Grant County Library to Present History of Flying Tigers
Grant County Library
to Present History
of Flying Tigers
The Grant County Public Library will host Bill Rathburn Thursday, January 16, at 1:30 p.m. He will present the history of the Flying Tigers and his uncle, Bill Reed, who flew 75 missions with the Flying Tigers.
The Flying Tigers were the first American volunteer group of the Chinese Air Force in 1941-42 and were composed of pilots from the US Army Air Corps, Navy and Marine Corps recruited under President Franklin Roosevelt’s authority before Pearl Harbor. The group consisted of three fighter squadrons of approximately 30 aircraft that trained in Burma to defend Chinese cities from Japanese bombers and protect China supply lines to the outside world. The first group saw combat on December 20, 1941.
Rathburn has many historical items about the Flying Tigers he will be sharing with the group.
