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Three C-D-F-X Swifts Together
My brother went in the Army in 1952, and as Oldalkyraces said, he thought he went to Korea...Well, Russ was to go to Korea, but went to Germany instead... Seems the Army wanted him to run an IBM machine...Whatever that was in those days...My brother said he'd sleep on it and when it quit shaking, he'd add more cards...
My brother spent a lifetime in the computer business because of the ARMY.
When he was in the Army, my dad bought my brother a new Swift hydro...Nailed together, by god...A C-D-F-X Hydro...2 feet longer than a Neal..or something...My dad sand bagged a Mark 40 and A KG-9 for my brother. I wasn't old enough to race, yet, and didn't have a boat... Everyday, when I went into my dad's gargage (Shop) I'd look at that Swith, sitting on its side in a wooden crate...White Kainer steering wheel...Don't seem to recall a throttle...but I'd kind stick my head between the crate boards and pretend I was driving that damn thing...Then my dad would yell at me, "Not to tangle the steering" and come in here and start doing something...and don't pull the disappearance act."
That went on for about 9 months...When Jr. go home, I had me a Terrill AU and I was "RACING" every weekend behind Seaboard or over at Bixby Slough...waiting for my brother to come home so I could watch HIM drive that Swift....It was quite a thrill, considering the first time he put on his Six Stud racing C, he fell out of the damn boat...Big splash...(If you don't take the wheel and throttle with you, you fell out, you know)...
This picture is Lake Mead, fall of 1955, about a month after the Stock Nationals at Devil's Lake...
When I was racing for OMC, Joe Swift and I became good friends, though Joe worked for Mercury. Joe was easy to like. (Besides, I told him everything I knew...no secrets here.....YOU KNOW!!!!).. He had a great sense of humor.....Joe was always very humble, considering I always thought of him as a GIANT in BOAT RACING HISTORY!!!!