LT CDR Henry Boswell, III

Born to Henry Boswell, Jr. (also memorialized here) and Catharine Eastburn Boswell, Henry was such a little scoundrel that his grandfather remarked he was “a real pistol.” The nickname stuck with him throughout his life and career in the U.S. Navy.

The oldest of four children, Pistol always wanted to follow his father into the service. He was given an appointment to the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, upon graduation from high school, but left after his first year for personal reasons. Soon thereafter, he enlisted in the navy, went through Officers’ Candidate School, and was sent to Pensacola, Florida, for flight school. He became a jet pilot, flying from aircraft carriers. He became part of an astronaut class before being rendered ineligible due to mild diabetes.

When Pistol’s eyesight worsened slightly, he could no longer land jets on carriers, so he was trained to fly Huey gunships (helicopters) and was soon sent to Vietnam, where he flew for the army as part of the HAL-3 helicopter squadron—a wild and adventurous group known as the “Seawolves”—the most decorated unit in the Vietnam War. Daniel E. Kelly, in his book about the unit, quotes a high-ranking officer who refers to Pistol as “one hell of a pilot.” In Vietnam, he lived up to his name, commandeering equipment from other units for the Seawolves in daring escapades described in Kelly’s book.

The primary role of the Seawolves was to support and rescue special forces soldiers in the jungle through close air support. Flying in formation, the Hueys would swoop in to lay down fire as cover and pick up those in need of quick escape. During one such rescue, he was shot down over Saigon and saved by a fellow Seawolf.

Upon his return to the States, Pistol served as an active-duty reserve officer until his retirement as a Lieutenant Commander. He raised two children with his first wife Linda Hawkshead, graduated from Old Dominion University, and was “all but dissertation” for a PhD in ecology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, studying the effects of beavers on the ecosystem. He married Pat Bowen, and they moved to Henderson, North Carolina, where he served as Superintendent of Satterwhite Point Park on Kerr Lake. When he became ill with lung cancer, his entire staff shaved their heads in his honor and attended his mother’s funeral in his stead.

Surrounded by his family, he died of lung cancer in 2001, a few months after his mother’s death.