With the help of local residents, Rudy Kraus of Fayette has been able to successfully uncover information about an original Flying Tiger and Randalia native, the late Noel Bacon. Kraus is pictured at the Fayette American Legion Hall looking at additional information gathered by he and other Legion members on other local veterans. (Mike Van Sickle photo)
Mission accomplished: Flying Tiger remembered
By Mike Van Sickle
mvansickle@thefayettecountyunion.com
“One shining hope has emerged from three catastrophic months of war. That is the American Volunteer Group of fighter pilots, the so-called "Flying Tigers" of Burma and southeast China who paint the jaws of a shark on their Curtiss P-40s.
“Outnumbered often ten to one, they have so far shot down about 300 Jap planes, killed perhaps 800 Jap airmen. They have violently wrenched from the Jap Air Force control of the skies over Burma and southeast China.
“They have conclusively proved what was once only a Yankee belief: that one American flier is equal to two or three Japs.”
It was about two years ago, when Rudy Kraus first read these words online from a March 30, 1942, Life magazine article about World War II’s 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Chinese Air Force, or the Flying Tigers as they were so nicknamed.
Possessing a keen interest in history and being a veteran himself, Kraus was especially intrigued by the article. Needless to say, the article garnered his full attention when as he scrolled down, he discovered that one of the original Flying Tigers included Noel Richard Bacon, a Randalia native!
