Senior Airman Casey Swain is a lifesaver.
He’s not the sort to brag about it. But plenty of other soldiers have been more than willing to do it for him. He’s a Predator pilot, operating the remote-controlled planes that keep an eye on the ground troops and help track down the bad guys.
Last month, the U.S. Air Force decided it wanted to praise Swain, too. On Feb. 9, it gave him the Doolittle Fellow Award for Technical Superiority for his service in Afghanistan.
“There was everyone from the commander of the Air Force down to me, basically,” said Swain. “It was very overwhelming.”
Swain grew up in Emporia from the second grade on. He was 14 when he first knew he wanted to go into the military, just like his grandfather.
“My mom knew about it for a long time,” he said. “Dad was apprehensive about it at first, but he came to realize what I was doing and why. They were both very supportive.”
He had a good high school career: decent grades, a letter in debate, senior class presidency. His mom, Becky Gentry, still remembers the last line of his commencement speech with some amusement: “Never underestimate a fat white boy.”
“Kinda makes you wonder what he knew that we didn’t,” Gentry said in an e-mail.
Swain joined the Air Force in 2002, then went to Korea in 2004 and served two years there. After that, he began training on the Predator, a job that he still considers one of the coolest in the world.
It’s not an easy occupation, requiring something like the concentration of a chess player, the awareness of an air traffic controller and the ability to learn an unusual set of controls. Attention can mean lives.
“You can’t have a weak heart doing it,” Swain said.
He found out just how challenging it could be after volunteering for service in Afghanistan, where he served from June to November of last year. In one instance, a Canadian unit came under fire while Swain was the only sensor operator available. The attackers fled and Swain had to follow them remotely through fields and rice paddies, where details were difficult to make out.
He stuck with them for an hour and a half until the attackers reached what they thought was a safe house. Armed with the information Swain provided, the house was quickly neutralized.
“It’s a very hard job, but it’s very rewarding,” he said. “I hear Army guys telling us all the time ‘You guys watched out for us!’”
He wants to go back to Afghanistan. Good work is being done there, he said, something reflected in all the smiles he gets in the bazaar. And it’s a chance to watch out for others and keep them safe.
“I don’t like to think of it as ‘I’m the best there is,’” he said. “I just look at it as ‘This person gets to go home.’ Fathers don’t have to bury their sons. These aren’t people who have to come home in the back of a C-17. That’s why I love this job.
“I am going to keep doing it as long as I can.”
chataqua (anonymous) says...
My name is Gregg Swain. I am Casey Swain's Father and I want to express that I couldn't be more Proud of my son. As far as I feel he is doing the Lord's work.
I would love to find someone who make those My Child is a Honor student Bumper stickers.
I want mine to read
I was a Proud Parent of a Honor Student, who grew up to be Senoir Class President and now he serves his country by Dealing Death from above. GOD BLESS HIM AND PROTECT HIM.........Dad
January 7, 2008 at 10:37 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )