Flying Tiger Gregory ‘Pappy’ Boyington: The Top US Marine Ace In History

Although the Flying Tigers and US Marine Corps fighter pilots were elite and legendary aerial warriors of the Second World War, they were two separate entities. In fact, the Flying Tigers officially known as the American Volunteer Group (AVG) weren’t even a US military entity at all, but rather volunteers (as the “V” in “AVG” indicates) under General Claire Lee Chennault (September 6, 1893 July 27, 1958) who were fighting on behalf of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek’s Nationalist China against the Imperial Japanese scourge.