Bryson City – Friday when the Maroon Devils take the field for their 1st round playoff game with Cherryville, they will be sporting a new patriotic ribbon decal. Swain will wear the decal in honor of Veteran’s Day and our service men and women around the world, as well as all of those who have served.
Swain High would also like to honor the memory of one of their own, Hall of Famer Hanley Painter. Painter, a graduate of Swain High and Lenior Rhyne, served in the Marine Corp during World War II.
Here is an excerpt of Mr Painter’s story, taken from the Hickory Daily Record, first published May 12, 1996.
Twelve months of fighting and island hopping brought the 20-year old Painter, who had already been shot once in the arm at Saipan, to the island of Iwo Jima. On Feb 19, 1945, Company E hit the beach. The small island – barren, ugly and waterless – was intensely defended by the Japanese because of it’s strategic location halfway between the Marianas (a series of islands controlled by the US) and Tokyo, 750 miles away.
After 20 days of intense fighting, Japanese mortars wounded Painter and several others on March 9. A mortar fragment drilled a hole through the head of the Marine next to him while Painter got hit in the face, head and left leg. He crawled out of the foxhole toward a stretcher. As medics were carrying him off, a stray bullet tore through his left shin, shattering the bone.
Hanley Painter was awarded 2 Purple Hearts for the wounds he suffered on Iwo Jima. Of the 240 men in his unit, he was one of only 3 remaining, when he was wounded. Painter went on to become an All American football star at Lenior Rhyne. Following his career he got into coaching at Lenior Rhyne, where he served for over 30 years in a variety of capacities, including Head Football Coach as well as Athletic Director. Hanley Painter, a Swain graduate and Maroon Devil football star, is a legend at Lenior Rhyne, where he retired from in the 1980s. Mr Painter passed away in 2001, just a year before his induction into the Swain County Athletic Hall of Fame.
Swain County High School honors the memory of Coach Painter, along with all of the men and women who have served this country so proudly and honorable.
