Walter J. McGinnis, age 98, passed away peacefully at home on December 27th in Highland Springs Senior Living community, Dallas. Born in Glendale, CA as Walter Wright McGinnis and raised in Philadelphia during the Depression years of the 1930’s, Walt’s mother died when he was 6. He and his brother went to live with relatives for the next 3 years, until their father remarried. Working many jobs after school while a teenager, at 16 he got a good job making parts for radios in the evenings. After graduating high school and turning 18, he was drafted in early 1945.
After Basic Infantry Training, Walt found himself an infantryman on a troopship bound for the invasion of Japan. History notes that the Japanese heard he was coming and surrendered in August of 1945, but a couple of atomic bombs might have been a factor. While in Japan in the Army of Occupation, he was assigned to the Commander of a paratrooper school that had been constructed, so he attended the school, won his jump wings, and stayed on as an instructor. Returning to Philadelphia after his Army service, Walt used his GI Bill benefits to achieve his childhood dream, learning to fly. He got a janitor’s job at the same company that he had left and lived at the YMCA. A local organization staged dances for returned servicemen, and Marion Reno was persuaded to attend by a friend, and that is where their paths crossed.
After he attained his pilot license, Walt got a job flying charter in small planes in Delaware, met a fellow aviation enthusiast and formed a partnership to perform in local airshows. His barnstorming days came to an end when he was admitted into the Air Force Cadet program in San Antonio. This was particularly noteworthy, since he was a severe stutterer since childhood and worked very hard to overcome it for the interview with Air Force officers in the application process.
After graduating pilot training at the top of his class, Walt and Marion married on Dec. 27th, 1950, 74 years to the day until his death.
Initially flying the B-29, he volunteered for combat in Korea flying B-26 Intruders at night, where he and two crewmembers searched at low altitude in mountainous terrain for trucks and trains to attack. Returning to the States, he soon was flying the new jet B-57 Canberra, which he continued to fly until retirement in 1970. In 1964 he deployed to Saigon for a year to fly a special reconnaissance version on night, low level missions, becoming a 3-war veteran.
The McGinnises lived on Air Force bases in Utah, Arkansas, Japan, El Paso, Texas, and Alamogordo, New Mexico, raising a family of 4 children. Walt’s primary hobby was flying gliders in a club. They retired to El Paso, Texas, where Walt enjoyed a job flying for El Paso Natural Gas until retirement 16 years later. His retirement hobby was hot air ballooning, and Marion gamely provided ground crew support. In 1994 they gave up the work of having a house and moved to San Antonio to live in a high-rise retirement community. 2008 found them moving closer to 2 of their children in Dallas’s Highland Springs community. A man of high morals, clean living, and dedicated service, he once said that he only hoped he and his sons could be better than the fathers before them. He overcame many obstacles in his life and remained proudly independent until the end. A pilot’s pilot – we wish you peace in your flight West!
Walt is survived by Marion in Highland Springs. Preceding him in death were his younger siblings Edward, Ann (Nancy) Whittington, Mary Jo Donovan, and Bernard, as well as a grandson, Brian. He is survived by his sister Cathy Howard and brother Joseph. Walter leaves 4 children, Michael and wife Vickie, Philip and wife Joanne, Kevin and wife Ann, and Patricia and husband Bill Maddox. He also leaves 6 grandchildren and step grandchildren.
Interment at DFW National Cemetery will be a small family ceremony. A Celebration of Life will be planned at a later date. If you wish to donate in his memory, the USO and the National Stuttering Association were organizations that meant a lot to him.