Swift, Innis Palmer, born 07-02-1882, in Fort Laramie, Goshen County, Wyoming, 
United States, the son of Major General Eben Swift (1854-1938) 
and his wife Susan, born Bonaparte, Swift. 
Eben Swift who served as the first commander of the then 82nd Infantry Division, now the 82nd Airborne Division. 
Innes was married to Lucile Genevieve Swift and the father of Sally Genevieva Haines; Suzanne Palmer Cherry; Pamela Vaughan; Lucille Paddock Hillsinger; Carolyn Swift, his brother were Colonel Eben Swift, 
Jr.; Clara Palmer Humphrey; 
Paul Swift; Merritt Swift; Katharine Palmer McKinney.
The grandson and namesake of Civil War Major General Innis Newton Palmer, 
as well as the grandson of Brigadier General Ebenezer Swift. 
His four decades of military service culminated in his commanding a Corps during the liberation of the Philippines in World War II.
Innes graduated from West Point 
in 1904 and was commissioned in the cavalry. He served as aide-de-camp to General John Joseph Pershing 
in the Philippines and then served in Mexico. While a First Lieutenant commanding C Troop, 13th Cavalry, he accompanied First Lieutenant George Smith. Patton 
on the hunt for Julio Cardenas, 
commander of Pancho Villa’s personal bodyguard. During World War I he served as Assistant Chief of Staff for the 86th Division.
Swift attended the Army Command and General Staff School, graduating in 1923, and remained at the school as faculty until 1929. He subsequently attended the Army War College and the Army Industrial College
In 1940 he was promoted to Brigadier General, and in 1941 to Major General and placed in command of the 1st Cavalry Division 
and Fort Bliss. He participated in the Louisiana Maneuvers, where he coined the nickname used by army light observation aircraft when he told a pilot after a bumpy landing, “You looked just like a damn grasshopper!”
Innis transitioned the division from horse cavalry to essentially an infantry division, though it retained “Cavalry” in the name. He took his division to Australia in July 1942 and remained in command through the Admiralty Islands campaign after which he was reassigned to command I Corps 
in August 1944. He led I Corps during the liberation of Luzon in the Philippines in late 1944 into 1945. He was the oldest U.S. Corps commander to serve in World War II. After the war he remained a close personal friend of General Douglas MacArthur. 
Death and burial ground of Swift, Innis Palmer.
From left to right: 
Swift, Vice Admiral Daniel Edward Barbey,
Commander 7th Amphibious Force, Major General Leonard Ship “Red” Wing, 
Commander, 43rd Division. 03-01-1945, aboard USS Blue Ridge. 
Swift married the former Lucille G. Paddock and the couple had four daughters. After retiring in 1946 he lived in San Antonio. He retained interest in his old command, staying active in the 1st Cavalry Division Association and avidly following the division’s activity in Korea. Inniz passed away at Brooke Army Hospital after a heart attack and was buried in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. 1520 Harry Wurzbach Road, San Antonio, TX 78209, United States.,
Leave a Reply