Chennault, << shuh NAWLT, >> Claire Lee (1893-1958), led the Flying Tigers, a small group of volunteer American aviators who supported China in its war against Japan before the United States entered World War II in 1941. He took command of the U.S. Fourteenth Air Force in China in 1943. He retired in 1945 as a major general and became head of a Chinese airline. Chennault was born on Sept. 6, 1893, in Commerce, Texas. He was principal of a Texas high school until World War I (1914-1918), when he joined the U.S. Army Air Service. He became an expert in precision flying with an exhibition team of air corps pilots. In 1937, he became air adviser to Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of China’s Nationalist government. Chennault died on July 27, 1958.
See also Flying Tigers ; World War II (The China-Burma-India theater) .
