The inauguration of John Fitzgerald Kennedy as the 35th President of the United States symbolized the passing of the torch to new generation of Americans poised to accept the challenge: “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.” The commitment of the new president to devote the full resources of the federal government to achieve a “New Frontier” in America led many to believe they were experiencing the dawn of a new age.
Instead of a new age, the 1960s would be characterized by social revolution, racial unrest, assassination, and increasing involvement in the war in Southeast Asia. During this period of national and world crisis, two Alabama aviators, James Barney Swindal and James Underwood Cross, served their country in positions that provided a unique behind-the-scenes view of events that would dramatically alter the political and social landscape of the nation. Tragically, these events were set into motion on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.
On that fateful day, the temperature inside the cabin of the Special Air Missions aircraft, designated SAM 26000, was stifling. Unusual for late November, the weather conditions in Dallas seemed more like summer as the mid-day sun blazed through a cloudless blue sky. Even though rain showers had cooled the air earlier in the day, the aluminum skin of the massive four-engine presidential transport radiated heat that spread throughout the cabin as the aircraft sat motionless on the ramp of Love Field, and the ground cooling system had already been disconnected in preparation for an immediate departure.
In the cockpit of Air Force One, as SAM 26000 was more commonly known, Col. James Swindal waited impatiently for the command to start engines. The delay was due to an unprecedented event taking place in the midsection of the aircraft. Twenty-seven people—including public officials, Secret Service agents, and members of the press—were packed into the small presidential stateroom to witness the historic transfer of executive power as Lyndon Baines Johnson repeated the oath of office as the thirty-sixth President of the United States. Just two hours earlier, Pres. John Fitzgerald Kennedy had been assassinated while riding in a motorcade in downtown Dallas.
During the expedited ceremony, Swindal remained in the cockpit of Air Force One occupying himself with preflight tasks. In a subsequent interview with historian William Manchester, Swindal explained his refusal to attend the ceremony: “I didn’t belong to the Lyndon Johnson team. My president was in that box.” Minutes earlier, the casket holding the body of President Kennedy had been placed in the aft passenger compartment of the aircraft.
James Barney Swindal was born on August 18, 1917, in the small central Alabama mining town of West Blocton. His family later moved to Tarrant, where Swindal attended Jefferson County High School. A versatile athlete, Swindal participated in football, baseball, and track. After graduation he remained in Tarrant, employed in a variety of jobs that included two years as a pipe inspector and crane operator for the National Cast Iron Pipe Company.
The attack by aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy on the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Territory on December 7, 1941, drew the United States into a second world conflict. The declaration of war against Japan in December 1941, and subsequently against Germany and Italy, significantly affected the lives of Swindal and thousands of young men of his generation. In February 1942, the twenty-four-year-old Swindal bid farewell to his wife and family in Tarrant before reporting for induction as an Army aviation cadet at Maxwell Field in Montgomery.
After earning his wings as a military aviator, Second Lieutenant Swindal served in the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations flying Curtiss C-46 cargo aircraft over the Himalayan Mountains. Nicknamed “The Hump” by allied pilots, the route was utilized to supply Chinese military forces in their struggle against the Imperial Japanese Army. Considered the most dangerous of any military airlift operation, more than 600 aircraft and 1,000 airmen were lost to accidents along the perilous 530-mile route. In a news article describing the hazards of the airlift operation, CBS News correspondent Eric Sevareid reported, “Pilots could plot their course to China by the line of smoking wrecks scattered along the hillsides.” Because of the numerous accident sites, reporters soon began referring to the route as the “Aluminum Trail.”
From April to December 1944, Swindal accumulated more than 600 flight hours during 85 missions over the Hump.
Swindal’s participation in military airlift missions did not end with the conclusion of the Second World War. During the Berlin Crisis (1948–1949), in which the Soviet Union established a blockade to prevent ground access to the city, Swindal flew fifty-one humanitarian missions to supply the people of Berlin with food and other provisions. Extended periods of inclement weather, rudimentary navigation aids, inadequate airfield facilities and harassment by Soviet aircraft posed a constant threat to the airmen operating into the divided capital of the German Republic.
In June 1951, Swindal transferred to the newly established 1254th Air Transport Squadron. Recognizing the need to provide secure aerial transportation for the president and other government dignitaries, the United States Air Force established a team of highly experienced personnel to operate and maintain a fleet of modified transport aircraft to complete these specialized missions. Initially operating from the Washington National Airport, the 1254th Air Transport Squadron was later reassigned to Andrews Air Force Base as the 89th Airlift Wing.
A C-54 Skymaster landing at Templehof Airport in West Berlin during the Berlin Airlift. Both Swindal and James Cross, his successor as Air Force One pilot, commanded military transport aircraft during the crisis. The C-54 Skymaster became the officially designated aircraft for presidential transportation. [US Air Force]
Presidential air travel was a relatively new endeavor that began in October 1910 when Theodore Roosevelt became the first person elected to the office of President of the United States to fly in an aircraft. While attending an aviation meet at Kinloch Field near St. Louis, the former president accompanied Archibald Hoxsey, an aviator for the Wright Exhibition Company, on a brief flight. Hoxsey had been trained to fly just six months earlier at the flying school established by Orville and Wilbur Wright near Montgomery, Alabama.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt’s nephew, became the first nationally prominent elected official to utilize an aircraft for personal transportation. In July 1932, while governor of New York, he flew from Albany to Chicago to accept the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party. The eight-hour journey required two re-fueling stops. During the decisive years of the Second World War, President Roosevelt utilized aircraft for travel on trips to three wartime conferences with Allied leaders. Each trip required extensive use of aircraft while maintaining a high level of secrecy and security—requirements that would become increasingly important for presidential transportation in subsequent years.
The first military aircraft officially designated as a presidential transport was manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company of Santa Monica, California. The C-54 Skymaster was a four-engine, fifteen passenger military conversion of the popular DC-4 civilian airliner. Dubbed Sacred Cow by a skeptical Washington press, the aircraft was staffed by a crew of seven. Maj. Henry Meyers served as the first presidential pilot.
As one of the most experienced pilots serving in the 89th Airlift Wing, James Swindal was instrumental in the transition of presidential air travel into the jet age by coordinating the delivery of the VC-137C, a highly modified civilian Boeing 707 four-engine turbojet powered aircraft that would replace the older propeller-driven transports. Designated SAM 26000, the aircraft was first commanded by James Swindal. Promoted to the rank of Lt. Colonel, Swindal had been selected as pilot for president-elect John Kennedy after the 1960 presidential election. Following his inauguration in January 1961, the president appointed James Swindal as Command Pilot of the new Air Force One.
During his tenure as pilot of the world’s most recognizable aircraft, Swindal participated in a number of historic world events. In June 1963, President Kennedy traveled aboard Air Force One to Berlin, the first trip for Swindal into that beleaguered city since participating in the post-war airlift. Standing before the Brandenburg Gate, Kennedy addressed more than two hundred thousand residents of the divided city. He concluded his remarks with words that would resonate in democracies around the world: “All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ (I am a Berliner).”
Swindal also served as the president’s pilot during one of the most dangerous periods of escalating tensions between the United States and Russia during the Cold War: the thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 that brought the world to the brink of nuclear conflict. During the early days of the crisis, Swindal transported President Kennedy on Air Force One to events in Connecticut, Ohio, and Illinois to maintain the appearance of a normal schedule. This effort was designed to prevent a nationwide panic should news of the nuclear confrontation become public. However, Swindal will forever be most associated with the historic flight from Dallas to Washington that originated after three shots were fired from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository— the flight that would be the last for President Kennedy and the first as president for his successor Lyndon Johnson.
Originally scheduled to fly President Kennedy to Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin following a speech at the Dallas Trade Mart, Swindal and co-pilot Lewis “Swede” Hanson had just completed their pre-flight tasks in preparation for the brief flight. As Swindal sat in the cockpit of Air Force One monitoring radio transmissions of Secret Service agents accompanying the presidential motorcade, he heard agent Roy Kellerman suddenly transmit an ominous message, “Lancer (codename for the president) is hurt. It looks bad. We have to get to a hospital.”
Without access to public news broadcast, Swindal and his crew were initially less informed about the events unfolding in Dallas than average citizens. At 12:50 p.m., Swindal received an urgent message from Gen. Godfrey McHugh, top military aid to the president, to immediately fuel up and file a flight plan for Washington. Though still uncertain of the extent of the emergency, he ordered flight engineer Joe Chappell to “Get fuel onboard! Get ready to go!” Swindal would learn of the death of the president only when he turned on the television in the presidential compartment of the aircraft.
Reacting to the news, Swindal recalled feeling as though he had been “hit in the head with a sledge hammer.” Vice- President Lyndon Johnson, by order of succession mandated by the Constitution, was now Commander-In-Chief. Swindal and his crew immediately began preparations for a return flight to Andrews Air Force Base.
When word was received that Air Force One would transport the body of President Kennedy to Washington, Swindal knew that neither protocol nor his personal feelings would allow the casket to be placed in the cargo compartment. Swindal quickly decided to make room in the passenger cabin of the aircraft to accommodate the fallen president for his last flight on Air Force One.
Though the large bronze casket could be maneuvered through the rear entry door, a large partition blocked access to the passenger cabin. Enlisting the assistance of co-pilot Hanson, flight engineer Joe Chappell, and steward Joe Ayers, Swindal removed the partition as well as two rows of seats near the door. When the hearse carrying the president’s body arrived, Swindal stood at attention at the base of the portable stairs, provided by Eastern Airlines, being used to access the aircraft. As the casket was carried onboard, his salute was a professional demonstration of respect for the office and a personal tribute to the president.
Immediately following the brief ceremony in which Johnson affirmed to “faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States,” the new Commander-In-Chief issued his first official order: “Let’s get airborne.” As he prepared for departure, Colonel Swindal anticipated a routine air traffic control clearance that would include a route defined by specific courses and altitudes to fly. However, contacting ground controllers in Dallas, Swindal heard one of the most unique air traffic control clearances in aviation history: “Air Force One, taxi to runway three-one right, cleared to Andrews Air Force Base by any route, any altitude.” At 2:47 p.m. Central Standard Time, SAM 26000, codename Angel, lifted off the runway bound for Washington, DC. During thirty years of subsequent service to five presidents, the aircraft would never again fly higher or faster than it did on that day.
Reaching a cruise altitude of 41,000 feet, Swindal steered the huge jet along a course that passed over Texarkana, Memphis, Nashville, and Richmond before beginning a descent into Washington. As other members of the crew busied themselves with routine tasks, Colonel Swindal had a few moments to reflect on the tragic events of the day. He would later recall gazing out of the aircraft at the vast expanse of the world below and “suddenly realizing that President Kennedy was dead. I felt like the world had ended and the passion of my life had been spent. It became a struggle to continue. I knew that I would never again enjoy flying as I did before.”
Though Swindal would never again carry John F. Kennedy aboard Air Force One, he would command one last flight to honor the former president. On November 25, 1963, as Kennedy was laid to rest in Arlington Cemetery, Swindal flew SAM 26000 over the cemetery in a final salute. Surrounding Air Force One, a group of military fighter aircraft formed an inverted V formation, the last slot of the apex of the formation vacant, the symbol of a fallen flyer.
As the large aircraft began its climb after completing this last tribute, Swindal turned SAM 26000 to the west into the setting sun. He later recalled that he wished he had been able to cry. “He stared into the sun and blinked his eyes but the tears wouldn’t come. He pushed the throttles forward and leaned into the wind,” the cemetery and the president he had served so faithfully lost in the clouds and mists below him.
In one historical footnote of that tragic period, the Bible used as Lyndon Johnson was sworn into office aboard Air Force One disappeared following the ceremony. In its place, Swindal substituted a Bible that belonged to his son. The Bible included the inscription “Presented to Jimmie Swindal from the Central Baptist Church, Tarrant, Alabama, 1946.” The Bible remained on Air Force One until Swindal retired.
Working in his office at Andrews Air Force Base on the day of the assassination, Maj. James Cross was catching up on paperwork. In 1961, three years after joining the Special Air Missions group, Major Cross became the primary pilot for Vice President Lyndon Johnson. In his autobiography Around the World With LBJ, Cross recalls, “The assassination of President John F. Kennedy changed Lyndon Johnson’s life dramatically and forever. It changed mine too.”
James Underwood Cross was born April 25, 1925, in the Pleasant Home community of rural Covington County, Alabama. His father, James Kension Cross, was employed by the Horseshoe Lumber Company as an operator of a pump station that supplied water from a nearby creek to the small steam locomotives used to transport harvested timber to sawmills and lumber yards.
In June 1943, following graduation from high school, Cross enlisted in the Army Air Forces as an aviation cadet. After attending a three-month ground school course in Santa Ana, California, he began the flight training portion of the program, where he developed the skills that would serve him for the remainder of his military career. Cross later related that his most vivid memory of his first flight was becoming airsick.
After being commissioned as a Second Lieutenant, Cross was assigned to the China-Burma-India Theater. Like Swindal, Cross piloted Curtis C-46 Commando aircraft along the “Aluminum Trail” through the Himalayan Mountains. After completing his tour of duty in February 1946, Cross enrolled as a student at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute in Auburn. Recalled to active duty in October 1948 during the Berlin Crisis, Cross was initially assigned to an aviation transport squadron at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. Electing to continue his career as a military aviator, he applied to the elite Special Air Missions group, whose motto Experto Crede proclaims “Trust those with experience.”
Two weeks after Johnson became president, Cross received a call from the Oval Office. The president immediately got to the point, directing Cross “to get qualified on that big jet.” Johnson told Cross that he would initially be the understudy and co-pilot to Colonel Swindal until being fully qualified to take command. At first, the transition to presidential co-pilot caused problems with his mentor. Because of his past relationship with Cross, the president would often ignore Swindal and deal directly with his former pilot. Cross recalled Johnson as being the ultimate back-seat pilot, often ordering last-minute changes to flight schedules and itineraries. According to Cross, “Johnson didn’t care about anyone else’s rules when it came time for him to fly somewhere. He wanted to go, and he wanted to go immediately, and he wasn’t interested in hearing why he couldn’t go. No United States President before or since has given Air Force One the same impetuous workouts, and I was his enabler.”
In July 1965, Johnson nominated Cross to the unprecedented position of Armed Forces Aide and Director of the White House Military Office. Simultaneously, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and assigned as Command Pilot of Air Force One, becoming the only pilot in the history of Air Force One to have one foot in the cockpit and the other in the inner circle of the White House. The Secret Service gave him the codename Sawdust because he “was a country boy from a sawmill community and the piney woods of South Alabama who never lost his backwoods drawl.”
As Director of the White House Military Office, Cross was assigned a wide range of responsibilities that included managing the Presidential transportation fleet; the President’s emergency spending budget; the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland; as well as arranging diplomatic receptions for visiting foreign dignitaries. He would change from his Air Force uniform to a business suit as the occasion warranted. Following one Oval Office meeting, Cross recalled, “With a wink from the President of the United States and the realization that I had been in the midst of the small talk of the leaders of the United States of America, I was a long way from that Alabama cotton patch.”
In December 1967, Colonel Cross became the first presidential pilot to fly an incumbent United States President to a foreign war zone since Franklin Roosevelt reviewed American troops in Casablanca during the Second World War. The trip was originally planned as an overseas goodwill tour that included stops in New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, and South Korea. Unknown to Cross, the trip would also include unscheduled and unpublicized stops to visit troops in Southeast Asia as well as a brief stopover in Rome to meet with Pope John Paul IV at the Vatican.
During the two-day visit to the Philippines, President Johnson met with Gen. William Westmoreland, Commander of United States military forces in Vietnam. To improve morale among the troops, Johnson was encouraged to visit an American base in Vietnam before resuming his tour. The military air base at Cam Ranh Bay was selected for the presidential visit because it not only functioned as a major logistical and convalescent center for all branches of the United States military but also because it afforded a high degree of security.
With only minimal time for preparation, Cross and his crew departed the Philippines for Vietnam. Upon landing, Air Force One was met by 7,000 assembled soldiers. A reporter for Newsweek later wrote that the president moved through Cam Ranh Bay like a locomotive, pressing flesh, yelling encouragement, and having the time of his life.
The final stop of the presidential tour required a final coordinated effort between Cross and Swindal. The veil of secrecy surrounding the meeting between the president and Pope John Paul IV required Swindal’s assistance in transporting the primary and back-up presidential helicopters from an American air base near Madrid, Spain, to Rome without arousing the interest of the media or local diplomats. As Base Commander, Swindal ordered the helicopters loaded onto Lockheed C-130 cargo aircraft being maintained in a flight-ready status on an isolated area of the facility. Receiving the go-ahead from Cross, Swindal dispatched the aircraft in time to provide helicopter transportation for the president’s short trip from the military airfield at Ciampino, Italy, directly to the Vatican.
Air Force One returned to Andrews Air Force Base outside of Washington during the early morning hours of Christmas Eve. Since departing four days earlier, the aircraft had flown fifty-nine hours and covered 26,959 miles, landing in seven countries and territories. The flight represented the first time a President of the United States completed a circumnavigation of the globe by air, a remarkable contrast to Franklin Roosevelt’s July 1932 Albany to Chicago flight.
In March 1968, during a televised national address on the war in Vietnam, Johnson shocked the world with an unexpected announcement that he would not seek or accept the nomination of the Democratic Party for another term as president. Though Cross realized that his days as presidential pilot were coming to an end, he did not anticipate that his service to Lyndon Johnson would continue after the president left office.
Two weeks after making the announcement, Johnson discussed his future plans with Colonel Cross. Assuming a paternal tone, Johnson confided, “You know, when I get retired down in Texas, I’m going to need a friend down there. I’m going to need a general and somebody that’s my friend.” As the conversation concluded, Johnson advised Cross that he would be promoted to the rank of brigadier general and assigned as commander of Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin.
Following a brief tour of duty as a Reconnaissance pilot in Vietnam, General Cross served as Wing Commander of the 75th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, Bergstrom Air Force Base, until his retirement in April 1971. During his tenure in Austin, Cross was frequently summoned to the Johnson Ranch in Stonewall, Texas, to handle the former president’s personal affairs. Like Swindal before him, Cross would be called upon to perform a final act of loyalty to the president he served. As custodian of the official funeral plan for Lyndon Johnson, Cross supervised the burial of his former Commander in Chief on January 25, 1973, at the Johnson Family Cemetery in Stonewall, Texas.
James Cross lived the remainder of his life on his cattle farm in Gatesville, Texas. The announcement of his death on July 11, 2015, was made by Lyndon Nugent, a grandson of the former president.
Swindal retired from military service in 1971 as a Colonel stationed at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida. After leaving the military, Swindal refused to fly, making only one trip by air to attend the funeral of his brother. His grandson Jonathan Swindal explained, “After he stopped flying Air Force One, he would not fly on an airplane because if he was not in charge, he did not want anything to do with it.” Swindal died of heart failure on April 25, 2005, at Cocoa Beach, Florida. He is buried in Arlington Cemetery only a short distance from the president he served.
The tragic death of Pres. John F. Kennedy changed the lives of Alabamians James Swindal and James Cross dramatically and forever. As pilots of Air Force One, these airmen transported the world’s most powerful leader, on the world’s most recognizable aircraft, during one of the most tumultuous periods in American history. Throughout their military careers, both men gave their full measure of devotion to their country and to the presidents they served. Like the eternal flame that illuminates the grave of John F. Kennedy in Arlington Cemetery, the memory of the patriotism, dedication, and devotion of these Alabama aviators will never be extinguished.
This article was published in Alabama Heritage Issue #139, Winter 2021.
