China's young people, no less than ours, are addicted to videogames, and one of their latest heroes turns out to be a young woman called Flying Tiger Ying. She was born in Hong Kong, trained as an "operative," hardened in Israel, and now a member of Hong Kong's elite police commando force. ("Ying" is her code name, meaning "Firefly.") I don't pretend to understand this stuff, given that during my teen years our gaming was limited to pinball machines, but the game seems to be called Operation Blood Orchid and is vaguely based on the actual Hong Kong SWAT team, testimony to the enduring Chinese fascination with the American Volunteer Group Flying Tigers. And indeed, if the AVG were reconstituted today, they would no doubt number a woman or three in their combat force.
And speaking of actual women warriors, Pennsylvania State University has honored Emma Jane Foster as part of the I Am a Penn Stater exhibit of graduates who served in the Second World War. Foster was a native of State College PA and joined the AVG as a nurse. She fell in love with the pilot John Petach and married him in China. Both she and her husband volunteered to serve two extra weeks after the AVG was formally disbanded, and he was shot down and killed in one of the AVG's last combat missions. Blue skies! -- Daniel Ford
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