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1954 reunion menu cover

Flying Tigers 1952 reunion menu

What a collector's item! Here's the cover of R.T. Smith's reunion banquet menu from 1952--the 10th anniversary of the AVG's disbandment, and its first formal reunion. A tip of the virtual hat to Brad Smith for making these scans and deciphering the signatures. From left to right, top to bottom, with the horizontal bars reflecting those on the menu itself:

Chuck Baisden (who crewed for R.T. in the Air Commando, therefore "Tadpole's Gunner"), Dick Terry, Erik Shilling (who spelled his nickname differently then), Dick Rossi, Ed Conant, Tom Sommers* (see below for meaning of the asterisk), Al Kaelin, Bill Bartling, Harold Osborne, Frank Adkins, George Wingshee

Parker Dupouy, Russell Brown (guest; winner of first Flying Tiger Pilot Award), Jack Croft, Tom Haywood, Earl Wagner, Joan Claire Petach (aged 9, daughter of John and "Red" Foster Petach), Matt Kuykendall, Claire Chennault, Jim Cross, George Curran, Ed Overend, Robert L. Smith (guest; newspaper publisher), Clifford Groh, Greg Boyington*, Duke Hedman, Hank Geselbracht, Bob Layer, Paul Perry, George Paxton, Bob Prescott, Marilyn Maxwell (guest; "Miss Flying Tigress" 1952), Randall Richardson*, Harry Von Zell (guest; master of ceremonies), Moose Moss, Preston Paull, Bill Sutherland, P.J. Greene, Mary Anne Hedman (spouse), Anna Chennault (spouse), Yi-seng Kiang (guest; Consul General of the Republic of China), George Burgard, Tom Corcoran (guest; FDR advisor who helped make the AVG a reality), Buz Loane
George Wingshee (again!), Peter Wright, Gil Bright, Joey Poshefko, Ken Jernstedt, Ed Rector, Tex Hill, Bob "Catfish" Raine, Harry Fox

Since the Flying Tigers Association no longer recognizes AVGs who quit the group before it was disbanded, it's interesting that three "dishonorably discharged" individuals were welcome at the first reunion. I've marked their names with an asterisk (*). Boyington was actually an officer of the association in its early years, though not in 1952.

Shark-face and the gang of three
Naturally, the reunion got huge play in the local press. Here's a clipping from the Valley Times of June 26, 1952, showing R.T. Smith, Erik Shilling, and Dick Rossi in front of a P-40 that was painted in sharkface colors, and that greeted the Flying Tigers Line transport that brought in the East Coast contingent.

R.T. and Dick are holding paint cans; my guess is that Erik is holding a magazine with an illustration of a wartime sharkface. Weren't they handsome?

Among the AVGs listed as missing/no address in the reunion newsletter is Ogla Greenlaw Owsley. Olga remarried in 1946 and gave up her membership in the group, evidently because her husband was jealous of her Flying Tiger associations. (In 1952 she and Paul Owsley had a home in the Los Angeles area and a ranch in northern California.) Harvey Greenlaw is shown as living in the Bel-Air Motel in Los Angeles, but didn't attend the reunion; perhaps he had already moved to Mexico.

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