Flying Tigers & Silver Streaks

Warriors In Their Own Words | First Person War Stories

Robert Kirk

History

4.6 • 675 Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2018

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is the tale of two American pilots of World War II. One, R.T. Smith, was a fighter ace in Burma flying P-40s with the legendary Flying Tigers. He recorded 9 confirmed victories, aiding the Chinese in their conflict with Japan. The other, Al Freiburger, was a bomber pilot in Europe flying B-26 Marauders with his unit, the Silver Streaks. He logged numerous missions in the conflict, including key bombing runs on D-Day. Both men were engaging characters with unique war time experiences. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This presentation of In Their Own Words is brought to you by the Honor Project
0:11.0	and is dedicated to the brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces.
0:29.6	This is the tale of two American pilots of the Second World War, one a fighter-ace in Burma and the other a bomber pilot in Europe. Both men were engaging characters with very unique wartime experiences.
0:35.6	In the late spring and summer of 1941,
0:39.3	months before the Pearl Harbor attack would bring the United States into the war,
0:43.3	General Claire Chenoult began organizing a team of American pilots to fly for China.
0:50.3	The Chinese needed pilots and planes in their fight against the Japanese.
0:56.0	Chanel had the blessing of President Franklin Roosevelt to hire Army, Navy, and Marine Corps
1:03.0	aviators to fly the Curtis Wright P-40 Warhawk. This collection of pilots, mechanics, and support personnel was called the American Volunteer Group, or AVG.
1:15.6	But they're better remembered as the Flying Tigers.
1:19.6	23-year-old R.T. Smith was one of those swashbuckling pilots who accepted Chenaolt's offer to get into the war as fast as he could.
1:31.4	When I talked to Smith a number of years ago, you could still feel his fondness for those days.
1:37.7	He was a great pilot and just as good as storyteller.
1:42.7	Well, let's start with how you got into the ABG.
1:46.0	How did that come about?
1:48.0	Well, I was in the Army Air Corps at the time.
1:52.0	I had been commissioned a second lieutenant after going through the Army Air Corps flying training program.
1:58.0	And I was commissioned second lieutenant and they sent me back to Randolph Field
2:03.6	which was the training base for the basic phase of flying training in the Air Corps.
2:08.6	And I had been back there as an instructor for a year when in June of 1941
2:15.6	I happened to see a little article in Time magazine that told of a bunch of Army and Navy and Marine Corps pilots who were being allowed to resign their commissions in order to go to China and fight the Japanese on behalf of the Chinese.
2:38.0	And I thought that sounded like a lot more fun than being an instructor. And so I dug around a little bit and found out who to contact in Washington,
	...

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