Claire Chennault - FU Hero
The faculty at FU is proud to add Lieutenant General Claire Lee Chennault to it’s Hall of Heros. Claire Chennault was a contentious officer, and a fierce advocate of "pursuit" or fight-interceptor aircraft during the 1930s when the U.S. Army Air Corps was focused primarily on high-altitude bombardment. Kinda of sound like our military leadership of today? Chennault retired in 1937, went to work as an aviation trainer and adviser in China, and commanded the "Flying Tigers” during World War II, both the volunteer group and the uniformed units that replaced it in 1942.
Poor health and disputes with superiors (I guess they didn’t do Rolling Stones interviews back then) led Chennault to resign from the service on 30 April 1937. He then went to China and joined a small group of American civilians training Chinese airmen. When the Sino-Japanese War broke out in July, he served as "air adviser" to Nationalist Government leader General Chiang Kai-shek.
Immediately following the Japanese air Attack on Pearl Harbor, the first news reports released to the public pertaining to Claire Chennault's war exploits occurred on 20 December 1941 when senior Chinese officials in Chungking that Saturday evening released his name to United Press International reporters to commemorate the first aerial attack made by the international air force called the American Volunteer Group (AVG).
These American flyers encountered ten Japanese planes heading to raid Kunming, and successfully shot down four of the raiders. Thus, Colonel Claire Chennault became America's first military leader to be publicly recognized for striking a blow against the Japanese military forces.