Maj. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault (September 6, 1893 - July 27, 1958) was a United States aviator famous for commanding the "Flying Tigers" fighter group during World War II. Chennault's three squadrons of Chinese and American volunteer pilots used tactics of "defensive pursuit" to guard the Burma Road and other strategic locations in Southeast Asia and western China against Japanese forces.

The Flying Tigers were formally incorporated into the U.S. Army in 1942. Chennault retired in 1945 shortly before the Allied victory in the Pacific. He returned to China as an adviser to its air force.

Chennault, who unlike Joseph Stilwell had a high opinion of Chiang Kai-shek, advocated international support for Asian anti-communist movements. In 1946 he purchased several surplus military aircraft and created Civil Air Transport (later Air America). These aircraft supported the Kuomintang against Mao Zedong's Communists in the Chinese Civil War and assisted the French during the First Indochina War. Chennault died in 1958 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He is commemorated by a statue in the ROC capital of Taipei, as well as by monuments on the grounds of the Louisiana state capitol at Baton Rouge, and at Chennault Air Force Base, in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

External links

• http://www.danford.net/clc.htm
• http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/prewwii/clc.htm