Aviator, born in Commerce, Texas, USA. A schoolteacher, he obtained an infantry commission in 1917, then transferred to the signal corps and became a pilot. Forced out of the service in 1937 because of deafness, he went to work for the Chinese Nationalists, recruiting some 50 US pilots and equipping them with P-40 aircraft for operations against the Japanese. In a brief career of seven months in 19412, his Flying Tigers became the most publicized flying unit of World War 2. He went on to hold senior US commands in China, retiring in 1945, but continued to serve the Nationalists as an air consultant until his death.
Born in Commerce, Texas to John Stonewall Jackson Chennault and Jesse Lee, he was raised in Waterproof, Louisiana. Chennault learned to fly in the Army during World War I and became Chief of Pursuit Training for the US Army Air Corps in the 1930s. During this time Chennault participated in planning operations and observed the Chinese Air Force in combat from a Curtiss Mohawk (P-36 Hawk).
Chennault's American Volunteer Group (AVG) — better known as the "Flying Tigers" — began training in August 1941 and fought the Japanese for six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Chennault's three squadrons of American volunteer pilots used his tactics of "defensive pursuit" to guard the Burma Road, Rangoon, and other strategic locations in Southeast Asia and western China against Japanese forces, as China had few, if any, modern planes. Chennault believed that the Fourteenth Air Force, operating out of bases in China, could bring about the downfall of Japan with air power alone; Later in the war, when the air-bases established by Chennault were entirely overrun and all equipment lost -- thus proving Stilwell correct in his opposition -- Chiang and Chennault managed to persuade Washington that the fault lay with Stilwell, had him relieved of command, and so freed up Chennault and Chiang to largely orchestrate the execution of the remainder of the war.
Chennault, who unlike Joseph Stilwell had a high opinion of Chiang Kai-shek, advocated international support for Asian anti-communist movements. Returning to China postwar, he purchased several surplus military aircraft and created Civil Air Transport (later Air America). Chiang Kai Shek and Mr. Chennault considered the stress which this created for the fledgling Burmese democracy justified because, in their opinion, the fight to restore the Chiang's to Chinese rule was the only means to protect the world from Chinese Communists.
Later, many of the founders and leaders of Civil Air Transport were to become involved directly in Southeast Asian politics, policing, and drug cartels, ultimately morphing into Air America, the CIA air transport company which served throughout the Korean War, the French First Indochina War, and the Vietnam War.
Chennault was ultimately promoted to lieutenant general, only one day before his death. 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 – now the commercial Chennault International Airport after the military base was closed in 1963 – in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Chennault is still recognized as a major historical contributor to Chinese history within China. By the time he was in China, Chennault and Nell had divorced. While in China, Chennault married young Chinese woman Chen Xiangmei, who was a reporter for the Central News Agency.
See also
Flying Tigers Republic of China Air Force Second Sino-Japanese War History of the Republic of China Military of the Republic of China Kuomintang Chiang Kai-shek Madame Chiang Kai-shekFurther reading
Martha Byrd - Chennault: Giving Wings to the Tiger ISBN 0-8173-0322-7 Claire Chennault - Way of a Fighter (Putnam's, 1949) Daniel Ford - Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and the American Volunteer Group ISBN 1-56098-541-0 Robert Lee Scott Jr - Flying Tiger: Chennault of China ISBN 0-8371-6774-4Works Cited
"Claire Lee Chennault."
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