While he was stationed at Rapid City, he met Mary Helen Smith, a former Navy nurse," Jeanne Schwaller said. "He moved to Rapid City after the war, and the two were married."
While residing in Rapid City, Schwaller operated a gaming business and in the early 1950s, moved to Connecticut, where he expanded his business. Due to the success of his company, he was able to retire at a fairly young age and moved to Sun City, Arizona, with his wife. The 83-year-old veteran passed away in 2005.
Relating that the former airman lived several states away from his native Jefferson City during the latter part of his life and had no children to pass down any tales of his military legacy, Jeanne Schwaller affirms Schwaller's story possesses some unique occurrences worthy of preservation.
"He lived in another state all those years, and I never had the opportunity to visit with him about his military service," Jeanne Schwaller said, speaking of her late brother-in-law. "I find it fascinating that there is this boy out of small-town Missouri who survived a crash and was plucked from the English Channel - and his mother heard about it on a radio program while several thousand miles away.
"It certainly isn't the type of military story you hear about every day," she chuckled.
Jeremy P. mick writes on behalf of the Silver Star Families of America.