The Swoose

• Posted By: Scott Harrison
• Posted On: 12:31 a.m. | March 18, 2013

Los Angeles once had  the Swoose – the oldest B-17 in existence – as a possible war memorial.

But first a little history of the aircraft.  The Army Air Corps accepted the B-17D model in April 1941 at March Field, near Riverside. Originally named Ole Betsy, the aircraft participated in a mass flight to Hawaii, followed by a similar flight from Hawaii to the Philippines.

After Pearl Harbor, Ole Betsy flew combat missions in the Philippines and later in Indonesia. This National Museum of the U.S. Air Force webpage on the Swoose reports:

On Jan. 11, 1942, three Japanese fighters caused heavy damage to Ole Betsy — but lost two of their own in the process — during a running 35-minute engagement off the coast of Borneo. Maintenance personnel in Australia replaced the damaged tail with one from another B-17D, replaced the engines, and converted the aircraft into an armed transport. The new pilot, Capt. Weldon Smith, gave it a new nickname after a then-popular song about a half-swan, half-goose called the “Swoose.”

Capt. Frank Kurtz, a personal pilot for Lt. Gen. Geroge Brett, soon took over the Swoose and flew the general all over the South Pacific. One passenger was the future United States president – Lt. Cmdr. Lyndon B. Johnson.

Brett, the deputy commander of Allied Forces in Australia, had a falling out with his boss, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, and was transferred to the Caribbean Defense Command. Kurtz and the Swoose came with Gen. Brett.

Once back stateside, the Swoose was used as Gen. Brett’s personal aircraft and for War Bond events.

On Sept. 3, 1942, Kurtz and the Swoose arrived in Los Angeles following a record 36-hour, 10-minute flight from Australia via Hawaii.  The crew was met by a Los Angeles Times photographer – photos in the above gallery.

Following the war, the Swoose was scheduled to be dismantled at the War Assets Administration  facility near Kingman, Ariz. Col. Frank Kurtz convinced the city of Los Angeles to save the B-17D as a war memorial.

A story in the March 9, 1947, Los Angeles Times reported:

Her history began two months before the outbreak of war when she flew to the Philippines in a mass flight of new Fortresses.

In the ensuing desperate actions to halt the Jap, her sister ships were shot down or wrecked one by one, but the Swoose flew on, bullet-ridden, oil smeared.

Then, as a reward for valor, she was assigned to transport missions for high Army officers, and the 34 flags painted on her nose attest to her far-ranging flights to as many countries….

So, a year ago, when Mayor Bowron suggested the Swoose be placed in Exposition Park as a permanent war memorial to Los Angeles’ fighting men, living and dead, the City Council bought the famed old veteran for a token payment of $350.

She arrived last April with fitting fanfare and homage, a tired old veteran on her final flight. She was to become a symbol of American courage.

Yet there is no place for her, no building, no hanger space, and she stands alone….waiting…forgotten…

In 1949, the city of Los Angeles gave up and donated the Swoose to the Smithsonian Institution. On March 26, 1949, Col. Frank Kurtz once more took the controls for one last tour. The Times reported the Swoose departed Los Angeles Airport escorted by “a dozen National Guard (P-51) Mustangs.”

After years of sitting in storage, the Swoose in 2008 was transferred to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force for restoration and display.  This website Boeing B-17D the Swoose includes additional history and photos on the aircraft.

USC graduate and 1932 Olympics bronze medal winner Col. Frank Kurtz passed away in 1996. His Los Angeles Times obituary is online: Frank Kurt; World War II Aviation Hero.