Two US "Flying Tiger" pilots who helped fight invading Japanese
troops 60 years ago came back to China for a reunion with their
Chinese wartime friends in Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's
Hebei Province last Thursday.
The two pilots, 83-year-old Mark McDonnell and 81-year-old Paul
Crawford, came to China along with the US Flying Tiger Friendship
Delegation to China.
"The war 60 years ago is a painful memory," McDonnell said. "It
claimed many people's lives and left the survivors homeless. We
should not forget the miserable history. I hope there would be no
fighting and wars in the world any more."
"China had no cars at that time and a few trucks were used for
military service," Crawford said. "China's changed so much except
that the people are always warm-hearted and hard-working."
The two came to China as Flying Tigers in the fall of 1944 and
left in June 1945. They participated in bombing runs on the
Japanese supply routes in Hebei and once met with Chairman Mao.
This is their first visit to China since the war.
The four Chinese veterans they came back to see had not
forgotten the friendship with the US pilots during the wartime. Yan
Xin, one of the four Chinese veterans, once saved seven Flying
Tiger members in the war.
"We tried to provide them with the best food we had, eggs and
millet, because they came voluntarily to China to help us fight
Japanese invaders. We felt we should provide them with the best
foods," Yan said.
Yan served as head of a local anti-Japanese committee and saved
seven pilots shot down by Japanese invaders.
During the meeting, the two US pilots and the four Chinese
veterans expressed their hope that the Sino-US friendship could
flow forever like the Yangtze River in China and the Mississippi
River in the United States.
The two men visited Guilin in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
and Xi'an in Shaanxi Province before they came to Shijiazhuang
Thursday.
The Flying Tigers were a volunteer band of US military men sent
secretly to Asia by President Franklin D. Roosevelt before the
United States entered World War II. They joined an air force
organized for China by Claire Lee Chennault, a retired US Army
colonel.
(Xinhua News Agency March 27, 2005)