Major General, U.S. Army Air Corps
Honored by China and revered by his pilots, Major General Claire Lee Chennault became a hero leading a group of American volunteers to victory in World War II, creating the legend of the “Flying Tigers.”
Claire Lee Chennault was born in 1893 in Commerce, Texas. The family moved to northeast Louisiana, and Chennault attended LSU for two semesters in 1909. He was a teacher and baseball coach at a one-room school in Athens, Louisiana. He also gained a commission as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Infantry Reserve.
In April 1920, he became First Lieutenant Chennault in the new Army Air Service. From 1923-1926, Chennault commanded the 19th Fighter Squadron, the “Fighting Cocks” at Pearl Harbor. It was here that he began to develop his new, visionary air combat tactics. During the next five years, he was promoted to Captain; served as a flight instructor at Brooks Field, Texas;, graduated from the Army Air Corps Tactical School and served as an instructor at Langley Field, Virginia.
Chennault retired from the U.S. Army Air Corps in April 1937 and served as an advisor to the Chinese Air Force (CAF) from 1937 to 1940. He worked with Chinese political and military leader Chiang Kai-shek to direct the CAF in its war against Japan. He returned to the United States in late 1940 to procure planes and pilots for the new American Volunteer Group (AVG), better known as the “Flying Tigers.” In 1941, they arrived in Burma to undergo training with Chennault.
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Chennault’s AVG pilots engaged the Japanese for the first time on December 20, 1941 and scored a major victory against Japanese bombers and fighters over Rangoon on Christmas Day. In less than six months, the “Flying Tigers” would destroy 299 Japanese planes in the air and another 153 probables.
The U.S. Army reinstated Chennault as a Brigadier General in the U.S. Army Air Corps in April 1942. The volunteer unit of the AVG was disbanded and replaced with the China Air Task Force (CATF) in July. In March 1943, President Franklin Roosevelt dissolved CATF, creating the China-based 14th Air Force with Major General Chennault commanding. The 14th destroyed more than 2,600 Japanese planes and another 1,500 probables, sank 44 ships, knocked out 600 bridges and wiped out nearly 67,000 enemy troops before the end of World War II. Chennault left China in August 1945 and retired from military service that October.
He died in New Orleans, Louisiana, on July 27, 1958 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.