Walter R. Oswalt was born in 1920 in Ohio. He served in the India-China Wing, Air Transport Command as a Staff Sergeant and Radio Operator of an aircraft during World War II. He had been one of many survivors who bailed out of a C-47 transport crash over India. He had broken his leg in the jump. The survivors made a long trek back to safety with the help of locals. This account is written in the book 'Flying The Hump: In Original WWII Color'.

The crash in which Porter, Oswalt and his crew were later killed is documented in the same book, with an account given by the sole survivor and CoPilot, Lt James F Spain. With the exception of Lt Spain, he and the other crew members were killed 10 December 1943 in 'B-25D #41-30362' when it crashed near Chabua, Assam, India.

Ssgt Oswalt was one of over 2000 Americans who lost their lives defending China from their Japanese invaders from 1941-1945. He is commemorated on the The Monument to the Aviation Martyrs in the War of Resistance Against Japan in Nanjing, China.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.abmc.gov