Drifter met me at the door, tail wagging, anxious to meet a new friend. “Drifter is my gift from God,” Jack greeted me. “I’ll tell you more, later.”

Naples resident Jack Hild, 86, served with the 14^th Air Force 21^st and 35^th Photo Reconnaissance Squadrons in the China, Burma, and India Theaters as an Intelligence Officer from 1943-1945. His job was to brief the pilots before their mission and debrief them upon return. He worried about the boys until they came back. Those boys were The Flying Tigers, whose aerial combat records have never been equaled.

The Flying Tigers flew transports “over the hump” of the Himalayas to supply Chinese forces whose supply lines had been cut by Japanese occupying the Burma Road, which was an incredibly torturous two lane road over the mountains. They also flew bomber runs to destroy railroads and planes on the ground ranging all over China.  The AVG Flying Tigers wore silk aviator’s scarves with the Flying Tigers emblem hand embroidered. The back of their bomber jackets displayed a blood chit, a large sewn on patch showing the Chinese Nationalist flag along with a notice written in Chinese that the pilot was a friend to China and a promise to reward anyone who helped return him to his base if he had been shot down.

The AVG was officially credited with 297 enemy aircraft destroyed, including 229 in the air. Fourteen AVG pilots were killed in action, captured, or disappeared on combat missions. Two died of wounds sustained in bombing raids, and six were killed in accidents during the Flying Tigers’ existence as a combat force. Japan put a bounty on the heads of all Flying Tigers.

Hild came on board as the group’s intelligence officer when they were the new Flying Tigers, of the 14^th Air Force; however, there were some of the original AVG (All Volunteer Group) pilots that had stayed on, under the command of General Claire Chennault, out of respect to “the old man” and to wrap up the job they had started in China before the assault on Pearl Harbor.

The AVG was disbanded on July 4, 1942.  The group celebrated its final day in the air by knocking down five enemy fighters over Hengyang and escorting U.S. Army Air Forces B-25’s to bomb the Japanese air base at Canton.  At midnight on July 4, 1942, the American Volunteer Group, who had captured the world’s attention and admiration, passed into history. 

Jack Hild is an historian on the legend of the Flying Tigers in each metamorphous. The first AVG pilots left San Francisco in July 1941 heading for China.  President Roosevelt, against military advisors wishes, issued an unpublished order to allow pilots and ground crew personnel to resign from their respective branch of the service and join Gen. Chennault in China to help train Chinese pilots and aid the Chinese government in fending off Japanese attacks. It seemed inevitable that the United States would soon be in the war and Roosevelt and Churchill felt this to be a positioning move as well as for the protection of China. Chennault received confirmation of Presidential approval for the second American Volunteer Group of bombers with a schedule of 100 additional pilots and 181 gunners and radio men to arrive in China by November, 1941, and an equal number to follow in January, 1942. The British government volunteered to give up their order of the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk airplanes and sent them to China instead to begin the training. The P-40, however, was not equipped with a gun sight, bomb rack or provisions for attaching auxiliary fuel tanks to the wing or belly.  Much of the effort during training and combat was devoted to makeshift attempts to remedy these deficiencies.  The combat record of the First American Volunteer Group in China is even more remarkable because its pilots were aiming their guns through a crude, homemade, ring-and-post gun sight instead of the more accurate optical sights used by the Air Corps and the Royal Air Force.

Eric Shilling, one of the pilots with the AVG,  is credited with the planes famous design of shark teeth on the nose of the P-40, making it the most recognizable airplane in aviation history.

Each pilot coming into the program was personally trained by General Chennault. During the first year of the war the AVG tactics were spread throughout the Army and Navy by intelligence reports and returning AVG veterans after their contract was up.  At least one Navy Commander in the Pacific and an Air Force colonel with the Fifth Air Force in Australia were later decorated for “inventing” the tactics devised by General Chennault.

The Flying Tigers, whether the original AVG, CATF, or 14^th Air Force, were the heroes of the air and provided our country with a real morale boost. Most of the pilots of the AVG received the Chinese Order of the Cloud and Banner in appreciation by the Chinese government as well as being highly decorated by the Unites States under the 14^th Air Force.

A Flying Tigers Memorial is located in the village of Zhijiang, Hunan Province, China and is the only museum in the world dedicated exclusively to the Flying Tigers. The building is a steel and marble structure, with wide sweeping steps leading up to a platform with columns holding up the memorial’s sweeping roof; on its back wall, etched in black marble, are the names of all members of the AVG, 75th Fighter Squadron, and 14th Air Force who died in China. In 2005, the city of Kunming held a ceremony memorializing the history of the Flying Tigers in China. The Memorial Cemetery to Anti-Japanese Aviator Martyrs in Nanjing, China features a wall listing the names of Flying Tiger pilots and other pilots who defended China in WWII, and has several unmarked graves for such American pilots.

Just before their 50th reunion in 1992, the AVG veterans were retroactively recognized as members of the U.S. military services during the seven months the group was in combat against the Japanese. The AVG was then awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for “professionalism, dedication to duty, and extraordinary heroism.” In 1996, the U.S. Air Force awarded the pilots the Distinguished Flying Cross and the ground crew were all awarded the Bronze Star

Sgt. Jack Hild is unparalled in his admiration and respect for all of the members of the Flying Tigers. His greatest fear is that they will someday be forgotten and wants to urge all of to tell our children and grandchildren about his fine group of Americans and what they stood for. He wants no credit for himself, whatsoever. He reiterates that he was not a pilot himself but he wants the pilot’s legacy to continue. He has dedicated his life to honoring these men and their beloved General Chennault, and keeping their memory alive. He is personal friends with Anna Chennault, the general’s widow and their two daughters. His home is filled with mementoes from his boys. Hild is also head of the Claire Lee Chennault Foundation’s Descendant Society who purpose is to perpetuate the history and ideals of the Flying Tigers, AVG, CATF, and 14^th Air Force. Visit Jack’s website at www.chennaultfoundationflyingtigersinc.org.

Jack Hild lives for two things these days: his desire to commemorate the Flying Tigers and his dog, Drifter. Jack had been in bad health for a while and after visiting a friend in North Carolina found a stray dog in the mountains. Alone and frightened of people the dog finally came to Jack in an act of complete trust. The two returned home to Naples and Jack went into the hospital for heart by-pass surgery. He has something to live for now. “The beautiful creature who drifted down from the mountain side gave me back my life,” Jack says with emotion. He’s out walking with his new friend and Drifter even attends church with Jack on Sunday morning. He stays busy working on his Foundation as well.

When I think of the Flying Tigers I’m reminded of an excerpt from a poem written by an RCAF pilot, John Magee, Jr., only 3 months before he was killed in action 12-14-1941. It was made more famous when President Reagan quoted it in a speech: Where never lark, or even eagle flew, and while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod, the high untresspassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand and touched the Face of God.

We’ll never forget The Flying Tigers; we thank each and every one of them for their service. Thank you for your service, too, Sgt. Hild.