Short bio of Swartz.
Charles Harlan Swartz was born on November 27th, 1898 to Elmer Frank Swartz and May Christina Bradley. After attending the USMA of South Dakota from 1918-1920, Swartz was accepted into West Point, where he was a star football player playing both center and guard. He served with the 10th Field Artillery Battalion from August 1921 to February 1924, the 11th Field Artillery from February 1924 to 1927 and with the 78th Field Artillery from March 1927 to August 1932. After graduating from the Field Artillery School (Advanced Course) in May 1933, he was assigned as Professor of Military Science and Tactics at the University of Utah, where he remained until July of 1938.
During World War II, he served as a battalion commander and division artillery commander with the 6th and 25th Infantry Division in the Southwest Pacific. During his war service, the general had served in The Philippines, Korea, Germany, New Guinea, Hawaii, and Japan. After World War II, General Swartz served after World War II on the War Department's general staff in Washington, D.C., and in the headquarters of the European Command in Heidelberg, Germany, as commanding general of the special activities division, Nuremberg. He was division artillery commander, 44th Infantry Division, and deputy commanding general for the 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Lewis.
He retired from active military service in 1957 and began a second career with Brunswick, Balke and Colander Company of Chicago. General and Mrs. Swartz made their home in Tacoma after he retired from that firm in 1961. He was past commander of the Tacoma chapter of the Military Order of the World Wars, past president of the Knife and Fork Club, and board member of The Friends of the Fort Lewis Museum. He was a member of the Sigma Phi fraternity, the Retired Officers Association, the Association of the U.S. Army, and the First United Methodist Church of Tacoma.
On August 23, 1973, General Swartz died in Fort Lewis Washington at 75 years old.
His own awards.
Ribbon bar.
His grave.
