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Former Marine leaves CG behind after 30 years

Donald Swanger may have made a name for himself as the last active-duty, regular enlisted Vietnam veteran to retire from the Coast Guard, but the former Marine would much rather stay in uniform.

After more than 30 years in service, Swanger, 58, will retire from active duty Aug. 1 as a Coast Guardsman senior chief petty officer.

“I probably will have that military attitude forever,” he said. “The Marine in me makes me what I am.”

The oldest of five siblings, Swanger was no stranger to responsibility growing up. When he was 6, his dad left home and his mom was forced to take two jobs. He and his sister helped his mom iron the neighbors’ clothes for 5 and 10 cents an item, he said. When he was 14, he took a job at a restaurant to help out with the family’s bills.

“When I turned 17, I had very little knowledge of what was going on in Vietnam, but I had heard about the draft,” Swanger said. “I went to the recruiter’s office and asked him what my chances were of being drafted. He said 100 percent, so I signed up for the Marine Corps. I figured if I have to go one way or another, I want to go with the best.”

Swanger served two tours in Vietnam — first as an anti-tank assaultman with 1st Anti-Tank Battalion, then as an infantryman with 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines. The remainder of his time in the Corps was served with 2nd Battalion, 14th Marines.

Swanger was one of 1,500 Marines who fought against 22,000 Viet Cong in the 38-day battle for Hue City in 1968.

“I got out of high school and they taught me a job and they taught me very well. Basically... that’s the only thing I knew how to do,” Swanger said.

“When I got out, I tried to fit in back home, but it didn’t work because I was already in Vietnam. I wanted to go back and be with my comrades and be with the people I trusted and cared for. I didn’t want to be around people that didn’t really like me.”

Swanger moved to Oregon to help his stepfather with his logging business, but it didn’t take long for him to miss being in uniform. By November 1973, he joined the Coast Guard and stayed in until 1978. After another short break, he re-enlisted in the Coast Guard in 1985.

Since then, he has created the Independent Duty Health Services Technicians School at the Coast Guard Training Center Petaluma, Calif. — a goal more than a decade in the making — and served as the first head of the school from 2005 to 2006.

He also created the Coast Guards Patrol Forces Southwest Asia Combat Tactical First Aid Training Program in 2004 and served as the training team leader for several years.

Swanger wanted to use his Vietnam experience and real-life images, as well as gel molds depicting actual wound dynamics, to better prepare his students for combat.

After his retirement, he plans to stay on as the contracted lead instructor of the course, he said.