The base, that Dad had arrived at, had been started by the American Volunteer Group (or AVG for short) prior to WWII under General Claire Chennault and the Flying Tigers. General Chennault had taken the volunteers and turned them into a successful fighting force. When America joined the war, the volunteers joined the Army Air Force. The Air Force eventually broke off from the Army and became its own separate branch. The AVG compound was just down the road from the compound Dad was assigned to. The Flying Tigers flew in P40 fighter planes, but when America joined the war and sent over the 11^th Bomb Squadron, part of the 341^st Bomb Group, the grassy airstrip the AVG had been using was too small. So the Chinese were lengthening the gravel airstrip by hand to accommodate the B-25, twin tailed Mitchell bombers. There was a temporary rail line set up to bring in the gravel for the job.
 

   At about the same time Dad arrived in Kunming, the fighting members of the 11^th Bomb Squadron, led by Colonel Doolittle, took off from the Hornet Aircraft Carrier to bomb Tokyo. None of the 16 planes came back to China although some of the Squadron were able to walk back. (The movie "30 Seconds over Tokyo" depicts this action, as does the recent movie "Pearl Harbor".) That meant there were very few personnel to nurse or minister to and he and his 7 buddies, the doctor and some other support crew were the only 11^th Bomb members there in Kunming. They each took turns working once every eight days, but all the rest of the off duty guys would come keep that guy company and they would play hours of cutthroat Parcheesi. He has many pictures from that time of those seven friends. He has more pictures of his buddies than of himself. I figure they all have pictures of him. They are pretending to give each other shots. Wearing stethoscopes. Filling time.
 

   They also went tiger hunting, he with a camera, they with guns. Years later, in 1985, Dad and B’Ann (his second wife) went on a tour of China and saw the same Temples and lakes he had seen tiger hunting during the War.