Well, despite all the gadgets and gizmos in our lives these days, I, like many of you, still love a good book, especially one that immersees the reader and a compelling story where you can learn something

interesting while developing concern for the characters.

Hello everyone, welcome to the Fighter Pilot Podcast.

My name is Vincent Iello, and I recently read just such a book.

It's called The Flying Tigers, The Untold Story of the American Pilots who waged a secret war against Japan.

And it's written by Mr. Sam Kleiner, who is dialing in today from New York City.

Hello Sam, thanks for joining us.

Hi Ben, how are you? Thanks so much for having me on.

You're welcome.

So I confess, you know, throughout my military career I'd heard the term

Flying Tigers dozens of times but I really never knew that much about them before

reading your book. For starters, who are the Flying Tigers as history has come to know this unit?

Thanks so much. The story of the Flying Tigers, I think as you said, is sort of well known,

particularly in military circles.

A lot of folks might have seen the famous John Wayne movie,

The Flying Tigers, that came out in 1942.

Some folks might be familiar with some of the famous pilots

from the unit, including the commander Claire

Chenult or Happy Boington who would later go on to win the

Medal of Honor and there's the famous NBC TV show

Baba Black Sheep about about his unit but the real story was always sort of crowded and some

mystery in mythology and the unit in reality was known as the American

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