usb flash drive as swap in linux

[Technomage]

ok,
I have made the required changes to fstab in order to use a 128 meg USB 
device.

only problem I seem to have is that even though the modules are loaded, it 
will not initialize as swap space unless I issue a swapon -a from root after 
startup.

some help would be greatly appreciated.

system is debian kernel 2.6.8-2-386 running on a compaq presario laptop.

HELP!!!

TMH