Letters [email protected] Publisher Donald L. Peterson Editor in Chief Robert S. Dudney Editorial [email protected] Editor Suzann Chapman Executive Editor John A. Tirpak Senior Editor Adam J. Hebert About the 40,000 Drawdown vice, some in the aviation and submarine Having been a member of the Air Force communities act and talk as if theirs is Associate Editors Association soon after I enlisted in 1993, I the only specialty that matters. Tamar A. Mehuron can’t tell you how many times I have read Pride in one’s specialty and good Marc V. Schanz your defense of almost every single Air natured ribbing between communities is Breanne Wagner Force weapon system while simultane- natural and harmless. When it evolves Lauren Bigge ously complaining about a lack of budget into arrogance, it is dangerous, de- for our nation’s Air Force (almost always structive, and harmful to the nation’s Contributors described as a narrowing “percentage security. John T. Correll of GDP”—as if this percentage alone Go, team, go. Walter J. Boyne should dictate how much money Uncle Cmdr. Walter Dunn Tucker, Bruce D. Callander Sam should spend on defense). [See USNR (Ret.) Rebecca Grant “Editorial: A Force for the Long Run,” Richmond, Va. Peter Grier December 2006, p. 2.] Tom Philpott It is therefore astonishing to me how Flying Tigers little time you have spent discussing the I’d like to commend Mr. John T. Cor- Production [email protected] fact that our Air Force is cutting 40,000 rell for his outstanding article about the Managing Editor positions from our rolls—all while fight- Flying Tigers in the December 2006 Juliette Kelsey Chagnon ing two wars and (additionally) using issue of Air Force Magazine [p. 36]. 20 percent of our airmen to fill Army As you know I was a member of both Assistant Managing Editor taskings. the original American Volunteer Group Frances McKenney Please consider giving our active (AVG) Flying Tigers and its successor Editorial Associate duty airman just a small percentage combat unit, the 23rd Fighter Group. Dina Elshinnawi of the attention you give the F-22 In fact, I activated the 75th Fighter when describing reductions due to Squadron on July 4, 1942 when the Senior Designer demanding GWOT priorities. No, we AVG was officially disbanded, and I Heather Lewis can’t afford the full-page ads that so served as its very first commander. The Designer beautifully decorate the pages of Air 23rd Fighter Group was activated the Darcy N. Harris Force Magazine, but then I would hope same day the AVG was disbanded. The we wouldn’t have to. group continued to call themselves “The Photo Editor Capt. Kenneth P. Main Flying Tigers.” It consisted of the 74th, Zaur Eylanbekov Scott AFB, Ill. 75th, and 76th Fighter Squadrons, and the 74th and 75th Fighter Squadrons Production Manager The Billy Mitchell Syndrome are still in existence to this day, flying Butch Ramsey One condescending phrase in an A-10s. The photograph shown on pp. otherwise interesting article may explain 36 and 37 of John Correll’s article is a Media Research Editor some of the flak directed toward Air 75th Fighter Squadron P-40E Warhawk. Chequita Wood Force officers [December, “The Billy When this photograph was taken, my Mitchell Syndrome,” p. 52]. good friend, Johnny Alison, had just Advertising [email protected] “Ground-pounders” is a phrase that Advertising Director I heard more than 50 years ago when Patricia Teevan an Air Force veteran was insulting an 1501 Lee Highway Army veteran. Its use in an article in your Do you have a comment about a cur- Arlington, Va. 22209-1198 magazine is unworthy. How does this rent article in the magazine? Write Tel: 703/247-5800 term sound to the families of deceased to “Letters,” Air Force Magazine, Telefax: 703/247-5855 and wounded military personnel who 1501 Lee Highway, Arlington, VA Industry Relations Manager served in ground forces in Afghanistan 22209-1198. (E-mail: letters@afa. Patricia Teevan • 703/247-5800 and Iraq? org.) Letters should be concise and timely. We cannot acknowledge re- US and European Sales Manager Perhaps one day more Air Force ceipt of letters. We reserve the right William Farrell • 847/295-2305 people will acknowledge that airpower is to condense letters. Letters without Lake Forest, Ill. only one of three essential elements in name and city/base and state are not e-mail: [email protected] military success—air, sea, and land. acceptable. Photographs cannot be The Air Force has no monopoly in this used or returned.—THE EDITORS Circulation audited by superiority complex. Within my own ser- Business Publication Audit 4 AIR FORCE Magazine / February 2007 Letters succeeded me as commander of the to accept, it’s clear the original Flying 75th FS. Tigers were skilled, courageous air- While the article is a well-written piece, men. I’d like to add an addendum to Air Force Association the one thing that troubled me was Mr. Mr. Correll’s article by noting that the 1501 Lee Highway • Arlington, VA 22209-1198 Correll’s reference to Mr. Daniel Ford’s heraldry of the Flying Tigers lives on in book, Flying Tigers, which is much dis- the current-day 14th Air Force. As the Telephone: (703) 247-5800 puted by those of us who are surviving AF’s space operations numbered Air Toll-free: (800) 727-3337 members of the AVG Flying Tigers. In Force, we like to think we embody the Press 1 if you know your party’s extension. his book, he admits that the Japanese spirit and innovation that characterized Press 3 for Member Services. did not have any records, and we simply those original Flying Tigers. We’re proud (For questions about membership, in- do not accept his reliance on interviews to inherit their heritage, and that we’ve surance, change of address or other data with surviving pilots concerning the moved from P-40s to a different kind changes, magazine delivery problems, number of kills by AVG pilots. With the of flying machine more appropriate to or member benefit programs, select the Japanese propensity for saving face, it’s our mission. I believe Gen. Chennault “Member Services” option.) hard to imagine that these pilots were would embrace the modern-day Flying Or stay on the line for an operator to direct going to admit to losing larger numbers Tigers—and maybe even smile. your call. of aircraft downed by the AVG or any Maj. Gen. William L. Shelton, other combatant. Mr. Ford seems bent Commander, 14th Air Force Fax: (703) 247-5853 on discrediting the AVG, in my opinion, Vandenberg AFB, Calif. and especially maligning Claire Chen- Internet: http://www.afa.org/ nault in the process. There are certainly The picture of the P-40 with seven other more creditable sources that should pilots was not the AVG. This was the be used when writing about the AVG. 75th Fighter Squadron, 23rd Group, E-Mail Addresses The one that is endorsed by the Flying and sometime after the AVG disbanded Tigers Association is Claire Chennault’s on 4 July 1942. All pilots shown were Field Services .........................fl[email protected] autobiography, Way of a Fighter. 75th, as was also the ’40 itself (a later Government Relations .................. [email protected] David Lee “Tex” Hill model than the AVG flew). In another San Antonio picture (p. 41), showing Robert Scott Industry Relations .......................... [email protected] with Chennault, please note he was Information [email protected] Thanks to John Correll for his excellent not in the AVG either, although he flew article on the Flying Tigers. Regardless some missions as an observer with Member Services .................. [email protected] of the version of history one chooses its pilots. Policy & Communications (news media) ......... [email protected] Magazine Advertising .................................. [email protected] AFA National Report ............... [email protected] Editorial Offices [email protected] Letters to Editor Column .. [email protected] AD SPACE Eaker Institute [email protected] Air Force Memorial Foundation [email protected] For individual staff members first initial, last name, @afa.org (example: [email protected]) AFA’s Mission To educate the public about the critical role of aerospace power in the defense of our nation. To advocate aerospace power and a strong national defense. To support the United States Air Force and the Air Force family. AIR FORCE Magazine / February 2007 5 While units sequent to the AVG’s dis- only about three-to-one. Some have more personal knowledge of the AVG banding, those in the CATF and following also claimed the Israel Air Force did than I have. that, the 14th AF, sometimes proclaimed better than the AVG in its brief war Lt. Col. Wallace H. Little, themselves as “Flying Tigers,” they with Syria. Again, that is a poor com- USAF (Ret.) were not in the AVG. I write as a pilot parison. The Syrian Air Force was a Marshall, Tex. of the 75th in a period some time after farce, untrained, undisciplined, and the picture was taken. While the 75th flying planes inferior to the Israelis’. This is in regard to the article in the established its own outstanding record, The situation with the AVG was exactly December 2006 issue of your maga- it did not compare with the AVG. opposite. The ancient P-40s were zine titled “The Flying Tigers,” by John You cited a kill ratio of “at least 10 inferior to the Japanese planes, flown T. Correll. I have nothing but praise for Japanese airplanes shot down for every by pilots who had been trained to near the article itself except for the labeling one they lost.” That is an inaccurate pic- perfection, while the AVG pilots had of the P-40 as “obsolete” when first pur- ture.