Lt. Gen Claire Lee Chennault was born in Commerce, TX on September 6th, 1893. His family soon moved to Gilbert, Louisiana and he grew up splitting his childhood between roaming the Franklin Parish bayous and being persuaded/coerced into getting a good education by his stepmother. In 1909 he enrolled in LSU, where he joined the ROTC, took 18 hours, and played NCAA-level sports (I'm going to go cry now). After teaching high school in Athens, LA for a few years, (preferred method of discipline: fighting his overgrown redneck students behind the schoolhouse. It actually worked wonders) he joined the Air Service upon America's entry into WWI. He earned his wings in 1919 and over the course of the next few years would serve along the Mexican border, in Hawaii, and at Langley Field, VA.
It was when his Hawaii deployment began in 1923, as CO of the 19th Pursuit (Fighter) Squadron that Chennault began to develop a reputation as an outspoken proponent of fighter aviation. This put him at odds with Army higher-ups, first the Artillery officers who commanded the anti-air defenses (He broke one-sided war games rules to show that anti-air batteries were vulnerable to air-to-ground attacks) and eventually the 'bomber mafia'.
During the interwar period, bomber planes began to develop more rapidly than their fighter counterparts. Eventually, the bombers' lead in technology was so great many Air Corp officers began to believe that the new, heavily armed, multi-engine strategic bombers like the B-17 Flying Fortress could never be shot down by enemy pursuit planes. The future for fighter pilots was looking bleak.
Chennault worked tirelessly to improve fighter tactics and get fighter aviation respect. However, being passionate, vocal, and lacking anything resembling tact made him many high-ranking enemies. For those unfamiliar with military culture, developing a reputation for arguing with superiors is not the best way to get promoted. In 1937 Chennault was 'persuaded' into taking a medical retirement after telling a high-ranking general -to his face- that he'd botched the use of the Air Corp in some recent war games.
It seemed like Chennault's military career was over. However a few years earlier his work in the area of fighter tactics had lead to his founding of the Air Corp's first stunt team, the granddaddy of the Thunderbirds. One of the team's performances was seen by T.V. Soong, a brother-in-law of Generalissimo Chaing Kai-Shek, the leader of Nationalist China. China had been at war with Japan since 1931 and badly needed to improve its air-defense capabilities in the face of Japanese bombing raids. Immediately after retiring, Chennault signed a three-month, $3,000 ($60,000 in 2011 money) contract to review the state of the Chinese Air Force.
Upon completing his investigation, Chennault made his report to Chaing Kai-Shek. It wasn't pretty: the planes were obsolete, the pilots were incompetent, and facilities were crap. Chennault was then hired to turn the situation around. Using his tactics, the outnumbered and out gunned Chinese Air Force scored early successes against Japanese bombers. However, when Japan began dedicating its large and technologically advanced fighter force to defeating the Chinese airmen, Chennault took heavy losses and was forced to withdraw his squadrons into the interior of China. There he tried to rebuild the CAF, but the lack of resources and constant Japanese air attacks made the job impossible.
It became clear that China couldn't build it's own air force, but perhaps it could buy one. In 1941 Chennault was sent to the US to purchase planes and hire pilots for an 'American Volunteer Group'. With the secret approval of President Roosevelt, he managed to acquire 100 P-40B Warhawks and hire 100 Army, Navy, and Marine pilots, along with 200 support staff.
In late 1941 the AVG reached China and began receiving instruction in Chennault's unorthodox tactics. Chinese encounters with the Japanese fighter planes, especially the Zero, had shown them be incredibly maneuverable aircraft that could out-turn and out-climb any western aircraft. Getting into a turning dogfight with a Zero would be suicide in the far less agile P-40. However, to gain its maneuverability, the Zero had sacrificed armor and survivability, while the P-40 had heavy armor, superior firepower, and was good in a dive. The AVG would use 'boom-and-zoom' tactics: make diving passes through enemy formations, then climbing back up, avoiding a turning fight at all costs.
On December 20th, the AVG went into action for the first time. The pilots of the AVG's 1st and 2nd squadrons intercepted a formation of 10 twin-engine 'Betty' bombers near Kunming, China and shot down nine. Meanwhile, the Japanese began an offensive aimed at taking Rangoon, Burma. Rangoon was the starting point of the Burma road and China's last supply line to the outside world. Chennault deployed the 'Hell's Angels', his 3rd squadron to defend the city. On December 23rd the Japanese Air Force began bombing the city, but was repulsed, suffering heavy casualties. On Christmas Day the AVG won its greatest victory, officially credited with shooting down 23 Japanese planes over Rangoon without suffering a loss.
As the battle for Rangoon wore on, Chennault rotated his squadrons into the city to preserve their strength. Despite being credited with a 15:1 kill ratio, the situation began to steadily get worse. Ammunition and fuel were scarce, and replacement parts nonexistent. The only way to keep a few P-40s in the air was to cannibalize other P-40s too damaged to fly. Despite these difficulties, the AVG, now known as the 'Flying Tigers', maintained Allied air superiority over Rangoon and even launched occasional offensive raids until they were forced out of the city by Japanese land forces in February 1942.
The AVG would remain in service until July 4th, 1942, when was incorporated into the US Army Air Force as the 23rd Fighter Group of the China Air Task Force. During the months between February and that date the Flying Tigers covered the Allied retreat up the Burma Road and defended the main cities of Free China from bombing attacks with great success. Their aerial victories against seemingly overwhelming odds gave America a critical ray of hope during the darkest days of WWII.
I could go on about Chennault's exploits after his reinstatement into the Air Force, but this article is getting pretty long, so I'll summarize. He was promoted to Brigadier General, lead the CATF and then the 14th Air Force for the remainder of the war, first defending Chinese cities, then switching to attacking Japanese targets along the Chinese coast. At the end of the war he got in trouble again and was forced into another medical retirement. He then formed China Air Transport, which flew supplies throughout China to areas devastated by the war. CAT eventually became Air America, the CIA-controlled airline used for all manner of clandestine activities in Southeast Asia (everything Chennault touched seemed to become awesome). Chennault also dedicated his life to fighting the spread of Communism and improving the American system of distributing foreign aid. He died on July 27th, 1958 in New Orleans, just days after his promotion to Lt. General.
