When America received China's distress signal, they immediately circulated a sign-up sheet for pilots and ground crew. It did not take very long for the sheet to fill up with names. There were several reasons for this. First, the American government offered a handsome salary to all the pilots and ground crew who signed up. Secondly, military personnel were eager to enter the fight in the China-Burma-India theater. The American volunteer group, also known as the AVG, were males from either from the Army or the Navy. The AVG embarked on a two-week long boat ride all the way to Burma. When they got to Keydaw airfield, which would serve as their home base, there were 100 P-40 War hawks waiting for all 87 pilots and 300 ground crew. Claire Lee Chennault was an expert veteran pilot who served as an officer in the Army Air Corps in the 1930s. He also commanded a flight squadron called, the "3 Men on a Flying Trapeze". Major Chennault trained the pilots how to fly these P-40s and what to do in combat situations. (CBI Unit Lineages and History, 2017)
First combat success of The Flying Tigers (Dogfights: Flying Tigers, 25 January 2014)
Courtesy of the ProQuest National Archives. The AVG squadron runs out to their P-40s to stop Japanese bombing raids
"The Chinese air-raid warning system was a vast spider net of people, radios, telephones, and telegraph lines that covered all of Free China accessible to enemy aircraft. In addition to continuous intelligence of enemy attacks, the net served to locate and guide lost friendly planes, direct aid to friendly pilots who had crashed or bailed out, and helped guide our technical intelligence experts to wrecks of crashed enemy aircraft. .... Most efficient sector of the net was developed in Yunnan as a dire necessity. It was the Yunnan net that was a key to the early A.V.G. successes and the defense of Chinese terminals on this side of the Hump against fantastic numerical odds." [Chennault] Chennault, Claire L. Way of a Fighter
"Methods of implementing the fighter-group plan developed faster than I expected. It became evident during the winter that China had a small but powerful circle of friends in the White House and Cabinet. Dr. Lauchlin Currie was sent to China as President Roosevelt's special adviser and returned a strong backer of increased aid to China in general and my air plans in particular. Another trusted adviser of the President--Thomas Corcoran--did yeoman service in pushing the American Volunteer Group project when the pressure against it was strongest." [Chennault]