Louisville CIA pilot who died 70 years ago in China honored by Kentucky nonprofit

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Louisville native who died 70 years ago while flying as a pilot for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was honored on Tuesday.

Norman Schwartz joined the U.S. Marines in 1943 and became a fighter pilot in the Pacific theater during World War II. He then started flying for the CIA.

According to the CIA, in November 1952, Schwartz, then 29, and co-pilot Robert Snoddy volunteered for a mission to extract an agent from Manchuria in China. It was planned that the two would fly in a C-47 for an aerial pickup of the agent.

The plane was shot down, and it's believed that Schwartz died at the scene. Snoddy's remains were found in 2004, but Schwartz is still unaccounted for.

On Tuesday, Schwartz's family and nonprofit Charging Forward for America held a remembrance day in his honor at Camp Taylor Memorial Park.

"We need to remember these people," said Norman Wigginton, Schwartz's great-nephew. "It's so easy to get involved in your every day life and forget your past and their past and what honors they did for you and our country."

Schwartz is memorialized on the CIA Memorial Wall in Langley, Va. and was given the agency's highest medal for valor.