Claire Chennault and The Flying Tigers.
Maj. Gen. Chennault was a World War II leader of the famed Flying Tigers in China, for whom Chennault Air Force Base, Lake Charles, La., is named. He was born in Commerce, Texas, in 1890 and died in New Orleans, La., on July 27, 1958.
Claire Chennault, the legendary air war hero against the Japanese, grew up in Louisiana. He attended Louisiana State University and Louisiana State Normal College before being commissioned a first lieutenant in the Infantry Reserve in November 1917. He transferred immediately to the Signal Corps Aviation Section and served in World War I. After the war, Chennault was on duty at Langley Field, Va., and Kelly Field, Texas, learning to fly there and getting his wings in 1919.
He studied aeronautical engineering at Kelly and performed squadron duties at Gerstner Field, La., and Ellington Field and Fort Bliss, Texas, until September 1923, when he went to Hawaii for three years at Luke Field as commanding officer of the 19th Pursuit Squadron. He came home to instruct for two years at Brooks Field, Texas, where he was promoted to captain in April 1929 and named director of flying. He next attended the Air Corps Tactical School at Langley Field, Va., graduating in June 1931 and remaining there as an instructor.
The American volunteer flyers who fought for China against the Japanese invasion were known as the ‘Flying Tigers.’ They saw their first combat on December 20th, 1941. They had originally thought this would be earlier, but various delays meant that it happened a few days after the US and Japan were officially at war.
In China’s most desperate hour, Chiang KaiShek turns to the United States for help. The Japanese are bombing Chinese population centers mercilessly. China’s decimated air force is powerless to stop them. Chiang dispatches his American consultant former U.S. Army Air Corps officer Claire L. Chennault to obtain the airplanes and pilots needed to defend China. Tex Hill resigns from his Navy Commission and volunteers.
A small group of American aviators fought in their first battle in World War II.
Their mission was unusual: They were mercenaries hired by China to fight against Japan.
They were called the American Volunteer Group and later became the Flying Tigers. Though only in combat for less than seven months, the group became famous for its ability to inflict outsize damage on Japan's betterequipped and larger aircraft fleet.
Their victories came when Japan seemed unstoppable. The AVG was a bright spot in history when everything was bleak and black, and they have received much recognition.
In the West, 1939 is considered the start of World War II. However, China and Japan had been at war in Asia since 1937.

China was already fighting a civil war between the Nationalists of Chiang Kaishek and Communist forces. The two sides came to a truce to fight against the Japanese. China, however, had little air power to fend off Japanese bombings.
Enter Claire Lee Chennault, a U.S. Army aviator, instructor, and tactician who was once described by Time magazine as "lean, hardbitten, taciturn." Health problems and disputes with his superiors forced him to retire from the Army Air Corps in 1937 at age 43.
However, he quickly got a lucrative job offer with the Chinese Air Force, which was operating under Chiang's Nationalist government. Chennault was asked to come to survey the readiness of its fleet.
"Chiang Kaishek thought he had 500 airplanes," says Nell Chennault Calloway, who is Chennault's granddaughter and CEO of the Chennault Aviation & Military Museum in Monroe, La. "Chennault said, 'You have 500, but you only have 91 that fly.' That's how far behind they were in aviation."
Once the war with Japan officially broke out that summer, China hired Chennault as an adviser to its air force and made him its de facto commander.
Claire Lee Chennault first went to China to survey the Chinese Air Force's readiness and stayed on to lead the creation of the American Volunteer Group.

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