Interviewed 1991
Raymond E. "Bud" Swick was born December 23, 1922 in Romney. He enlisted in the Air Force on November 12, 1942 and went to radio school in Chicago, gunnery training in Florida, and flight training in Colorado. In November 1943 he arrived in Europe and was stationed near Greenwich, England. He flew nine missions over Germany. On his last mission, his plane was shot down. Swick parachuted from the plane before it exploded and was knocked unconscious went he landed in an open field in Holland. When he came to, he was surrounded by a group of Dutch men who helped him escape from the approaching Germans. Swick spent most of 1944 moving from farm to farm and town to town in Holland, aided by the underground Dutch resistance. He was liberated by the Canadians on April 13, 1945.