James Barney Swindal passed away recently, another of the World
War II Generation, another retired Colonel whose stories of flying
the Hump and the Berlin Airlift were once the everyday
recollections of hundreds, thousands, of Air Force transport
pilots. But being a standout even in that august company, he was
selected for a special mission. That mission led to his most famous
flight -- with a casket for cargo and a grim and shocked load of
passengers.