Horace Seaver Carswell, Jr.

The plaque names the mountainside; the citation holds the detail. On a night strike against a convoy, Carswell made a first pass at 600 feet, then a low run that scored two direct hits on a large tanker. Flak knocked out two engines, damaged a third and crippled the hydraulics. With one crewman's parachute ripped, he ordered the others out and stayed with the wounded copilot and the bombardier to attempt a crash landing. Eight men bailed out and three died on the mountainside. The Medal of Honor was presented posthumously on February 4, 1946.

What the plaque says

Horace Seaver Carswell, Jr. Major, United States Army Air Corps Horace Seaver Carswell, Jr. was born on July 18, 1916, to Horace S. and Bertha Rea Carswell of Fort Worth. He attended North Side High School where he excelled in athletics. Graduating in 1934, Carswell entered Texas A&M College and later transferred to Texas Christian University, where he lettered in football and baseball and graduated with a degree in Physical Education in 1939. In 1940, Carswell enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a Flying Cadet. He undertook Primary Flight Training in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and at Randolph Field (San Antonio), and Advanced Flying Training at Kelly Field (San Antonio). Upon receiving his wings in November 1940 he served at Randolph Field and Goodfellow Field (San Angelo) where he met and later married Virginia Ede in October 1941. Two months later the U.S. entered World War II. Carswell served in stateside assignments until April 1944, when he was transferred to the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations and to the 374th Bombardment Squadron, 308th Bombardment Group. Major Carswell commanded a unit of radar-equipped B-24J bombers at Liuchow, China. On October 26, 1944, he led a nighttime interdiction mission over the South China Sea. While attacking an enemy convoy, his aircraft was severly damaged by Japanese anti-aircraft fire. Carswell nursed his aircraft to the China coast where he ordered his crew to parachute to safety. When two of his crew could not bail out, he selflessly remained with his aircraft, searching for a spot to land until the damaged plane crashed into a mountainside. Carswell was posthumously awarded the medal of honor, which was presented to his wife and young son. In 1948, his remains were repatriated and buried in Fort Worth. That same year, Army Air Field was renamed Carswell Air Force Base in his honor. Its airstrip is still officially named "Carswell Field." (2016)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame — 3.3 mi
  A hall of fame begun in Hereford in 1975 to honor rodeo women, widened in 1977 to Western heritage, and housed in Fort Worth's Cultural District since 2002.
• Kimbell Art Museum — 3.4 mi
  Louis Kahn's cycloid-vaulted museum of 1972, built from Kay Kimbell's bequest and joined in 2013 by Renzo Piano's pavilion for the exhibitions the Kahn galleries could not hold.
• Fort Worth Stockyards — 4.7 mi
  The brick-street cattle market where Armour and Swift built packing plants in 1902, now a National Register district with a Coliseum, a museum and a longhorn drive twice a day.
• Tarrant County Courthouse — 5.1 mi
  A pink-granite courthouse of 1895 on the bluff where the Army set up Fort Worth in 1849, in a county named for the man who led the 1841 attack on the Native villages of Village Creek.

More markers nearby

• Fort Worth Army Air Field — steps away
• Crystal Springs Dance Pavilion — 1.1 mi
• Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation Plant No. 4 — 1.5 mi
• Castleberry School District — 1.6 mi