By BRIAN PORTER | The Rocky Mountain Voice
HUGO — As he opened the first Congressional Vacancy Convention in 41 years here Thursday, March 28, to nominate a Republican to the 4th District special election ballot, Chairman Tom Weins noted the last time such a meeting was needed by the party.
Jack Swigert had been elected to the newly created 6th District in Colorado. The Republican won election to the seat on Nov. 2, 1982, but on Dec. 27, 1982, Swigert died of respiratory failure seven days before taking office.
“This is not business as usual,” Weins said. “We last replaced a congressman through this process in 1983, following the death of my good friend Jack Swigert.”
But, just who was Jack Swigert, some of the younger delegates in the room Thursday may have asked? Here’s a look at the congressman who never got to represent Colorado:
Best known for his role on the Apollo 13 moon mission in 1970, Swigert piloted the craft when three days before the launch he was asked to replace main crew astronaut Ken Mattingly, who had been exposed to German measles.
It was to be NASA’s third manned lunar-landing attempt, but an oxygen tank ruptured in the craft’s service module. It led to one of the most well-known phrases uttered first by Swigert and attributed to flight Cmdr. Jim Lovell: “Houston, we’ve had a problem here”, becoming known in popular culture as “Houston, we have a problem”. Also in popular culture, the line was repeated by Tom Hanks in the movie Apollo 13, the story of Swigert’s flight.
The oxygen tank rupture not only made the moon landing impossible, but put the crew, including Fred Haise, in jeopardy of not making it back to Earth. The slingshot plan developed by NASA to use the moon’s gravity to propel the ship around and back to Earth was successful and Swigert was the man to pilot the ship home. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom the day after landing.
Swigert never returned to space. In 1973, he became the executive director of the Committee on Science and Astronautics for the U.S. House of Representatives. He had a failed bid in 1978 for the U.S. Senate, and then in 1982 took 64% of the vote in the general election for a seat in the U.S. House.
In August 1982, he had been diagnosed with bone marrow cancer and on Dec. 19, 1982, he became ill and was airlifted from his Littleton home. Eight days later he died at age 51, a week before he would have been seated in Congress.
Swigert was replaced by Daniel Schaefer, who served a 16-year career in Congress.