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ANNALS OF THE FLYING TIGERS

John Dean Armstrong was the first Flying Tiger to die and the last to be laid to rest. Here's a YouTube video of his burial in Hutchinson, Kansas, on June 14. The Navy honor guard is a recognition that he was one of a majority of AVG pilots who earned their wings at Pensacola. The "missing man" flyover by the 75th Fighter Squadron, 23rd Fighter Group, honors the lineage of the Flying Tigers as their planes and some of their pilots were inducted into the USAAF in July 1942. (Despite its name, the 75th is an air-to-mud combat force, flying the A-10 Warthog.)

Armstrong, Peter Atkinson, and Maax Hammer were killed in training accidents in the early fall of 1941, and were buried in the St. Luke's (Church of England) graveyard in Toungoo, Burma. I looked for it in 1991 when I was researching the AVG but could find not trace of it. Similarly, when Armstrong's nieces sponsored a closer search in 2004, they learned that the grave markers had been dumped elsewhere, and the churchyard turned into a housing development. They then resorted to the archives and discovered that the graves had been disinterred in 1947. Since they'd couldn't be identified, they were buried temporarily in India, then moved to to the Punchbowl Cemetery in Hawaii. After much battling with the bureaucracies involved, the cousins -- now joined by relatives of Hammer and Atkinson -- managed to get them exhumed for a third time and subjected to DNA tests. All three have now been positively identified and returned to the United States. See the story in the Topeka Capital-Journal for more about Armstrong's journey. Blue skies! — Daniel Ford

A 'Special Air Unit' for China:

'Procurement of Personnel for China': the Navy memos
Recruiting the 1st AVG: Bruce Leighton's memo
Recruiting the 2nd AVG: the Chennault-Soong cables
Greg Boyington resigns from the Marine Corps
Sgt. Charland Down Under
Bob Klemann signs on to fly a Lockheed Hudson for China
Another chaplain? 'Jimmy' Stewart's odd story (Time magazine)
FDR orders the navy to release men for the 3rd AVG
Six B-25s for Chennault, bombing Lashio en route
Lauchlin Currie: a spy at the heart of the AVG?
Meet Olga and Harvey Greenlaw
About those 'engineering helpers'
See also the Annals of the Chinese Air Force

The Tigers forge a legend:

Questions you asked: the Flying Tigers FAQ
Roster of the 1st American Volunteer Group
Lacy Mangleburg writes home from Hamilton Field
'Your resignation is accepted' (George Burgard's scrapbook)
'He has crashed up three planes in the first week'
AVG fliers who crashed in U.S. Army service
An AVG identification card
Lew Bishop writes home from Burma
Three who died: the graves of St. Luke's
Status of the AVG at the outbreak of war
Layout of Mingaladon airport, Rangoon, December 1941
Aircraftman Wilf Jepson of the AVG
Bob Neale in Rangoon (from his diary)
'What Odds They Faced in Burma's Sky!'
Jack Newkirk, down in Thailand
On the tactics used by AVG pilots (Erik Shilling)
Bert Christman: life imitating art (Andrew Glaess)
Greg 'Pappy' Boyington, Flying Tiger
Arnold Shamblin writes home from Yunnan-yi
Melvin Woodward's memories of the AVG
Some of the lads at Kunming (Clare Boothe Luce's photo)
AVG pilot losses, December 1941 - July 1942
AVG victory credits, air and ground
Nineteen Flying Tiger aces

Half price and postpaid! I still have some copies of the iUniverse edition of Remains: A Story of the Flying Tigers. (The cover was different and the price was higher.) While they last, you can get one for $7.98 postpaid, sent by Media Mail to your U.S. postal address. PayPal rolls your credit card; I sign the book and put it in the mailbox, usually the same day.

The P-40 files:

Joe Baugher's articles on the small-mouthed Curtiss models
Pilot's Notes for the AVG Tomahawk
A Russian view of the P-40 Tomahawk
100 Hawks for China: the planes shipped to Rangoon
Assembling and testing P-40s in Burma (Byron Glover)
On spinning the Curtiss fighters (Erik Shilling)
Number 80 does a ground loop at Toungoo
Christman's nose art for the 2nd Squadron Tomahawks
R.T. Smith's iconic photo of Tomahawks on patrol
Is this Tomahawk Number 23?
Some AVG 'veterans' in Kunming, c. 1943
About those small-mouthed P-40 survivors
Mac McGarry's Tomahawk in Thailand
Recovering that P-40 from Lake Kunming

The Bill Pawley files:

Bill Pawley and the Flying Tigers
The CAMCO/AVG factory and airfield at Loiwing
Layout of the CAMCO operation
The fall of Loiwing, April 1942

Books etc.:

The Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers
The Lady and the Tigers
Remains: A Story of the Flying Tigers
Tales of the Flying Tigers
An AVG bibliography
Books reviewed on this site | recommended titles
A short guide to AVG films, past and present
'The Story of the 14th Air Force' (streaming video)
Wow! Bam! Flying Tigers Comix! | Les Tigres Volants

A good myth never dies:

Home again! From Toungoo to the Punchbowl Cemetery, 1941-2016
John Armstrong comes home, 76 years after leaving it
Billy McDonald, the Hawk 75, and Chennault's combat victories
'Straight from the Tiger's Mouth!' (GM advertisement)
Ajax Baumler, the 100th Flying Tiger
No, sorry, the AVG never met the Zero in combat
Did the RAF 'sell' victories to the AVG?
1,500 planes shot down? The ultimate AVG myth
Chris Shores on the subject of AVG victory claims
Ed McClure: The Last Flying Tiger Ace (Zeke Striker)
The exfiltration of Mac McGarry (Bob Bergin)
The strange journey of "Little Olson"
Not a Tiger: an imposter 'fesses up
What about that 'phantom P-40' shot down in China?
It's official: the AVG fought for the U.S.
The multiple weddings of Olga Greenlaw
Harvey Greenlaw in Baja: a friend remembers
Erik Shilling, off on his last flight
Hostel Number One and the Hump Bar, Kunming
Tiger Yee of Aurora, Colorado
Preserving the Flying Tiger Heritage (Bob Bergin)
Heroes—but were they legal? (Richard Dunn)
A ghostly airfield in Yunnan province (Bob Bergin)

Question? Comment? Newsletter? Send me an email. Blue skies! — Daniel Ford