Fernita grew up in Wichita Falls. In the 1940s, pilots were being trained at nearby Sheppard Air Force Base. On Sundays, Fernita’s parents used to invite airmen to their home for lunch after church. Fernita remained a friendly and welcoming person like her parents throughout her life.
Merle Swalin was a pilot being trained at Sheppard. He was from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and appeared rather more serious than Fernita. One evening, Fernita and her friends were “cruising” and stopped to talk to two airmen. At first Fernita wasn’t interested, but when Merle asked if they would like to get some ice cream, she said OK, because she didn’t think there was a nearby place to get ice cream. Merle had spotted one already, so the foursome had ice cream that evening.
This was in 1942 or 1943. They stayed in touch as Merle moved from base to base for training and finally, was going to be at Billings, Montana, a while. So Fernita took the train to Montana. They got a license and married there.
Soon after, Merle was on his way to war. He was a pilot that flew the dangerous “hump” to deliver supplies to Chinese soldiers who were struggling against the Japanese. The hump was an air path from India to China over the Himalayan foothills. It was the Army Air Force’s most dangerous airlift route because of the height of the mountains, the lack of oxygen at that height and because of the supply planes that were often called “The Flying Coffin” — the Curtiss C-46 Commando.
More than 1,000 men and 600 planes were lost over the 530-mile stretch of rugged terrain during World War II, and that’s a very conservative estimate. It was dubbed the “Skyway to Hell” and the “Aluminum Trail” for the number of planes that didn’t make it. If the winds and weather didn’t get you, a Japanese Zero would try. Merle survived the war, they raised their two children in Oak Cliff, and their marriage lasted until his death in 1990.
I don’t think I ever saw the uniformed picture and that would have been their wedding photo, I think; note that she has a white Bible in her hand. She is my personal example of what an active Christian could be – though both of my parents were also active in church. We are all Presbyterians. The Swalins and my family went to Sunset Presbyterian Church at Jefferson and Westmoreland while their son Richard and I were in high school. Then both families moved to Glendale Presbyterian, and Fernita and my family ended up at Oak Cliff Presbyterian when my younger sister was in high school.
I am 76, and when the memories start coming they are fun to relive. I have worked with kids and done some of the kinds of things that Fernita did for us. She was a very special person in my life and in my younger sister’s life, too. In fact, I would guess that most of us in my church youth group have never forgotten her.
—As told by Shirley Campbell
