Claire Lee Chennault (FILE)

Claire Lee Chennault (1893-1958), a retired U.S. Army Air Corps officer who brought 100 outdated Warhawks to China in early 1941, along with 99 American pilots and ground crew. Technically a mercenary outfit, but widely believed to be unofficially sanctioned by the U.S. Government before war was declared on Japan in December 1941, in the early days of the war, the American Volunteer Group presented China's only real air resistance to the Imperial Japanese Army.

The Flying Tigers, as they later came to be known, were formally absorbed into the U.S. military in 1942 as the 14th Air Force under the command of Chennault.