Resident of the Week Jim Swint
Born in Douglassville in 1934, Jim Swint always had a desire to go places; but he never expected to go as far or fly as high as he eventually did.
His mom’s father, Willie Alcorn, was a farmer. His dad’s father, Marvin Swint, was the Douglassville Rural Letter Carrier for many years. Both his mom and dad worked at the REA – now called Bowie-Cass Electric Cooperative.
“I’m a lot like my mom’s daddy. He was a storyteller, gentleman, a farmer and likable,” said Jim. “The Swints had five boys - a pretty tough bunch. I always told people that my daddy taught me how to be a man, and my momma taught me how to be a gentleman.”
After attending grade school and middle school in Douglassville, he then attended Atlanta High School, where he graduated in 1951. He still remembers Mr. Teague, the bus driver that hauled the high school kids to Atlanta and back every day.
Jim attended Texas A&M University before joining the Navy where he received his wings in the Flight Training Program before becoming a Marine. He explained that being in the armed forces between Korea and Vietnam means he never did get deployed. He taught flight training and tactics for both propellors and jets.
After leaving the service, Jim flew offshore helicopters out of Lafayette for a year and a half before returning to A&M to finish his degree.
He taught people to fly helicopters for Southern Airways before beginning a 25-year career at Braniff Airways. While he traversed the globe his home was in Allen, Texas, where they raised daughter Sally and son Kevin.
“I worked for Braniff until they went bankrupt,” Jim recalled. “Then they came back for a while and I went back to work for them.”
After moving back to Douglassville in 1985 he commuted to Kansas City where he flew freighters for Buffalo Airways and was also their chief pilot and trainer. He lived in London for a year or so while working as an instructor for America West Airlines. “I trained pilots on the Airbus A320,” he said. “Like the one Captain Sully landed in the Hudson River.”
His last career position was with FedEx, where he trained pilots in Memphis, then worked out of the Texarkana FedEx station until his retirement in 2007.
“I retired at age 73. I didn’t know it then, but it was way too soon. I could have kept flying another 10 years or so,” Jim said. “But I lost my wife in ’07 and I was pretty well burnt out. FedEx was going to send me to Memphis again and I just didn’t want to go.”
Most people here might remember his baby sister, Anita Swint Bickham. She died young, while teaching at Atlanta Primary School. Jim doesn’t see his kids much – Sally is in North Richland Hills and Kevin is in San Francisco – but he still visits with Anita’s boys pretty often.
Jim is working on making scrapbooks of his life and career for his five grandchildren. Although he doesn’t see them much, they text and call often.
“It’s been a great career and I just have a lot of good experiences. It was a lifetime trip,” he said. “I’ve lost a little edge, but my numbers are still good. I forget names of things sometimes, but other than that I feel fine. I’m pretty satisfied.”
These days, he says he enjoys naps and an occasional fishing trip with a buddy. He still drives himself and used to golf - but hasn’t in some time. He still owns an ultralight plane, but it’s been in storage for a while.
“I can still fly, but at my age I don’t think I need to do it alone,” he said. “I sure wouldn’t mind copiloting for someone every now and again, though.”
Although he has travelled all over the world, saying “when you fly for 42 years you go a lot of places,” he stated that there are only two places he would rather live – Costa Rica and Caddo Lake.
“Caddo Lake is near heaven to me – just beautiful. My dad and I fished all over that lake,” he said. “This is one of the best places to live in the United States. Things are different here. People are different. It’s a great place to live.”