About Jack Swigert
John Leonard Swigert Jr. was an American NASA astronaut, test pilot, mechanical engineer, aerospace engineer, United States Air Force pilot, and politician. In April 1970, as command module pilot of Apollo 13, he became one of 24 astronauts who flew to the Moon. Due to the "slingshot" route around the Moon they chose to safely return to Earth, the Apollo 13 astronauts flew farther away from Earth than any other astronauts before or since, though they had to abort the Moon landing. Swigert was a member of Apollo 7's astronaut support crew, the first support crew for an Apollo mission; he served as capsule communicator (CAPCOM) during the ascent phase of the flight. While he would have been content just watching planes take off from nearby Combs Field, young Jack became determined to do more than be a spectator. Swigert became a specialist on the Apollo command module: he was one of the few astronauts who requested to be command module pilots.
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