Honoring Our Veterans: Cory Swanson
 | Author:
Matt Nelson
MT43 News Correspondent |
Honoring Our Veterans: Cory Swanson
This is Part 1 of a 2-part story on County Attorney and Lt. Colonel Cory Swanson.
Cory Swanson is the Broadwater County District Attorney and is also a Lt. Colonel in the Montana Army National Guard. He is about ready to be promoted to Colonel in the next month or two. He was deployed in the Middle East from January 2022 until November 2022, as a Battalion Commander of the 1-163rd Calvary. That was his third major deployment. He was in Iraq from 2004 to 2005, and again from 2010 to 2011, each time with the 163rd. The 163rd Cavalry was created when the very first Montana Militia was formed in 1863. The 163rd was stood up in 1917, formed as a unit to go to World War I. A few years ago they had their 100th anniversary as a unit.
Cory’s father was a career Montana National Guard soldier, who also retired as a Lt. Colonel.
Because of all the time Cory spent around the National Guard, he decided to join the Army in June 1997 when he was in college. He wanted to go to Fort Benning, Georgia because he heard basic training was tough and figured that he was tough himself. He thought he would be in for a couple of years and then quit.
However, he decided to go to Officer Candidate School (OCS) to be commissioned as an infantry officer. During his growing up years Cory did a lot of shooting just for fun, but never wore any hearing protection, so as result he has damaged hearing in his right ear. (He said, “Kids, wear hearing protectors!”) Because of that he could not get commissioned as an infantry officer. Instead, he became a chemical officer, taking tons of technical classes in chemical, nuclear, and biological warfare. He led chemical reconnaissance for a few years, and then he joined the 163rd Infantry when it was deploying to Iraq in 2004. He joined as a specialty chemical officer, and then later became an armor officer working with tanks. They changed from infantry to combined arms. They had armor units, tank units, and mechanized infantry units, like Bradley fighting vehicles. He went to all the schools to become an armor officer.
He was a staff officer in the operations section during his second deployment to Iraq - both were combat deployments.
Cory commanded the 1-163rd Battalion in 2016-2018. In 2016, the unit had a one month training event in Romania. In 2017 Cory led his battalion fighting forest fires in Montana, around Lolo, in Missoula, and Seeley Swan. It was a big, big fire year in 2017. He finished his battalion commander job, and then took online classes at a two-year Army War College.
In December of 2021, he received a call to become the 163rd Battalion Commander again. The unit was deploying to the Middle East and needed somebody to take over the job. He was happy to do it, but it was very hard on his family and his job, for sure. Cory was primarily stationed in the desert in Kuwait, where he evaluated Mechanized Infantry training and did a lot of travel to other units.
The unit they took was actually a task force from a lot of states. There were three companies from Montana. They were a logistics company, an infantry company, and a headquarters company. Depending upon the size of the unit, a company could be from 80 to 200 people. A tank company will be smaller, while a logistics company is big. Cory was in charge of all of these units, unless they were detached to work under a different command in another country. There were 9 companies total, including a tank company from Oregon National Guard, a tank company from Nevada National Guard, a medical company from Idaho National Guard, two more infantry companies from Florida National Guard, a chemical company from the Minnesota National Guard, and an Army Reserve Unit. There were over 1100 soldiers, operating in 6 different countries.
One unit went to Syria, and initially there was a small group operating in Jordan, but then another larger group of about 200 people went to Jordan for a month for a big international training event, involving perhaps a dozen countries who participated. The British were there, as well as Italians, Americans, Saudis, and Jordanians. The Task Force had units in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and a little bit in Iraq, but not much.
Cory is glad to be home with his wife Julie, son Caleb, and daughter Claire. He is very happy with his job as the Broadwater County Attorney. He won reelection in November, just before he came home. He and his family are quite active in sports and their Church in Helena.
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PhotoCredit: Matt Nelson, Cory Swanson
Image 2 Caption: Daughter Claire, Cory, his wife Julie, and Son Caleb
