Flying Tigers. A documentary

MISSIONS THAT CHANGED THE WAR: The Flying Tigers Part 1. Narrated by Gary Sinise. In China’s most desperate hour, Chiang Kai-Shek 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 his Navy Commission and volunteers.

 

Surprisingly to many, a majority of AVG pilots were former naval aviators. My father, an Ensign and a pilot in VF-42 on USS Ranger when the AVG recruiters came around, said the gent talked a good game. Dad, a USN regular, had no interest, but some USNR reservists, having served to near the end of their commitment with only rumors of prospects in sight, were interested. I know for certain that among those to go from the Ranger Air Group were Noel Bacon and John G Bright (VF-41); John Armstrong (VF-42); Allan B Christman, David Hill, and Edward Rector (VS-41); John Petach and Peter Wright (VS-42). In the end, Armstrong was killed, Bacon went back to the Navy, Bright went to the AAF, Christman was killed, Hill went to the AAF, Petach was killed, Rector went to the AAF, and Wright went to civil aviation.