Robert Lee Swofford

Capt. Robert Lee Swofford passed away on November 3, 2014. Graveside Service will be Monday, November 17 at Rolling Oaks Memorial Center in Coppell. Robert always said that he had lived a life of dreams. He was born on a side hill share crop farm. Robert joined the Army and participated in maneuvers in Louisiana in the summer of 1941. There are Historical Markers at the old camp gates. He learned to fly and took a B-24 and crew to England via South America and Africa. There he participated in the largest Air Armada that the world would ever see. He led twelve plane formations on D-Day that destroyed a bridge at Caen, delaying the German tanks for a crucial three hours allowing the British time to land anti tank guns. After a year of flying transport New York to Paris Robert joined Capitol Airlines and flew with some of the pilots that started the airline industry. He then flew a number of different aircraft and thirty six and one half years later retired off of the largest aircraft in the world. From the age of eight he had a dreamed of flying planes and he managed to pull it off. On November 14, 2014 at 11 a.m. in Ft. Sam Houston, MacArthur Field, San Antonio he will be awarded the Medal of Knight in the French Order of the Legion of Honor.