HOME > TIGERS > ACES

The Flying Tiger aces

Here are the 15 Flying Tiger pilots who were credited with five or more air-to-air victories--the usual definition of an "ace". Those marked with an asterisk (*) were deceased as of November 2003. (Click here for victories attributed to AVG pilots, in the air and on the ground.) Where scores are tied, I list the names alphabetically. If you have additional information about any of these men, please send email. Thanks to Skip Guidry, Tom Pearson, and Rick Siciliano for helping update this file.

1. Robert Neale *

A Seattle resident, Bob Neale was a dive-bomber pilot on Saratoga when he joined the AVG. He took over the 1st Squadron Adam & Eves after Sandy Sandell was killed, and was decorated by the British government (Distinguished Service Order) for his exploits in Burma. Neale was one of the AVG pilots who volunteered two weeks' additional service in China after the group was disbanded; during that interim, he commanded the U.S. Army's 23rd Fighter Group--as a civilian!--pending the arrival of the designated commander, Colonel Robert Scott. After returning to the States, he served as a civilian transport or ferry pilot for Pan American World Airways. The AVG records credit him with 13 air-to-air victories:
  • 23 Jan 1942: 1 Ki-27 Nate fighter
  • 24 Jan 1942: 2 Ki-21 Sally bombers
  • 26 Jan 1942: 1 Ki-27 Nate fighter
  • 6 Feb 1942: 1 Ki-27 Nate fighter
  • 25 Feb 1942: 4 Ki-27 Nate fighters
  • 26 Feb 1942: 3 Ki-27 Nate fighters
  • 3 May 1942: 1 Ki-15? observation plane

2. David Lee Hill

Born in Korea to a missionary father who later became chaplain to the Texas Rangers, Tex Hill was also a Navy dive-bomber pilot when recruited for the AVG, serving on Ranger on the east coast. The British awarded him the Distiguished Flying Cross for his service in Burma. He replaced Jack Newkirk as commander of the 2nd Squadron Panda Bears in March 1942. Devoted to Chennault, he was one of only five Flying Tigers who accepted induction into the U.S. Army in July 1942. He was given the rank of major and the command of the 75th Fighter Squadron. On his second combat tour in China, he served as commander of the 23rd Fighter Group, and after the war earned general's rank in the Texas Air National Guard. The AVG record credits him with 10.25 air-to-air victories:
  • 3 Jan 1942: 1 Ki-27 Nate fighter
  • 23 Jan 1942: 2 Ki-27 Nate fighters
  • 24 Jan 1942: 1 Ki-21 Sally bomber + 1 Ki-27 Nate fighter
  • 29 Jan 1942: 1 Ki-27 Nate fighter
  • 24 Apr 1942: shared 1 Ki-15 Sonia observation plane
  • 28 Apr 1942: 2 Ki-43 Hayabusa fighters
  • 5 May 1942: 1 Ki-43 Hayabusa fighter
  • 6 July 1942: 1 Ki-27 Nate fighter

(3) George Burgard *

A native of Pennsylvania, George Burgard was born August 12, 1915. He attended Bucknell and spent six years as a newspaperman before joining the Army. Trained in B-17s, he was serving as a Ferry Command pilot when he joined the AVG. Following his AVG service, he flew for American Export Lines. He has his own webpage; see the links. The record shows him in a three-way tie as a double ace:
  • 21 Feb 1942: 2 Ki-27 Nate fighters
  • 25 Feb 1942: 1 bomber + 2 fighters
  • 26 Feb 1942: 3 Ki-27 Nate fighters
  • 12 Jun 1942: 1 Ki-45 Toryu fighter + 1 Ki-27 Nate fighter (the Toryu was piloted by Sgt. Jiro Ieiri, commander of "Nagano Force" of five or more Ki-45s based at Canton; Ieiri was killed in the crash, but the radioman-gunner survived to have his picture taken with Burgard and other Flying Tigers)

(3) Robert Little *

Bob Little is shown as a native of Spokane. Likewise recruited from the Army Air Corps (probably from the 8th Pursuit Group at Mitchel Field), and likewise a double ace, he was killed in action while bombing Japanese positions on the Salween River, 22 May 1942.
  • 29 Jan 1942: 1 Ki-27 Nate fighter
  • 6 Feb 1942: 2 Ki-27 Nate fighters
  • 25 Feb 1942: 3 Ki-27 Nate fighters
  • 26 Feb 1942: 3 Ki-27 Nate fighters
  • 8 Apr 1942: 1 Ki-43 Hayabusa fighter

(3) Charles Older

A graduate of UCLA, Chuck Older joined the marines as a breather before law school. Following the AVG, he joined the Army and ended the war as a lieutenant colonel before resuming his interrupted study of the law, perhaps the only double ace to become a judge. (Most famously, he presided over the Charles Manson trial.) Meantime, he was recalled to active duty and flew a Douglas B-26 Invader during the Korean War--probably the only Flying Tiger to be a combat pilot in another war.
  • 23 Dec 1941: 2 Ki-21 Sally bombers
  • 25 Dec 1941: 2 Ki-21 Sally bombers + 1 Ki-43 Hayabusa fighter
  • 17 Jan 1942: 1 Ki-21 Sally bomber + 1 shared
  • 29 Mar 1942: 1 Ki-46 Dinah? observation plane
  • 10 Apr 1942: shared 1 Ki-43 Hayabusa fighter (flown by Sgt. Yoshito Yasuda of the 64th Sentai, who not only managed to fly back to Chiang Mai but survived the war, later writing about this combat in terms that make it impossible that he was not the pilot claimed by Older and Hedman)
  • 28 Apr 1942: 2 Ki-43 Hayabusa fighters

6. Robert T. Smith *

A native of Red Cloud, Nebraska, R. T. Smith was serving as an Army flight instructor at Randolph Field when he joined the AVG, and he rejoined the Air Corps when his tour was finished. He served with the 1st Air Commando in India and Burma, ending the war as a colonel. His facsimile diary, Tale of a Tiger, is one of the best of the AVG memoirs. (Part of it is online at C. C. Jordan's page.) The record shows him with 8.90 air-to-air victories:
  • 23 Dec 1941: 1 Ki-21 Sally bomber + 1 shared
  • 25 Dec 1941: 2 Ki-21 Sally bombers + 1 Ki-43 Hayabusa fighter
  • 8 Apr 1942: 2 Ki-43 Hayabusa fighters (the first was flown by Lt. Yohei Hinoki of the 64th Sentai, who was badly shot up but managed to fly home to Chiang Mai; the second belonged to Sgt. Chikara Goto, credited with two victories at Singapore, who crashed 30 or 40 miles south of Loiwing)
  • 10 Apr 1942: 1 Ki-43 Hayabusa fighter
  • 25 Apr 1942: shared 2 Ki-15 Sonia observation planes (the loss of these planes is confirmed in Japanese records)
  • 28 Apr 1942: 1 Ki-43 Hayabusa fighter

7. William McGarry *

One of the few AVG recruits who'd actually flown fighter planes--Curtiss P-40s for the 1st Pursuit Group at Selfridge Field--Mac McGarry was shot down over Chiang Mai, Thailand, on 24 March 1942. (Portions of his Tomahawk are now on display at the Chiang Mai airport. It was the discovery of those relicts that prompted me to write my novel Remains.) After a rough interrogation by the Japanese, he was handed over to the local authorities and spent the war in the comparative comfort of a Thai jail. The record shows him with 8 air-to-air victories:
  • 26 Jan 1942: 1 Ki-27 Nate fighter
  • 6 Feb 1942: 1 Ki-27 Nate fighter
  • 25 Feb 1942: 4 Ki-27 Nate fighters
  • 26 Feb 1942: 2 Ki-27 Nate fighters

continued in part 2
ADVERTISEMENTS