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| Captain Estes Swindle was piloting a C-46 Commando that collided in mid-air with another C-46 over Hsinching, China. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_C-46_Commando |
Estes T. Swindle never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on September 1, 1917 in Mississippi. His mother was also born in Mississippi and his father was born in Alabama. His father worked as a farmer and later as a farm inspector. Estes was an only child. By 1940 Estes had completed three years of college. He was living with his parents and working on the family farm. Not long after, he learned to fly and travelled to China.
Before the start of the war Estes was a pilot in the storied Flying Tigers in China. For some reason he returned to America before the Flying Tigers starting flying missions against the Japanese. He became a captain in the 70th Fighter Squadron, 18th Fighter Group.
The 70th Fighter Squadron started off flying P-39 Airacobras but in 1944 it switched to P-38s Lightnings. It was operating out of New Guinea by August 1944.
The situation surrounding Captain Swindle's death does not match up well with his assigned unit. On October 10, 1944 Captain Swindle was flying a C-46 transport over Hsinching, China when he was killed in a mid-air collision with another C-46.
His grave is at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
To mark having over 100,000 visits to my project to honor the fallen of WW2 on their 100th birthdate, I created this video to share. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY. Now more than 200 fallen have been profiled with more than 200,000 visits. Is there interest in seeing a similar video highlighting those from the group of second 100?
Join the public Facebook group WW2 Fallen 100
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