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Guide to the James L. Swauger Papers 1942-1994
Metadata Details
- Title
- Swauger, James papers 1942-1994
- Subject
- Swauger, James L, 1913-2005, Carnegie Museum of Natural History (Pittsburgh, Pa.), United States Army 796th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion., United States Army Armored Division, 10th., World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
- Description
- The James L. Swauger papers contain materials related to his military career during World War II. Correspondence between Swauger and other members of the 796th AAA Association from 1992 to 1994 are included. Within the correspondence are several newsletter publications entitled Track Tracings Jr. that were published by and for ex-members of the 796th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion Self-propelled. Another newsletter publication, Tiger Tales, published by the 10th Armored Division Veterans Association is also included. A training manual for a caliber .50, M2 Browning machine gun is housed within the collection. A photograph from 1968 showing an excavation site in Israel and an oversized photograph of the 796th AAA Officer Candidate School at Camp Stewart, Georgia in 1944 are also included. Several foreign currency notes from France, Belgium, England, Luxembourg and Germany are housed in the collection. The bulk of the collection is his work My Life as a Dog, a memoir that recounts his war experiences from draft to discharge. The work is split into four volumes. The first is comprised of diary-like entries that tell his story of the war. Interspersed with these entries are hand-drawn maps, correspondence between Swauger and his wife, and miscellaneous documents detailing his military service such as unit rosters, battle notes, and memos from army headquarters. Volumes two through four contain photographs from June 1943 to December 1948. These photographs show his military movements from the United States to England and then through Europe. There are several photos that include other members of the 796th and Swauger has identified most of them. Volume four also includes some newspaper clippings from after the war. A draft copy of My Life as a Dog from 1981 is also included in the collection., James L. Swauger Papers, 1942-1994, MSS 935, Thomas and Katherine Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center, Cataloging of this collection was funded by a Basic Processing grant from NHPRC., Carnegie Museum of Natural History Gift 2000 2000.0081, James L. Swauger was born on November 1, 1913 in West Newton, Pennsylvania to parents Lt. Col. John Shaner Swauger and Katharine Weaver Swauger. He graduated from Turtle Creek Union High School in 1930 and then attended the University of Pittsburgh. He obtained his B.S. in 1941 and that same year, at the age of 29, Swauger was notified that he had been drafted. Swauger entered training with 46 other local Pittsburgh draftees and left for Fort Eustis, Virginia in December where he completed basic training in March 1943. After being promoted to corporal, Swauger was moved to Camp Davis where he entered the Officer Candidate School (OCS). He focused on machine guns and the 40 mm AA gun and in June 1943 was promoted to second lieutenant. Swauger was then assigned to Camp Stewart in Savannah, Georgia, marrying Helen May Poole before his departure. At Stewart, Swauger was assigned to the 796th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion (796th AAA AW Bn). After completing training at Camp Stewart, the 796th was moved to Camp Gordon, Georgia, for advanced training where they stayed until August 1944 when they were deployed to the European Theatre. In October they were attached to the 10th Armored Division and then convoyed across France to join the 3rd Army outside of Metz. The unit saw its first combat action in November. Swauger was wounded by a small piece of shrapnel under his left ear on November 17, 1944. In December, the 796th moved to Belgium and Luxembourg to participate in the Battle of the Bulge. After May 7, 1945, VE Day, the unit was assigned to occupation duty first in Bavaria and then in Germany. On March 10, 1946, the 796th AAA unit started their journey back to the United States. Swauger arrived on April 3 to New York harbor where he then traveled to Camp Kilmore, New Jersey. At Kilmore, Swauger earned the rank of captain. Swauger was relieved of active duty on May 27, 1946. After being discharged, Swauger returned to his position at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Under the G.I. Bill, Swauger returned to the University of Pittsburgh where he obtained his M. Litt. in History. In 1950, Swauger and his wife had their first child, a son, followed by two daughters in 1951 and 1956. Swauger acted as the Curator of the Section of Man and became the Assistant Director of the Carnegie Museum from 1955 to 1964. In 1957, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Waynesburg College. In 1981, Swauger formally stepped down from his paid position at Carnegie and devoted his time to attending conferences, fieldwork, and writing books, while working at the museum on a voluntary basis. In 1993, his wife fell ill and died. In 2004, Swauger decided to move out of the area to Rhode Island where he died in 2005 of pneumonia. He was 92 years old., Gift of Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Processed MSS 935 03/2013 M. Hall, Collection level finding aid available.
- Contributor
- Swauger, James, Detre Library & Archives, Heinz History Center (depositor)
- Date
- 1942-1994
- Type
- Collection, Text
- Format
- print, 1.0 linear feet
- Identifier
- oclc:840278934, pitt:US-QQS-mss935
- Language
- eng
- Relation
- http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=hswpead;cc=hswpead;rgn=main;view=text;didno=US-QQS-mss935
- Rights
- Copyright Not Evaluated. The copyright and related rights status of this Item has not been evaluated. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/
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