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 Ric Swaningson greets a wheelchair-bound former pilot after a Sunday afternoon "one last flight" piloted by AWA volunteer Kirk Odom (right), a local attorney. AWA finds a home at "JNX"
Ric Swaningson is the enthusiastic president & CEO of Adventist World Aviation (AWA), organized almost 25 years ago "to reflect the love of Christ in action" by providing airborne relief missions to people in need in far-flung places: Guyana, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Canada, Alaska. It uses 26 small planes and both employed and volunteer pilots "to provide emergency medical transportation to the sick and injured," primarily in poverty-stricken remote villages where air transport is essential to survival. Another example of AWA's service were recent flights to the hurricane-ravaged Bahamas. A "supporting ministry" of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, AWA depends on donations for all its missionary and operational expenses. During a recent AWA "open house" at Johnston Regional Airport (JNX), Ric was a bundle of energy as he moved from station to station making sure everything was going smoothly and answering inquiries about AWA's work. That included a talk to a group of "Young Eagles" --- local youngsters interested in aviation who got to take short flights in AWA's planes that afternoon. When AWA was searching for a new home base several years ago, Ric said JNX was "the only airport to accept what we're doing." Three of AWA's small planes are kept at JNX, while others are in and out frequently as they fulfill their international missions. As for Ric, he flies out of here "at least once a week," he said. Ric calls one of  AWA's JNX-based aircraft "a legacy plane."
It's the "Toku-Hana" (with Ric in the cockpit at
right), a 1963-model Piper Comanche flown by a
U.S.-born Japanese American, Henry Ohye, on a celebrated
"good will" mission from California to Japan in 1964."His motivation," reads a brochure about the event, "was simply to bring about reconciliation and friendship between two countries that had been ripped apart by war and distrust" during World War II. (The plane, by the way, was named for the pilot's parents.) AWA personnel based at JNX alongside Ric are: Rebecca Stevenson, administrative assistant; Kyle Stevenson, chief of maintenance; Carol Beasley, donor relations; Sharon Williams, director of development; Bruce Wilkerson, executive vice president and interim Philippines Project manager; Monique Wilkerson, Guyana Project manager; and Tom Meighan, a volunteer mechanic. Besides his AWA duties, Mr. Swaningson is pastor of a small Seventh-day Adventist church in Wilson.  You can sense that Ric and his staff are
truly dedicated to their mission of service to persons
in need. You can also sense they really love flying.Chances are, some of those small planes we see regularly flying over Smithfield and vicinity are the AWA folks doing their thing. For more information about Adventist World Aviation, visit its website>  Here's the terminal
building at Johnston Regional Airport.
Adventist World Aviation is headquartered in a
leased hangar elsewhere on the grounds.
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