Military Aviation History - The Flying Tigers Letterbox Hybrid

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Martin 5: # Another cache bites the dust due to local progress after 10 years and 117 finds!! #

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Hidden : 2/5/2013
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size: micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

Military Aviation History
The Flying Tigers

Late in 1941, three months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, a group of young men left San Francisco in several Dutch ships bound for the Far East. They told fellow passengers they were businessmen, teachers and some, like Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, were instructed to say they were clergymen. Actually they were American pilots from the Army Air Corps, Navy and Marine Corps on their way to China to become part of a flying foreign legion called the American Volunteer Group (AVG). China had been at war with Japan for almost four years and from the beginning Japanese war planes had been able to bomb and strafe helpless Chinese cities at will. Finally, in desperation, China asked a retired Army Air Corps Captain, Claire Chennault, to help form a Chinese Air Force.


CLAIRE CHENNAULT

Chennault probably understood the value of fighter planes as well as anyone else in the world. He believed that the fighter was the key to air power. Without such fighters the air could not be controlled and bombers would be at the mercy of the enemy. This was at a time when more and more air officers were beginning to believe that an armed bomber could take care of itself.

Chennault had written a book on the subject, "The Role of Defensive Pursuit," but the Army would not listen to his ideas. Now in China he had a chance to test them in actual combat and there is reason to believe that Chennault himself shot down at least thirty Japanese planes before the AVG arrived. At first he had no modern planes for his tiny command, but early in 1941 a group of Americans sent him a gift of 100 Curtiss-Wright P-40 Tomahawks. He recruited pilots for them by "raiding," unofficially, the American military services. Men like Bob Neale and David "Tex" Hill came to fly with him. In reality they were mercenaries who were paid $600 a month, plus $500 for each Japanese plane they destroyed. (Salaries ranged from $250 a month for a mechanic, to $750 for a squadron commander, roughly three times what they had been making in the U.S. forces.)

DAVID "TEX" HILL

The group first saw combat on December 20, 1941, just 12 days after Pearl Harbor (local time). It achieved notable success during the lowest period of the war for U.S. and Allied Forces, giving hope to Americans that they would eventually succeed against the Japanese. The Tigers were paid combat bonuses for destroying nearly 300 enemy aircraft, while losing only 14 pilots on combat missions. On July 15, 1942, with the U.S. now officially in the war, the AVG was replaced by the U.S. Army 23rd Fighter Group, which was later absorbed into the U.S. 14th Air Force with General Chennault as commander. The 23rd FG went on to achieve similar combat success, while retaining the nose art and fighting name of the volunteer unit.


FLYING TIGER P-40s

The Tigers' shark-faced fighters remain among the most recognizable of any individual combat aircraft and combat unit of World War II and they demonstrated innovative tactical victories when the news in the U.S. was filled with little more than stories of defeat at the hands of the Japanese forces.


ROBERT "R.T." SMITH

Flight leader and fighter ace Robert "R.T." Smith stands next to his P-40 fighter at Kunming, China. The “Flying Tiger” insignia was created by the Walt Disney Company.


WALT DISNEY'S ''FLYING TIGER''


This is a Letterbox Hybrid Cache. A letterbox is another type of treasure hunting using clues instead of coordinates. Once a letterbox is found instead of signing a log book, you place your stamp mark in the letterbox's log book and place the letterbox's stamp into your own log book.

In some cases such as this, a letterbox hybrid has coordinates, making it a letterbox and a geocache. You can leave your stamp and get the cache's stamp in your own log book as in letterboxing, or you can simply sign the log book as in geocaching, or both.

This letterbox hybrid contains:

- A log book. BRING YOUR OWN PEN.
- A rubber stamp. BRING YOUR OWN INK PAD.
PLEASE LEAVE THEM IN THE CACHE!!

You should be looking for an Air Force blue spice container.
If you are a Geocacher in eastern Washington or northern Idaho, please join the Inland Empire Chapter of the Washington State Geocaching Association. This is a great way to get the most out of Geocaching in our region. Simply go to the WSGA Web Page for details! WSGA

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Fnzr fvqr nf gur fhafrg.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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