'Flying Tigers' Veterans Return to Old Battleground

[Chinese-Empire]

Three American veterans of the legendary "Flying Tigers" air squadron that helped China during World War II on Friday visited picturesque Dianchi Lake in southwest China's Yunnan Province, where the wreckage of a fighter plane is being salvaged.

The "Flying Tigers" fighter crashed into the lake near Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, during a training flight in April 1942. The pilot, John Blackburn of Amarillo, Texas, was killed. His body was recovered, but the plane has remained in the lake for six decades.



Peter Wright, one of the veterans, had once worked with the pilot and he hoped to see the day when the plane would be lifted out of the water.



John Rossi, one of the "Flying Tigers" ace pilots, was excited to return to his old battleground. The 88-year-old wore a leather coat with the marks of the "Flying Tigers" specially for the trip. He was responsible for six and a half "kills." He could remember their troop was stationed near Wujiaba International Airport in the city of Kunming.



The three veterans recalled one major battle over Kunming in December 1941. The next day when they transferred to Kunming from Thailand, the city was bombarded by intruding Japanese planes and 12 "Flying Tigers" scrambled and shot down nine enemy aircraft, saving the city from more air raids.



At that time, local residents in Kunming were very grateful and friendly to the "Flying Tigers" and civilians would give them fruit and food in the streets, Peter Wright said.



The "Flying Tigers" were formed more than 60 years ago by General Claire Lee Chennault, prestigious commander of the US 14th Air Fleet, to transport arms and other materials, and to support China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-1945).



Many "Flying Tigers" pilots laid down their lives during the war and local people have been trying hard for the past decades to search for their remains in China's southwestern mountainous regions.

http://www.china.org.cn/english/2003/Nov/80089.htm

[Chinese-Empire]

The founder of the "Flying Tigers" (American Volunteer Group), fighter pilots who fought the Japanese in China the year before the U.S. declared war on Japan, was born September 6, 1893, in Commerce, Texas. He died of cancer on July 27, 1958.

Chennault was descended from eighteenth century Huguenot immigrants, related to Sam Houston on his mother's side, and related to Robert E. Lee on his father's side. He was raised and educated in Louisiana, where his mother died when he was five. He graduated from Louisiana State Normal College after attending Louisiana State University.

On December 25, 1911, he and Nell Thompson were married. They had eight children. They divorced after thirty five years, and Chennault married Anna Chan on December 2, 1947. They had two children.

Claire Chennault taught school in Louisiana, Mississippi and Kentucky before becoming a flight instructor upon U.S. entry into the First World War. He was commissioned a first lieutenant. From 1919 to 1936, Chennault served with the border patrol (until 1923); with the Hawaiian Pursuit Squadron (until 1926); and with the U.S. Pursuit Development Board and Air Corp Exhibition Group starting in 1930. In 1937, Chennault was forced to retire from the Army Air Corps due to disagreements with superiors and problems with his hearing.

He was soon hired by Chiang Kai-shek as an advisor to the Chinese Air Force, which led to his forming the famous "Flying Tigers" squadron. His success with the group contributed to his return to the U.S. military as a major general with command of the 14th Air Force. Disagreements with his new superior office, theater commander Lt. General Joseph Stilwell, led to his second forced retirement in July 1945. Both times, the disagreements were over military tactics.

Chennault soon formed what was essentially another "Flying Tigers" squad. He founded Civil Air Transport (CAT) and served as chairman of the board. Whiting Willauer, who worked with Chennault in the Far East during the war, was co-founder, backing the company with personal financial and legal contacts in New York. Chang Kai-shek's Nationalist Chinese government also supported the venture, as did the U.N. Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. This new "private" air force was created to fight Nationalist China's new perceived enemy, communism.

Chennault's paramilitary groups were not truly undertakings of purely civilian private business, however. The Flying Tigers had been a covert entity of the Office of Strategic Services, the wartime precursor of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In 1950, Chennault and Willauer sold CAT to the Office of Policy Coordination, the first covert action arm of the CIA, for $950,000, a move that revealed the true nature of the company. As CIA historian John Ranelagh put it, "Companies such as CAT, Southern Air Transport (based in Miami), Air America, Air Asia, and Intermountain Aviation were owned and operated by the CIA to provide air support under commercial cover to CIA and other U.S. government agency operations."

In 1958, as a final indication of his secret government status, Chennault died at the Ochsner Foundation Hospital in New Orleans. A year earlier and again in 1959, the hospital's founder, Dr. Alton Ochsner, who had many important relationships within the U.S. espionage establishment, received FBI clearance for a "Sensitive Position" for the U.S. government.

Bibliography: Ron Tyler, ed., The New Handbook of Texas, Vol. 2 (Austin, Texas: Texas State Historical Association, 1996) p. 57. John Ranelagh, The Agency: The Rise and Decline of the CIA (New York: Touchstone, 1987) pp. 217-18, 335. FBI file, Alton Ochsner, "Security Investigation Data for Sensitive Position," October 30, 1959.

http://www.famoustexans.com/claireleechennault.

[Chinese-Empire]

Thirty-three World War Two Flying Tiger veterans have traveled from America to China after a sixty year interval to celebrate the anniversary of the defeat of the Japanese.

The Flying Tigers, the famous nickname of the American Volunteer Group (AVG) of fighter pilots that fought in Burma and China against Japanese forces during World War II, together with 94 veterans from other organizations (Hump course, China-Burma-India Veteran, Fourteenth Air Force, etc.) came to China on a 10-day-visit to participate in the 60th anniversary of Victory over Japan Day (V60).

The $2,000 traveling expenses were all covered by the US veterans themselves, and many of them brought their families to China. All in their 80s with some in wheelchairs, the veteran pilots were most excited when they once again found themselves standing on Chinese soil, reunited with their former buddies.

"This is the first time that veteran pilots from nine different organizations have ome together," said Li Baoyu, manager of Beijing Tourism Group toBeijing Today Wednesday.
September 3 is the official day to commemorate the end of the Chinese People¡¯s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. By then, the US veterans, along with WWII veterans from other parts of the world,will gather in Beijing again to sign a peace declaration to mark the 60th anniversary of China¡¯s victory against Japanese invasion and the world¡¯s victory against fascism.

The veterans watched an air battle simulation and were awarded medals in the China Aviation Museum on Saturday. They also paid a visit to the Juyong Pass of the Great Wall.

Then they went to Lugou Bridge, a historic site referred to as the starting point of Anti-Japan War where the July 7th Incident broke out. They also went to the Forbidden City on August 14th.

They left on Monday for Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province and a major wartime base for the FlyingTigers to overhaul and maintain their planes. During their 4-day stay in Yunnan, American veterans dedicated flowers to the Hump Monument in Kunming and revisited former battlefields like Baoshan and Shangri-la in Yunnan.

A calligraphy and painting exhibition titled "Peace, fraternity and striving to be stronger" opened in Nanjing, capital city of eastern Jiangsu Province,n Sunday.

An exhibition that reproduces the historical scenes of the Chinese army and civilians' fighting against Japanese invaders will be staged at the Provicial Museum from August 16-25 in Shandong Province.

The State Postal Bureau of China published a set of stamps and staged an exhibition of stamps and envelopes used during the war of resistance against Japanese aggression on August 15.



http://www.beijingportal.com.cn/7838/20 ... 775424.htm

[Chinese-Empire]

2nt photo

William Jackson, former member of the legendary Flying Tigers, smiles as he touches the statue of General Joseph Stilwell, commander of the Allied Forces in Southeast Asia who commanded the US forces in the China-Myanmar-India theatre in World War II, in Chongqing of southwest China August 18, 2005. About 50 veterans of the Flying Tigers, formally known as the American Volunteer Group (AVG), arrived Thursday in Chongqing for a revisit as a part of their celebration for the 60th anniversary of victory in China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. The Flying Tigers were an American Volunteer Group, organized by Claire Lee Chennault in 1941, to help China fight off invading Japanese troops during WWII.

3rd photo

A former member of the legendary Flying Tigers smiles as he touches the statue of General Joseph Stilwell in Chongqing August 18, 2005.


http://www.china.org.cn/english/fetures/WWII/139044.htm

[Chinese-Empire]

A former US fighter pilot, who was one of the first Americans to fly in the sky over China during World War II, said that he was still excited about his every trip to China even six decades after the war.

John Richard "Dick" Rossi is leaving for Beijing Monday along with other American WWII veterans invited by the Chinese government on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the victory in World War II.

"The Chinese people are so friendly and so thankful, because we fought on their side against the Japanese invaders," Rossi, 90, told Xinhua in an interview at his Fallbrook, California, residence Friday.

The former Ace pilot made a record of 6.25 kills during his combat operations against Japanese Air Force planes as a flight leader of the American Volunteer Group (AVG), better known as the Flying Tigers.

"I am excited about the trip to China," he said, "we are treated there so well, and every time we meet some new friends in China."

Rossi said he had returned to China for four or five times since the 1980s when people in China began to be familiar with the Flying Tigers's contribution to the country's war against the Japanese invasion.

And this time, he is expected to join some 200 WWII veterans from around the world in Beijing early September to sign a peace declaration marking the ending of Word War II.

The three-week trip will also bring Rossi and his fellow veterans to other major Chinese cities, including Nanjing, Shanghai,and Kunming, where the American Volunteer Group was headquartered during the war.

The AVG was organized by retired US colonel Claire Chennault, who was helping rebuild the Chinese Air Force then, through recruiting resigned US servicemen in 1941, several months before the Pearl Harbor attack, which prompted the United States's formal entry in the WWII.

The AVG project took direct personal intervention from the then US President Franklin Roosevelt, who reportedly authorized reserve officer and enlisted men to resign from the Army Air Corps, Naval and Marine air services for joining the volunteer force.

Rossi resigned his Navy commission as a flight instructor to join the AVG and attained his Ace status with a confirmed 6.25 victories in air-to-air combat.

When the AVG disbanded in 1942, Rossi joined the civilian China National Aviation Corporation, flying supplies from India to China by the famous "over the Hump" air route.

As a co-founder of the freight carrier Flying Tiger Line, which was the only airline started during the war, Rossi returned to the United States after the war and flew as a captain for 25 years.

The airline was later bought out by Federal Express.

After retiring at 60, Rossi found more time to work for the Flying Tigers Association, a group of former flying tigers, family members and friends which he helped established in 1952.

Having served as president of the association from the very beginning, Rossi said that the association had been organizing reunions of former Flying Tigers members almost every other year.

However, people taking parting in such reunion parties in recent years, often held in big ranches with huge barbecues, are far fewer than those in the early years, as even the youngest former AVG members are over 85 years old now.

And only more than 30 of the over 300 American volunteers who had served in China during WWII are still alive, according to Rossi.

Rossi, who had a pacemaker installed in July, said he still did well at the age of 90 and anticipated a pleasant and exciting stay in China.

"In China, even ordinary people in the street were coming up to greet us and express their gratitude when they knew we are former AVG members," he said. "The Flying Tigers is a famous name there."

And even back in the United States, where the America Volunteer Group's contribution to the victory against the Japanese in the pacific theater were seldom mentioned in WWII history books, Rossi could also feel his pride as a war hero, sometimes in another way.

Lydia, Rossi's wife for 39 years, recalled that when their only son Tony was in grade school, his teacher found out Tony's father was one of the Flying Tigers and she asked Tony to bring his father to the class and speak.

"Dick agreed, but was dragging his feet about it until Tony came home very excited to tell us that his teacher had promised him an 'A' if he got his dad to come in," said Lydia.

And of course, the father soon showed himself up at the class.

"I do remember that this was an exceptional teacher -- I know other teachers would not have gone to the trouble," said Lydia, who also acts as the secretary and spokeswoman for Rossi's Flying Tigers Association, and has been accompanying him on every China trip in recent years.

"In fact, this only came up one other time when Tony was in high school."


http://english.people.com.cn/200508/28/ ... 04937.html

[Chinese-Empire]

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