Jack Swigert

Those who knew Jack Swigert called him the “epitome of good manners.” A lifelong bachelor, he was optimistic, intense, and had a distinctive sense of humour. It was during his political campaign for the US House of Representatives in 1982 that he was diagnosed with having a malignant tumour in his right nasal passage.

Despite a surgery, the cancer spread to his bone marrow and lungs. He was admitted to Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. and passed away due to respiratory failure on December 27, 1982.

In the 1995 space docudrama ‘Apollo 13’, Swigert was portrayed by Kevin Bacon.

Jack Swigert was born on August 30, 1931, in Denver, Colorado, US, to parents Dr John L. Swigert, an ophthalmologist, and Virginia Swigert. He had two sisters, Virginia Spinelli and Elizabeth Berube.

Having spent the majority of his youth in the areas surrounding the Combs Field, a small airfield in Denver, Swigert watched the planes take off all day long. At 14, he developed a deep interest in aviation and wasn’t satisfied by just watching them anymore. He wanted to be inside one and fly it. Realising that flying lessons cost considerable amounts of money, he began delivering newspapers to fund his flying lessons. By the time he turned 16, he had already gotten a license to be a private pilot.

He studied successively at Blessed Sacrament School; Regis High School, and East High School, graduating in 1949. Swigert was an exemplary student. Not only he thrived in his studies, but was a talented athlete as well. He first enrolled at the University of Colorado where he played football for the Buffaloes. He graduated in 1953 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering.

He went on to get a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Hartford campus) in 1965 and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Hartford in 1967. He was also awarded Honorary Doctorate of Science degrees by American International College and Western Michigan University in 1970 and an Honorary Doctorate of Laws degree by Western State University.

Jack Swigert immediately joined the US Air Force in 1953. He completed his Pilot Training Program and attended the Gunnery School at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. Subsequently, he was sent to Japan and Korea to serve as a jet fighter pilot. While in Korea, he experienced the first crash of his career. Fortunately, he was able to walk away from the accident with only minor injuries.

He later served in the same capacity with the Massachusetts (1957–1960) and Connecticut Air National Guard (1960–1965). Between 1957 and 1964, he had been an engineering test pilot for Pratt & Whitney, an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. He was also one of the engineering test pilots at North American Aviation before NASA came calling.

In April 1973, he applied for a leave of absence from NASA to serve as the executive director of the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives. Four years later, he resigned from both NASA and the committee.

Swigert had harboured political ambitions for a while. He joined the Republican Party in 1977 and was picked as the Vice President of B.D.M. Corporation, Golden, Colorado in 1979. He eventually left B.D.M. to take over the position of vice president for financial and corporate affairs at Gold and Minerals Limited. In February 1982, he submitted his resignation to contest for a seat in the US Congress.

He became the inaugural Member-elect of the U.S. House of Representatives from Colorado's 6th district, soundly defeating his Democratic opponent with 64% of popular vote. However, he died before taking office.

Jack Swigert had previously applied for NASA’s second and third astronaut selections but did not get picked. In April 1966, he was finally accepted into the NASA Astronaut Corps as a member of NASA Astronaut Group 5. As per his request, he was given the opportunity to serve as a specialist on the Apollo Command Module.

The events involving Apollo 13 came about at a time when the US had already won the “Space Race” over its Cold War rival Soviet Russia. The seventh manned mission in the Apollo space program and the third intended to land on the Moon, Apollo 13 faced multitude of problems from the very start. All members of the prime crew were exposed to German Measles (the rubella virus) and astronaut Ken Mattingly, it turned out, had no natural immunity to the disease.

Swigert replaced Mattingly and joined the crew consisting of James A. Lovell, Jr. and Fred W. Haise, Jr. The launch took place on April 11, 1970, but the mission had to be aborted after a leakage in the oxygen tank in the spacecraft's service module was detected. They returned safely to the Earth after spending five days and 22 hours in space.

He was meant to be part of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project as the command module pilot but having been implicated in the Apollo 15 postage stamp incident, he was cut out from the crew rotation.