+ Larger Font | - Smaller Font

 

Lieutenant General Claire Lee Chennault (September 6, 1893 – July 27, 1958), was an American military aviator who commanded the "Flying Tigers" during World War II. His family name is French^[1] and is pronounced shen-awlt.

 

Claire Lee Chennault
6 September 1893(1893-09-06) – 27 July 1958 (aged 64)
Place of birth	Commerce, Texas
Resting place	Arlington National Cemetery
Allegiance	Republic of China United States of America
Service/branch	United States Army Air Corps United States Army Air Forces
Years of service	1910–1937; 1941–1946
Rank	Lieutenant General
Commands held	1st American Volunteer Group, Flying Tigers
Battles/wars	World War I Sino-Japanese War World War II Burma Campaign China-Burma-India Theater
Awards	Army Distinguished Service Medal (2) Distinguished Flying Cross (2) Order of the Cloud and Banner Commander of the Order of the British Empire

His Early Life

Born in Commerce, Texas, to John Stonewall Jackson Chennault and Jessie (Lee) Chennault. He was raised in the town of Waterproof in Tensas Parish, Louisiana. Chennault began misrepresenting his birth date as September 1890, perhaps as early as the middle of 1909. He was too young to attend college after he graduated from high school, so his father added three years to his age.^[2] The 1900 US Census record from Franklin Parish, LA, Ward 2 states that C L Chennault was age six in 1900, with a younger brother age three (born in Louisiana).^[3]

 

His Military Career

Click on Picture to enlarge

Birthplace of Claire Chennault in Commerce, Texas

Chennault attended Louisiana State University between 1909 and 1910 and received ROTC training (Claire). At the onset of World War I, Chennault graduated from Officer's School at Fort Benjamin Harrison, and was transferred to the Aviation Division of the Army Signal Corps.^[4] He learned to fly in the Air Service during World War I, remained in the service after it became the Air Corps in 1926, and became Chief of Pursuit Section at Air Corps Tactical School in the 1930s. Poor health and disputes with superiors led Chennault to resign from the service on Friday, 30 April 1937. He then joined a small group of American civilians training Chinese airmen and served as "air adviser" to Kuomintang (KMT) Nationalist Government leader Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and his wife, Soong May-ling, during the Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945).

Chennault participated in planning operations and observed the Chinese Air Force in combat from a Curtiss Hawk 75. In this period, he would organize the International Squadron.^[5]

 

The Creation Of The Flying Tigers

Click on Picture to enlarge

Bank of China president T.V. Soong with the United States Secretary of Commerce and Federal Loan Administrator Jesse H. Jones, in the secretary's office at the Department of Commerce in Washington DC, February 1941.

Chennault arrived in China on June 1937, after retiring from the United States Army Air Corps with the rank of captain. He had a three-month contract at a salary of $1,000 per month, with the mission of making a survey of the Chinese Air Force. Soong May-ling, or "Madame Chiang" as she was known to Americans, was in charge of the Aeronautical Commission and thus became Chennault's immediate supervisor. Upon the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War that August, Chennault became Chiang Kai-shek's chief air adviser, helping to train Chinese Air Force bomber and fighter pilots, sometimes flying scouting missions in an export Curtiss H-75 fighter, and organizing the "International Squadron" of mercenary pilots.

Increasingly, however, Soviet bomber and fighter squadrons took over from China's battered units, and in the summer of 1938 Chennault went to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province in Western China, to train a new Chinese Air Force from an American mold.^[6][7]

Click on Picture to enlarge

"California Clipper" (Boeing B-314; NC18602)

On 19 October 1939, Chennault boarded Pan American Airways "California Clipper"  at the Pan American Airways terminal in Hong Kong. Chennault was on a special mission for Chiang Kai-shek. The California Clipper made a number of stops in the Pacific that included Manila (21 October) and Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii (25 October), eventually arriving at Treasure Island, San Francisco CA (26 October). Traveling with Chennault were four Chinese government officials: Mr. Shiao-down Chiang, Mr. Liu Yu-Wan, Mr. Tuan-Sheng Chien, and Mr. Ken-Sen Chow. Four of these passengers listed their place of origination as Kunming China, and Mr. Chow as Kaiting China.^[8]

By 1940, seeing that the Chinese Air Force had collapsed, because of ill-trained Chinese pilots and shortage of equipment, Chiang Kai-shek sent Captain Claire Lee Chennault, U.S.A.A.C (Ret.) to the United States to meet with Dr. T. V. Soong in Washington DC; purpose: to get as many fighter planes, bombers, and transports as possible, plus all the supplies needed to maintain them and the pilots to fly the aircraft. With Chennault, the Chinese President ordered Chinese Air Force General Pang-Tsu Mow to assist Chennault at the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC. Together, they departed on Tuesday, 15 October 1940, from Chungking (Chongqing), China, arriving at the Port of Hong Kong where they boarded American Clipper (Boeing B-314, Pan American Airlines No. NC 18606, Captain J. Chase), on Friday, 1 November 1940; arriving Port of San Francisco at Treasure Island, on Thursday, 14 November 1940. They reported to the Chinese Ambassador to the United States Hu Shih on a mission that would ultimately conclude negotiations for the creation of an American Volunteer Group of pilots and mechanics to serve in China.^[9] How to obtain the shopping list of planes, aviation supplies, volunteers, and funds for the Bank of China were discussed in a meeting held at the home of Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. Saturday afternoon, 21 December 1940, with Captain Chennault, Dr. T. V. Soong, and General Pang-Tsu Mow.^[10]

By Monday afternoon, 23 December, upon approval by the War Department, State Department and the President of the United States, an agreement was reached to provide China the 100 P-40B Tomahawk aircraft (redesignated P-40C's after their modifications for overseas service) that were originally scheduled for shipment to Great Britain but cancelled due to the Tomahawk's inferior flight performance against German fighters.^[11] With an agreement reached, General Pang-Tsu Mow returned to China aboard SS Lurline; departing out of the Port of Los Angeles Friday morning, 24 January 1941. Captain Chennault followed shortly after with a promise from the War Department and President Roosevelt to be delivered to Chiang Kai-shek that several shipments of P-40C fighters were forthcoming along with pilots, mechanics, and aviation supplies. And, Dr. Soong began negotiations for an increase in financial aid with U.S. Secretary of Commerce and Federal Loan Administrator Jesse H. Jones on Thursday, 17 October 1940.^[12]

President Roosevelt then sent Curtiss P-40 Tomahawks to the Chinese under the American Lend-Lease program. Chennault also was able to recruit some 300 American pilots and ground crew, posing as tourists, who were adventurers or mercenaries, not necessarily idealists out to save China. But under Chennault they developed into a crack fighting unit, always going against superior Japanese forces. They became the symbol of America's military might in Asia.^[13]

 

The Flying Tigers

Click on Picture to enlarge

P-40 Warhawk "Joy" at the USS Kidd Louisiana Veterans Memorial & Museum in Baton Rouge

Immediately following the Japanese air Attack on Pearl Harbor (Sunday morning, 7 December 1941), the first news reports released to the public pertaining to Claire Chennault's war exploits occurred on 20 December 1941 when senior Chinese officials in Chungking that Saturday evening released his name to United Press International reporters to commemorate the first aerial attack made by the international air force called the American Volunteer Group (AVG).^[14] These American flyers encountered ten Japanese planes heading to raid Kunming, and successfully shot down four of the raiders. Thus, Colonel Claire Chennault became America's first military leader to be publicly recognized for striking a blow against the Japanese military forces. This American public fame would last four months until the Doolittle Raid led by Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, United States Army Air Forces. In 1948, Chennault would make a controversial claim that General Clayton Bissell had not informed him of the upcoming raid, and that the raiders took unnecessary casualties because of it.^[15]

Based primarily out of Rangoon, Burma and Kunming, Yunnan, Chennault's 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG) – better known as the "Flying Tigers" – began training in August 1941 and fought the Japanese for seven months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Chennault's three squadrons used P-40s, and his tactics of "defensive pursuit," formulated in the years when bombers were actually faster than intercepting fighter planes, to guard the Burma Road, Rangoon, and other strategic locations in Southeast Asia and western China against Japanese forces. As the commander of the Chinese Air Force flight training school at Yunnan-yi, west of Kunming, Chennault also made a great contribution by training a new generation Chinese fighter pilots.

The Flying Tigers were formally incorporated into the United States Army Air Forces in 1942. Prior to that, Chennault had rejoined the Army with the rank of colonel. He was later promoted to brigadier and then major general, commanding the Fourteenth Air Force.

Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) thanked Chennault by inducting him into the Society of Red Tape Cutters on August 30, 1942

The first magazine photo coverage of Claire Chennault took place within Life magazine in the Monday, 10 August 1942, issue.

Click on Picture to enlarge

Life magazine, 10 August 1942. Life cover displays Brigadier General Claire Lee Chennault; born in Texas, 1890; enlisted in Army Air Force, 1917; barnstormed around country in Army's flying circus, 1922; retired because of deafness, went to China to plan aerial defense, 1937; commanded A.V.G., 1941; made chief of U.S. Air Force in China, 1941.

The first Time magazine photo coverage of Claire Chennault took place in its Monday, 6 December 1943, issue.

Click on Picture to enlarge

Time magazine cover of Major General Claire Lee Chennault, U.S.A.A.F, commander of 14th Air Force in China, with a Burmese tiger with wings. Date: 06 December 1943.

 

 

The China-Burma-India Theater

Throughout the war Chennault was engaged in a bitter dispute with the American ground commander, General Joseph Stilwell. Chennault believed that the Fourteenth Air Force, operating out of bases in China, could attack Japanese forces in concert with Nationalist Chinese troops. For his part, Stilwell wanted air assets diverted to his command to support the opening of a ground supply route through northern Burma to China. This route would provide supplies and new equipment for a greatly expanded Nationalist force of twenty to thirty modernized divisions. Chiang Kai-shek favored Chennault's plans, since he was suspicious of British colonial interests in Burma and was not prepared to begin major offensive operations against the Japanese. He was also concerned about alliances with semi-independent generals supporting the Nationalist government, and was concerned that a major loss of military forces would enable his Communist Chinese adversaries to gain the upper hand.

Good weather in November 1943 found the Japanese Army air forces ready to challenge Allied forces again, and they began night and day raids on Calcutta and the Hump bases while their fighters contested Allied air intrusions over Burma. In 1944, Japanese ground forces advanced and seized Chennault's forward bases. Slowly, however, the greater numbers and greater skill of the Allied air forces began to assert themselves. By mid-1944, Major General George E. Stratemeyer's Eastern Air Command dominated the skies over Burma; this superiority was never to be relinquished. At the same time, logistical support reaching India and China via the Hump finally reached levels permitting an Allied offensive into northern Burma.

Chennault had long argued for expansion of the airlift, doubting that any ground supply network through Burma could provide the tonnage needed to re-equip Chiang's divisions. However, work on the Ledo Road overland route continued throughout 1944 and was completed in January 1945. Training of the new Chinese divisions commenced; however, predictions of monthly tonnage (65,000 per month) over the road were never achieved. By the time Nationalist armies began to receive large amounts of supplies via the Ledo Road, the war had ended. Instead, the airlift continued to expand until the end of the war, after delivering 650,000 tons of supplies, gasoline, and military equipment.

 

The Post War Years

Chennault and wife Chen Xiangmei

Chennault, who, unlike Joseph Stilwell, had a high opinion of Chiang Kai-shek, advocated international support for Asian anti-communist movements. Returning to China, he purchased several surplus military aircraft and created the Civil Air Transport, (later known as Air America).^[16] These aircraft facilitated aid to Nationalist China during the struggle against Chinese Communists in the late 1940s, and were later used in supply missions to French forces in Indochina^[16] and the Kuomintang occupation of Northern Burma throughout the mid- and late-1950s, providing support for the Thai police force.

In 1951, a now-retired Major General Chennault testified and provided written statements to the Senate Joint Committee on Armed Forces and Foreign Relations, which was investigating the causes of the fall of China in 1949 to Communist forces. Together with Army General Albert C. Wedemeyer, Navy Vice Admiral Oscar C. Badger II, and others, Chennault stated that the Truman administration's arms embargo was a key factor in the loss of morale to the Nationalist armies.^[17]

Chennault advocated changes in the way foreign aid was distributed, encouraged the U.S. Congress to focus on individualized aid assistance with specific goals, with close monitoring by U.S. advisers. This viewpoint may have reflected his experiences during the Chinese Civil War, where officials of the Kuomintang and semi-independent army officers diverted aid intended for the Nationalist armies. Shortly before his death, Chennault was asked to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee of the Congress. When a committee member asked him who won the Korean War, his response was blunt: "The Communists."

 

His Death & Legacy

Click on Picture to enlarge

Statue of Chennault formerly located in Taipei.

Chennault was ultimately given an honorary promotion to Lieutenant General in the U.S. Air Force^[18], one day before his death at the Ochsner Foundation Hospital in New Orleans. He died of lung cancer in 1958 after the removal of most of one lung the previous year. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery (Section 2, 873).^[19]

Chennault was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in December 1972, along with Leroy Grumman, General Curtis E. LeMay  and James H. Kindelberger. The ceremony was headed by retired Brigadier General Jimmy Stewart, and a portrait of Chennault by cartoonist Milton Caniff was unveiled. General Electric vice-president Gerhard Neumann, a former AVG crew chief and the tech sergeant who repaired a downed Zero for flight, spoke of Chennault's unorthodox methods and of his strong personality. An award plaque was presented by Stewart to presidential adviser Thomas Gardiner Corcoran and fighter ace John R. "Johnny" Alison, who both accepted for Anna Chennault, who could not attend.^[20]

Chennault is commemorated by a statue in the ROC capital of Taipei, as well as by monuments on the grounds of the Louisiana state capitol at Baton Rouge, and at the former Chennault Air Force Base, now the commercial Chennault International Airport in Lake Charles, Louisiana. A vintage P-40 aircraft, nicknamed "Joy", is on display at the riverside war memorial in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, painted in the colors of the Flying Tigers. A large display of General Chennault's orders, medals and other decorations has been on loan to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (Washington D.C.) by his widow Anna Chennault, since the museum's opening in 1976.

In China, Chennault is recognized as a major war hero. His Chinese name is Chen-na-de (陳纳德). In 2005, the "Flying Tigers Memorial" was built in Huaihua, Hunan Province, on one of the old airstrips used by the Flying Tigers in the 1940s. Chennault's first wife, Nell Thompson, was an American of British ancestry. By the time he was serving in China, they had divorced. Chennault then married Chen Xiangmei, a young reporter for the Central News Agency. Anna Chennault, as his wife was known, became one of the ROC's chief lobbyists in Washington.

 

References

Notes

1. [http://www.chenault.org/NoFrames/profiles.htm The family name is French. Claire Lee is a French-American by ancestry. He is in the geneology book: Decendants of Estienne Chennault who came to the states in the 1800s.

2. Hessen 1983, p. ix.

3. 1900 US Census, Franklin Parish, LA, p. 5A.

4. "Claire Lee Chennault and the Flying Tigers." vac.gov.tw. Retrieved: November 28, 2009.

5. Caidin 1978. Note: It is possible his command of this formation as well as the AVG led to the mistaken belief that the AVG was in action before Pearl Harbor.

6. Xu, Guangqiu. War Wings: The United States and Chinese Military Aviation, 1929–1949. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001. ISBN 978-0313320040.

7. "The Flying Tigers American Volunteer Group – Chinese Air Force." Flying Tigers Home Page. Retrieved: May 21, 2009.

8. "California Passenger and Crew Lists, 1893–1957." Passenger List, B.O. No. 39637/1, Sheet No. 1, U.S. Immigration Officer Mr. E. C. Benson – Inspector In Charge at Treasure Island.

9. General Pang-Tsu Mow: Form 500, U.S. Department of Labor, Immigration and Naturalization Service, List Or Manifest Of Alien Passengers For the United States Immigrant Inspector At Port Of Arrival. Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at San Francisco, 1893-1953. National Archives Microfilm Publication M1410, 429 rolls; page 244, line no. 7; and, Passenger List 40419, Sheet no. 1. Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85; National Archives, Washington, D.C. Returning to China aboard S.S. Lurline (voyage no. 179; master of ship- Konrad Hubbenette): name of passenger (Pon-Tsu Mow); age (37); occupation (General Chinese Air Force); race (Mongolian); nationality (Chinese); wife (Mrs. Wang Mow residing at General P.O. Chunking China); visa (issued 22 October 1940, Diplomatic C-20); height (5-ft, 7-in); complexion (yellow); hair (black); eyes (brown); identifying marks (scar under left eye); staying one day at the Moana Hotel, Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii.

10. Dr. T.V. Soong: President of the Bank of China. He departed Hong Kong on 19 June 1940 aboard Pan American Airways Honolulu Clipper; departed Manila, Philippines, on 21 June; arrived at Treasure Island, San Francisco, California, on 25 June; departed from Naval Auxiliary Air Facility Mills Field, Oakland, California, at 7:00 PM, 25 June aboard a United Airlines DC-3; arriving at Washington National Airport, 26 June. This mission was focused on establishing bank loans between the U.S. government and the Bank of China. Traveling with Dr. Soong were three other Chinese government bank officials: Chu-Chen Lee, Fu-Chen Chang, Chien-Hung Chang. By late July 1940, Dr. Soong was able to obtain concessions from the U.S. government for two $50 million loans (to stabilize Chinese financial market; to purchase war material). On Friday, 25 April 1941, the United States and China formally signed a $50 million stabilization agreement to support the Chinese currency. Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau signed for the United States, and Dr. T. V. Soong and Dr. Lee Kan both signed for the Chinese government with the Chinese Ambassador to the United States Dr. Hu Shih present.

11. The P-40 Allison engine produced its optimum performance at just 15,000-ft- far below the operational ceilings of contemporary European fighters.

12. United Press. Washington DC. 17 October 1940. "U.S. Considers Help To China. Additional Loans To Nation Sought". It was stated in this UP news article that during the past seven years the United States had loaned China about $85 million.

13. Sehnert, Walt. "McCook's Glen Beneda and the Flying Tigers." mccookgazette.com, January 5, 2009. Retrieved: May 22, 2009.

14. Associated Press. Chungking. 20 December 1941. "Burma Road Air Defense Scores". Also, Associated Press. New Orleans. 20 December 1941. "'Crazy' Maneuver Used by Colonel". Also, Associated Press. Tokyo. 20 December 1941. "Domei Says Japs Downed Five Ships". Also, Associated Press. Chungking. 20 December 1941. "American Fliers Engage Japanese".

15. Considene, Bob. "Under Fire." theaerodrome.com, 18 October 2007. Retrieved: 11 February 2010.

16. Smith 1995

17. Chennault, Claire Lee (Major-General, retired). Testimony to the Senate Joint Committee on the Armed Forces and Foreign Relations, letter dated June 20, 1951, and supplemental statement, Appendix 00, p. 3342.

18. "Major General Claire Lee Chennault ." af.mil. Retrieved: December 2, 2009.

19. "Military Figures: Arlington Cemetery." arlingtoncemetery.org. Retrieved: December 2, 2009.

20. Rosholt, Malcolm; Jack Gadberry, Myron D. Levy (1973). "Chennault Enshrined in Aviation Hall of Fame". Flying Tiger. 

Bibliography

• Bond, Janet. A Pictorial History of China Post 1, Part I – 1919–1959. Slidell, Louisiana: American Legion Generals Ward & Chennault & Lt. Helseth Post No. 1 (China), 1988.

• Byrd, Martha. Chennault: Giving Wings to the Tiger. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University Alabama Press, 2003. ISBN 0-8173-0322-7.

• Caidin, Martin. The Ragged, Rugged Warriors. New York: Ballantine, 1978. ISBN 0-345-28302-3.

• Chennault, Claire. Way of a Fighter. New York: Putnam's, 1949.

• "Claire Lee Chennault." Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement 6: 1956–1960, Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Thomson Gale, 1980.

• Ford, Daniel. Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941–1942. Washington, DC: HarperCollins|Smithsonian Books, 2007. ISBN 0-06124-655-7.

• Hessen, Robert, ed. General Claire Lee Chennault: A Guide to His Papers in the Hoover Institution Archives. Palo Alto, California: Hoover Institution Press, 1983. ISBN 0-8179-2652-6.

• Latimer, Jon. Burma: The Forgotten War. London: John Murray, 2004. ISBN 0-7195-6576-6.

• "1900 United States Federal Census, Franklin Parish, Louisiana, Ward 2." Ancestry.com, January 20, 2007.

• Scott, Robert Lee Jr. Flying Tiger: Chennault of China. Westport Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1973. ISBN 0-8371-6774-4.

• Smith, Felix. China Pilot: Flying for Chiang and Chennault. New York: Brassey's Inc., 1995. ISBN 978-1574880519.

 

 

The China Tiger

Claire Lee Chennault, 1893-1958.

 

Claire L. Chennault (1890-1958) was an American Major General and commander of the World War Two, China based, American Volunteer Group (AVG), more commonly known as the Flying Tigers. His tactics, developed over his many years as a fighter pilot, enabled the Flying Tigers to gain the advantage over the Japanese.^[1] When the U.S. entered the war the Flying Tigers became part of the U.S. Army Air Forces (AAF), and Chennault was the U.S. Air commander in China. He cooperated with Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek, but fought with the U.S. Army commander in China Joseph Stilwell. Stillwell wanted the trickle of American supplies reaching China to be used to build a vast land army, and Chennault wanted them for air attacks on Japan. Chennault had his way, but was removed when the war ended. He set up a commercial cargo airline in China, the Flying Tigers, and with his wife became a leading spokesman for conservative causes, especially in support of Nationalist China.

 

His Career

He was born in Commerce, Tex., the son of John Stonewall Chennault, a farmer, and Jessie Lee. He grew up in rural northeastern Louisiana and was a bright though reluctant student. In 1909-1910, while at Louisiana State University (where he took ROTC training), he decided against a military career and became a school teacher. On Dec. 25, 1911, he married Nell Thompson; they had eight children. After divorcing Nell in 1946, he married Anna Chan, a Chinese journalist, on Dec. 21, 1947; they had two daughters, and she became a major activist for the China Lobby."

 

Pursuit Versus Bombers

When the U.S. entered the World War in 1917 he became a lieutenant in the infantry, and learned to fly at Kelly Field in San Antonio; he won his rating as a fighter pilot in 1919, and in 1920, was commissioned a first lieutenant in the new Army Air Service. After duty in Hawaii, Texas and Virginia, he was promoted to captain (1929) and became an instructor in the highly influential Air Corps Tactical School, in Montgomery, Alabama. While gaining national publicity for his acrobatic exhibition team ("Trapezers"), he developed the theories of air tactics he later applied against the Japanese in China; in1935 he published them in a textbook, The Role of Defensive Pursuit. Unlike the mainstream air power view, to the effect that strategic bombing was a war-winning weapon, and the bombers could always get through, Chennault argued that fast, agile pursuit (fighter) planes could shoot down the bombers. He perfected team combat tactics, experimented with airdrop supply and paratroop techniques, and crusaded for greater firepower and range in fighter aircraft. His vigorous public advocacy angered the high command of the Army Air Corps, which was committed to long range bombers like the B-17. A deal was made and in April 1937, suffering from overwork, chronic bronchial trouble, and partial deafness, Chennault retired with a disability pension at the rank of captain.

 

The Flying Tigers

Chennault went to Chinas and soon became personal military adviser to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek; he began training the Chinese air force using American instructors at bases in southwestern China. Late in 1940 Chiang sent him to the United States to enlist support for an American-manned and -equipped air force. Air Corps chief General Hap Arnold was dead set against his Chennault's plans, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt was an avid supporter, along with Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, and Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau. Funding was no problem.

The Flying Tigers, officially the American Volunteer Group (AVG), was an American military operation against Japan clothed in Chinese colors because the U.S. was officially neutral. It took its nickname from the tiger-shark teeth, tongue, and eyes painted on the noses of the aircraft. All the decisions came from Washington and funding came from the U.S. Treasury. An American financier William Pawley set up a private corporation that handed financing and personnel. ^[2] Pawley recruited the pilots and ground crews from men in active service in the U.S. Army and Navy, with permission of the services. They were promised money and glory--and after the U.S. officially entered the war was absorbed officially into the Air Force (at much lower pay scales). The U.S. Air Corps provided 100 P-40B slightly obsolescent pursuit planes, with all necessary equipment, weapons, fuel, and spare parts, charging the cost against the $100 million that Lend Lease gave China. The British provided training facilities in Burma, gratis, while China built the airfields using additional Lend Lease funds.^[3]

Chennault trained his Tigers in Burma in summer 1941. They adopted a two-ship element, always flying and fighting in pairs, diving in, making a quick pass, and then breaking away, thus exploiting the superior diving speed of the P-40 and refusing the turning combat for which the frail, maneuverable, Japanese aircraft were designed. Quick reflex gunnery was stressed, so that the Tigers take the fleeting shots. As a unit, the AVG was trained to break up the Japanese formations, confront their pilots with unexpected situations, and exploit the resulting confusion. His ground crews were drilled in rapid refueling and repair, and the good Chinese air-raid warning net protected his small force from surprise attack. With the British Royal Air Force (RAF) the AVG kept Rangoon and the Burma Road open for two and a half months in 1942. The AVG helped defeat the Japanese invasion of Yunnan in spring 1942, and it stopped enemy bombing of China's cities. At a cost of four pilots lost in air combat out of a total of twenty-six for all causes, it destroyed at least 299, and probably another 153, enemy aircraft. When the Japanese took Burma, the main base was moved to Kunming in southern Yunnan, China. Kunming had road and rail connections to the national capital at Chunking.^[4]

The success of the Flying Tigers, with just 100 pilots, was to interdict Japanese river and coastal traffic enough to stall its military advances and perhaps even reduce its industrial production. The Flying Tigers, discovered that Japanese air tactics were as predictable as those of the army. If something worked, it was constantly repeated, and the Tigers learned to deal with it. Praising the accomplishments of the Chinese-American Composite Wing (CACW) commanded by Chennault, Guangqiu Xu concludes that Chinese strategic planning for the use of Allied air power against the Japanese was correct, and that the United States should have given China even more support.^[5]

 

The Chinese Air Force

To augment Chennault's 100 P-40Bs, in May 1941 Washington decided to send 144 Vultee P-48's, 125 P-43's and 66 Lockheed and Douglas medium bombers. The goal was to give China by early 1942, a respectable air force, judged by Far Eastern standards, sufficient to "(a) protect strategic points, (b) permit local army offensive action, (c) permit the bombing of Japanese air bases and supply dumps in China and Indo-China, and the bombing of coastal and river transport, and (d) permit occasional incendiary bombing of Japan."^[6]

 

Plans A  Sneak Attack On Japan

A year before the U.S. officially entered the war (after Dec. 7, 1941), Chennault developed an ambitious plan for a sneak attack on Japanese bases. His Flying Tigers would use American bombers and American pilots, all with Chinese markings. The U.S. military was opposed to his scheme, and kept raising obstacles, but it was adopted by top civilian officials including Henry Morganthau (the Secretary of the Treasury who financed China) and especially President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself, who made it a high priority to keep China alive.^[7] They not only approved they set it motion by sending the bombers to China. By October, 1941, bombers and crews were on their way to China and the sneak attack never took place. The bombers and crews arrived after Pearl Harbor and were used for the war in Burma, for they lacked the range to reach China.^[8]

 

World War II

In April 1942 Chennault was officially recalled to the U.S. Air Force and was promoted brigadier general (a rank he already held and kept in the Chinese Air Force). From July 1942 he commanded the newly formed China Air Task Force (renamed Fourteenth USAAF in March 1943), which controlled all U.S. Air Force units in China, He organized the air ferry known as the Hump which flew supplies into Kuming, China. from India over the Himalayas. Chennault was promoted to major general in 1943; although nominally subordinate to General Joseph Warren Stilwell, he had the ear of Roosevelt and of Chiang Kai-shek  who disregarded the advice of his Stilwell, his nominal chief of staff. Stillwell wanted to build up large infantry forces to attack China. Chiang realized that fighting the Japanese with his numerous but underequipped and poorly led and motivated army was hopeless. He wanted American funds to feed his soldiers and prop up the government, so that it cvould later fight Mao Zedong and the Communists who were building up a base in northern China. Chennault believed that air power would defeat the Japanese. In May 1943 Chennault won the support of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and succeeded in building up a strategic air force built around very long range B-29 bombers, whose supplies were brought in "over the Hump from India. The airlift was extraordinarily expensive; it took 50 gallons of gasoline to deliver one gallon the B-29 could use. Raids did begin and they were ineffective. As Stilwell had predicted, the Japanese response was the ICHI-GO offensive, in which ground troops captured Chennault's airfields. Chennault moved his bases further west and kept flying.^[9] The B-29's were moved to the Pacific.

Chennault's expanded forces (China Air Task Force and, after March 1943, the Fourteenth Air Force) destroyed some 2,600 enemy aircraft and probably 1,500 more, sank 2,300,000 tons of enemy merchant shipping, and killed 66,700 enemy troops, losing about 500 aircraft in combat.

The feud between Chennault and Stilwell for control of military policy in China was vicious; it transcended professional disagreement; each saw the other as personally unprincipled, prejudiced, and power-hungry. Chennault won all the major points because he had the support of Chiang and Roosevelt, and the British found Stilwell tiresome as well. Chennault worked smoothly with Lt. Gen. Albert C. Wedemeyer, Stilwell's replacement.

 

The Postwar Era

In spring 1945, Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall, Stilwell's patron, finally managed to neutralize Chennault. In July 1945, with Roosevelt and other patrons in Washington gone, Chennault resigned in protest against the proposed disbandment of the joint Chinese–American wing of the Chinese Air Force. He remained in China to create a private air cargo company, the Civil Air Transport (CAT). Chennault and his partner Whiting Willauer, an American lawyer, were motivated by a combination of altruism and entrepreneurship. They hoped the airline would help foster China's industrial development and make them a fortune in the process. When the Chinese Civil War entered its critical phase during 1947 and 1948, however, Chennault's old friendship with Chiang Kai-shek, and CAT's business interests, thrust the company into an increasingly active partnership with the Kuomintang regime. At great personal risk, CAT's American pilots ferried Nationalist troops, delivered supplies to besieged cities, and even bombed communist positions. CAT was nearly bankrupt in 1950, when the CIA secretly purchased its assets and used it for clandestine CIA projects.^[10] Chennault and his wife Anna became leaders of the '"China Lobby", promoting the Nationalist regime on Taiwan and trying to block recognition of "Red China," that is the China controlled by Mao Zedong and the Communists.^[11]

 

Image, Memory, & Controversy

He was buried in the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Chennault (and his widow Anna) were unusually effecting in creating favorable publicity in the U.S. Their views were especially championed by the "China Lobby" and the conservative wing of the Republican party who denounced President Truman and George C. Marshall for "losing" the friendship and support of China by not adequately supporting Chiang.^[12]

 

Bibliography

• see also China-Burma-India theater (CBI)/Bibliography

• Armstrong, Alan. Preemptive Strike: The Secret Plan That Would Have Prevented the Attack on Pearl Harbor (2006), popular history excerpt and text search

• Byrd, Martha. Chennault: Giving Wings to the Tiger (1987) 451 pp., the standard biography

• Cornelius, Wanda, and Thayne Short. Ding Hao: America's Air War in China, 1937-1945. (1980)

• Craven, Wesley Frank, and James Lea Cate, eds. The Army Air Forces in World War II. Vol. 5. The Pacific: Matterhorn to Nagasaki, June 1944 to August 1945. (1983), official Air Force history.

• Ford, Daniel. Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and the American Volunteer Group (1991).

• Prefer, Nathan N. Vinegar Joe's War: Stilwell's Campaigns for Burma. (2000), 314pp; scholarly historyonline edition

• Plating, John D. "Keeping China in the War: The Trans-Himalayan `Hump' Airlift and Sino-US Strategy in World War II." PhD dissertation Ohio State U. 2007. 397 pp. DAI 2007 68(4): 1627-A. DA3262108 Fulltext: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

• Romanus, Charles F. and Riley Sunderland. Stilwell's Mission to China (1953), official U.S. Army history online edition; Stilwell's Command Problems (1956) online edition; Time Runs Out in CBI (1958) online edition. Official U.S. Army history

• Schaller Michael. "American Air Strategy in China, 1939-1941: The Origins of Clandestine Air Warfare," American Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Spring, 1976), pp. 3-19 in JSTOR; reprinted in ch. 4 of Schaller, The U.S. Crusade in China, 1938-1945. (1979).

• Schaller Michael. The U.S. Crusade in China, 1938-1945. (1979). online edition

• Thorne Bliss K. The Hump: The Great Military Airlift of World War II. (1965).

• Tuchman, Barbara. Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45, (1972), 624pp; Pulitzer prize (The British edition is titled Against the Wind: Stilwell and the American Experience in China 1911-45,) excerpt and text search

• Xu, Guangqiu. "The Issue of U.S. Air Support for China During the Second World War, 1942–1945," Journal of Contemporary History 36 (July 2001): 459–84. in JSTOR

• Xu, Guangqiu. War Wings: The United States and Chinese Military Aviation, 1929–1949 (2001).

 

Primary Sources

• Chennault, Anna. Chennault and the Flying Tigers. (1963).

• Chennault, Claire Lee. Way of a Fighter: The Memoirs of Claire Lee Chennault. ed. by Robert Horz; (1949).

• Klinkowitz, Jerome. With the Tigers Over China, 1941–1942 (1999), memoirs and oral histories

 

Online Resources

Notes

1. ↑ Aces, by William Yenne, Berkeley Books, 2000

2. ↑ Pawley signed a nonprofit contract with Finance Minister T. V. Soong to equip, supply, and operate the AVG. Colonel Chennault had the title of "supervisor." Congress had given the President a blank check by passing the Lend Lease act in 1941 to provide military supplies to the enemies of Germany and Japan.

3. ↑ See Romanus and Sunderland. Stilwell's Mission to China (1953), chapter 1 online edition

4. ↑ See Romanus and Sunderland. Stilwell's Mission to China p. 19 online

5. ↑ Guangqiu Xu, "The Issue of U.S. Air Support for China During the Second World War, 1942–1945," Journal of Contemporary History 36 (July 2001): 459–84.

6. ↑ Romanus and Sunderland. Stilwell's Mission to China p. 20 online

7. ↑ The official Army history notes that 23 July 1941 FDR "approved a Joint Board paper which recommended that the United States equip, man, and maintain the 500-plane Chinese Air Force proposed by Currie. The paper suggested that this force embark on a vigorous program to be climaxed by the bombing of Japan in November 1941." Lauchlin Currie was the White House official dealing with China. Romanus and Sunderland. Stilwell's Mission to China p. 23 online

8. ↑ Alan Armstrong, Preemptive Strike: The Secret Plan That Would Have Prevented the Attack on Pearl Harbor (2006) is a popular version; for a scholarly history see Schaller, (1976); and Romanus and Sunderland. Stilwell's Mission to China (1953), chapter 1 online edition

9. ↑ Chiang refused to allow the shipment of weapons to defend these airfields. See Riley Sunderland, "The Secret Embargo," The Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Feb., 1960), pp. 75-80; in JSTOR

10. ↑ William M. Leary, Perilous Missions: Civil Air Transport and CIA Covert Operations in Asia. (1984)

11. ↑ Catherine Forslund, Anna Chennault: Informal Diplomacy and Asian Relations. (2002)

12. ↑ Catherine Forslund, Anna Chennault: Informal Diplomacy and Asian Relations. (2002)

Claire L. Chennault, Brig. General, Commanding, A.V.G. (Flying Tigers)

May 27, 1942 Kuming China

HEADQUARTERS AMERICAN VOLUNTEER GROUP

Office of the Commanding Officer

Kunming, Yunnam, China

 

Mrs H.W. Blackburn
21 Harrison Street
Amarillo, Texas

Dear Mrs. Blackburn:

On May 6th, we sent you the following radio message:-

"J.E, BLACKBURN KILLED APRIL TWENTYEIGHT DURING PRACTISE FLIGHT NEAR KUNMING. STOP, LETTER FOLLOWS. STOP. SINCERE SYMPHATHY FROM AMERICAN VOLUNTEER GROUP.

(SIGNED C.L. CHENNAULT

COMMANDING OFFICER

"Blackburn" left the flying field on a gunnery practice flight in the late afternoon of April 28th. As a safety measure most of our gunnery practice is done in certain areas of the large lake bordering the city of Kunming. Eyewitnesses saw him make several dives, testing his guns meanwhile, and then crash with his ship into the lake. We believe that the late afternoon sun shinning brilliantly over the late and reflecting a blinding glare made such flying deceptive and treacherous. In his case it proved fatal.

After several weeks delay in locating his ship, I am able to tell you that on May 22nd your son’s body was retrieved from the scene of his accident. The next afternoon, at five o’clock he was given a Christian Burial with military honors. He was buried in the Chinese Government Aviators. Cemetery just outside of Kunming, China.

Pictures were taken of the ceremony and shall be sent to you at home at some later date. In this letter I shall enclose the cards which came with wreaths for his grave. On his person we found several articles which we shall send on to you with all monies realized from sale of his personal effects.

I hope you will understand and forgive our delay in this matter of complete information regarding your son’s death. I assure you I had only your interest at heart when I withheld this letter until such time when I could say certainly that everything possible had been accomplished for him.

This information I am sending you is going to ask for a great sacrifice on your part – a sacrifice which you may find yourself-accepting, perhaps only because it has been placed upon you without reason or justification. We, too, feel to the full the lose of the man we had learned to respect and to love and we shall always remember with fond respect the able friend we were privileged to know all too briefly.

With the exception of documents and letters (including U.S. drafts to the amount of US $1,100.00) which were sent you by special messenger, it was his wish that his personal effects be made available to his friends. An accurate inventory of his personal effects shall be kept and all monies realized from the effects will be sent to you.

The American Volunteer group is proud of the son it lost to a cause, which still stands uppermost in our minds and ideals.

With sincere sympathy,
CL Chennault
Brig. Gen. US Army
Commanding, A.V.G.

Military.com

 

 

A Bio From Arlington National Cemetery

He led the Flying Tigers (an all-volunteer service) in China before the United States entered World War II. When America entered the war, he took command of all Allied Air Forces in the far east. He was born in Commerce, Texas, on September 6, 1890 and died in Washington, D.C. on July 27, 1958. He is buried in Section 2 of Arlington National Cemetery and his headstone is inscribed in both English and Chinese.

 

From a 1990 Press Report:

From the cotton fields of Waterproof, Louisiana, came Claire Lee Chennault, a prophetic, controversial military genius who was de-activated twice because of his strident efforts to modernize air power.

Chennault was also a military hero who received at least 17 medals, including the Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, and the Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster.

Claire Lee Chennault went from being a school teacher in a one-room school in Athens, Louisiana, on to become a general and leader of the famous Flying Tigers.

Ironically, Chennault had ups and downs in his career that matches those of Chennault Air Base in Lake Charles, which was named for him. Both the base and the general were often in political fights, and the base was also cast off by the military, in 1946 and in 1961. And just as the base is still contributing to Calcasieu Parish, Claire  Chennault's innovative changes still contribute to the modern armed forces.

Two of General Chennault's sons live in Ferriday Robert and Claire "Pat'' Another son, Max, lives in Fayetteville, Georgia. Two daughters, Rosemay (Mrs. James Simrell) lives in West Monroe, and Peggy (Mrs. A. Robert Lee) lives in California. Three of Chennault's sons are deceased John, a retired Colonel in the Air Force; Charles, a retired Master Sergeant in the Air Force; and David, who served in the Navy in World War II.

There are also 36 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, many of whom live in Louisiana.

Anna Chen Chennault, Chennault's second wife, and their two daughters, Cynthia and Claire Anna, live in Washington, D.C.

Claire Lee Chennault was 10 years old when the Wright Brothers made their first powered flight in 1903. Raised in the little community of Gilbert, near Waterproof, Claire was the son of John and Jessie Lee Chennault. His mother died when he was young and he became a loner, spending much time by himself in the nearby woods.

In a book he wrote later, "Way of a Fighter,'' Chennault said, "My earliest recollections are of roaming the oak woods and moss-draped cypress swamps in northeast Louisiana. Life in these woods and on the bayous and lakes taught me self-confidence and reliance and forced me to make my own decisions.''

Claire Chennault attended LSU for three years, but transferred to Louisiana State Normal for his senior year so he would be eligible for a teaching job. That same year, he attended a high school graduation ceremony in Winnsboro, and there met a young lady named Nell Thompson. They courted for a year, and married on Christmas Eve, 1911.

When World War I began, Chennault enlisted, and for a very short time was stationed at Gerstner Army Camp, south of Lake Charles near Holmwood. Then he went to Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas.

"The Signal Corps rejected me for flight training three times,'' Chennault wrote later. "But taking advantage of the general confusion around Kelly, I found a few genial instructors who were willing to explain the fundamentals of flying from the rear cockpit of a Jenny.

``I was also in charge of fueling and checking the training planes, so whenever there was no cadet handy, I hopped in and racked up another hour of flying time.''

In the spring of 1920, the war ended and Chennault was honorably discharged. But that fall, he put in a request for a commission in the newly organized Air Service and was accepted for their first fighter pilot course.

In 1923, Claire Chennault was sent to Hawaii, where he was commanding officer of the 19th Pursuit Squadron at Luke Field at Pearl Harbor. It was in Hawaii that his sixth and last son, Robert, was born. A few years later, a daughter, Rosemary, was born. 

"I think my Hawaiian duty was my happiest time in the Air Corps,'' Chennault wrote later. During this time, he initiated many new plans and tactics for military aircraft. He felt that the fighter techniques being taught then were "medieval jousting in dogfights.''

Chennault had a brilliant mind, far ahead of the military strategists of his day. He often sounded like a voice crying in the wilderness as he begged the military hierarchy to modernize training tactics.

"Even yet in 1931,'' he wrote, ``a World War I ace was still teaching the fighter tactics of 1918, including the dawn patrol and dogfight tactics which were completely inadequate against the new bombers.''

Chennault also tried to introduce the use of parachute troops, but was ridiculed for the suggestion.

He also advocated more firepower for fighting planes. "In 1936, engineers ridiculed my suggestion that four 30-caliber guns could be synchronized to fire through a propeller,'' he recalled. "They said it was impossible. But the next year I saw a Russian plane with synchronized guns in action against the Japanese in China.''

But military leaders weren't listening to Chennault. They didn't believe fighters could shoot down bombers. One officer even recommended that fighters drop a ball-and-chain device from above in the hope of fouling a bomber's propellers.

By 1936, Chennault had become executive officer of a pursuit group at Barksdale in Shreveport. But his disagreements with military leaders escalated, and he was asked to take a "health'' retirement. He accepted the offer. 

It was after his first retirement that the Chennault children remember spending the most time with their father. Robert, who now lives in the Chennault homeplace at Ferriday, recalls: "My father was stern and insisted that we be extra good students, but he also was very good to us and spent a lot of time with us.

"He was very competitive, hating to lose at anything. He took me fishing until I became a better fisherman than he, and then he wouldn't fish with me anymore. 

"He was an avid gardener. He loved his vegetables and didn't like other people in his garden. He would pick all his produce himself and take it to the kitchen. Then it was up to someone else.

"But he did insist that I keep his asparagus bed weeded, and until this day, I dislike asparagus like President Bush and his broccoli.'' 

Max Chennault agrees. "He was a good father. He often took us golfing, fishing, hunting and swimming and taught us to play bridge.''

All six sons of Chennault were in service during World War II, and they all came home safely. Daughter Peggy (Mrs. Robert Lee) of California says, "My husband, Bob Lee, was chief of supply for Chennault's Air Line. We and our two children lived in Shanghai, Canton, Hong Kong, Tianan and Tokyo until the Korean War. It was exciting, sometimes scary, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.''

Rosemary (Mrs. James Simrell), who now lives in West Monroe, recalls: "We saw quite a bit of Dad after he came back from China and was living in Monroe. He loved his flower garden and had many unusual plants in it, many that he'd brought home from China.''

In the 1930s, the Chennaults moved to San Antonio, Texas, where he was director of flight operations. They lived near a family named Hixson, and a member of that family, Edley Hixson of Lake Charles, remembers the Chennaults well. Edley recalls, "Max and I were friends and went to school together. I knew the family and thought that General Chennault was stern and very military.''

Then came another chapter in Chennault's career. "At midnight on April 30, 1937,'' wrote Chennault later, "with my family settled on the shores of Lake St. John near Waterproof, I officially retired from the U.S. Army with the rank of Captain. On the morning of May 1, I was on my way to San Francisco, China bound.''

Chennault originally planned to remain in China for three months, but he spent the rest of his life there. His new civilian job was to oversee the entire Chinese Air Force, and he was often discouraged because China had such a critical shortage of airplanes and trained pilots.

One day, Chennault saw five landing crackups, and watched several fighter-pilots, supposedly ready for combat, spin-in and kill themselves in basic trainers.

It took Chennault a long time to convince Chinese pilots that their lives were more important than saving face. They simply refused to bail out of a crippled plane because returning without their planes would cause them to lose face.

From the beginning, Chennault liked and respected General and Madame Chiang Kai-shek. Since she was the Secretary General of the Chinese Air Force, she was his boss.

"I have worked with Madam Chiang through long years of bitter defeat,'' he wrote later, "and through victories that now seem even more bitter because their promise of peace has not been fulfilled. I believe she is one of the world's most accomplished, brilliant and determined women.''

After World War II began, Chennault was recalled to military service, then assigned to continue the work he was doing in China.

Chennault recruited volunteers to fight the Japanese in China. The Secretary of the Navy as well as the Secretary of the Army agreed to let their flyers resign from their branch of the service to fly with Chennault, and, without prejudice, to return to their prior jobs when the war was over.

The name "Flying Tigers'' came into being about this time. Chennault explained it this way: "Suddenly, we were swamped with newspaper clippings and we were being called the Flying Tigers. But the insignia we made famous was by no means original with us.

"Our pilots copied the shark-tooth design on the P-40s from a colored illustration in the India Illustrated Weekly. Even before that, the German Air Force painted it on some of its Messerschmitts. At any rate, we were somewhat surprised to find ourselves billed under that name.''

True to form, General Claire Chennault was outspoken about several other generals he felt were impeding the war effort in China. His comments sparked a furor, and in 1945, two months before the war ended, he was again retired from the military on another "health'' disability.

"We were flying home when news of the Japanese surrender reached me via our plane radio,'' he said. 

Chennault did not remain in the states. Soon he was back in China, where he founded the Civil Air Transport (CAT) which operated under the Flying Tiger insignia. Its job was to carry relief supplies from Canton and Shanghai into the interior of China. They flew tons of seeds, medicine, food, farm equipment and banknotes into isolated areas.

By this time, Chennault and Nell had divorced, and he had married a young Chinese girl, Ann Chen, who was a reporter for the Central News Agency.

Ten years later, Chennault's bronchitis grew worse and a doctor discovered he had cancer. He went through an operation and doctors removed most of his lung.

Two months later, Chennault was back in China. But a year later, a spot was again found in his lung and the doctors sent him to America and New Orleans, where he was under the care of Dr. Alton Ochsner. During this time, he managed a reunion with all his children and grandchildren.

Shortly before his death, Chennault was asked to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee of the U.S. Congress.

When the committee member asked him who won the Korean War, he replied bluntly, "The communists.''

Asked about foreign aid, he said, "We send people to distribute that aid. . We send some of the dumbest, most ignorant people I have ever encountered. We have to change our whole method of giving aid. We have to get down and contact the people, make friends with them at all levels.''

Three months later, on July 27, 1958, General Claire Lee Chennault died. He was buried in the National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

And a few months later, on Friday, Nov. 14, 1958, Lake Charles held a celebration during which the Lake Charles Air Force Base was named Chennault in honor of the late general.

Today, the base has become Chennault Airpark, filling a new role but still carrying General Claire Chennault's name.

Arlington National Cemetery