A 'hot-shot Charlie' looks back
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
Chew King Wong is maybe 5 feet tall, hard of hearing at age 90, and negotiates his way slowly and carefully around the house in Manoa Valley.
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It's when he describes his days as a fighter pilot with the Chinese air force, and later, as a member of the vaunted Flying Tigers fighting against the Japanese during World War II, that he becomes larger than life.
Chew King Wong, 90, was a pilot for the Chinese air force before joining the Flying Tigers. He flew with the unit for two years.
The California native, who had dual citizenship, was commissioned a first lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 4, 1943, two years after he was plucked out of the Chinese air force by Claire Lee Chennault to be part of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the Flying Tigers.
A secret executive order signed by Roosevelt eight months before the attack on Pearl Harbor — and before the United States officially entered the war — permitted Chennault, a retired Army Air Corps captain, to recruit volunteers from active-duty ranks to fight the Japanese.
Flying from Burma, the ragtag bunch of pilots and their shark-nosed P-40 Tomahawks became legendary for their success. Recruiters signed up 100 pilots, and between Dec. 18, 1941, and July 4, 1942, the Tigers were credited with the destruction of 286 Japanese aircraft. Eight Flying Tiger pilots were killed in action.
But it is an even more unusual spot in history that Wong occupies.
"There were a lot of Chinese-Americans in the Chinese air force," he recalls, "but I'm the only fighter pilot selected by Chennault to be in the AVG."
Wong flew several combat missions with the Flying Tigers before he was put in charge of maintenance and salvage, supervising 300 Chinese mechanics who worked on the P-40 fighters that came to the Tigers as rejects from a foreign government.
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"Chennault said I was a lot more valuable to him on the desk than flying, because he couldn't speak Chinese," he said.
Pilot wings and a Flying Tigers pin still adorn retired Lt. Col. Wong's U.S. Air Force uniform.
Still sharp with dates and places more than a half-century later, the retired Air Force lieutenant colonel remembers a raid on 50 Japanese bombers in Taiwan, then called Formosa, launched from Henyang in China in early 1944.
The bomber force was preparing for a strike against Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander of Allied forces in the Southwest Pacific, Wong said.
"That's the happiest day of my life. Nobody took off until I said, 'Go! And Go! And Go!' " Wong said, recalling how he stood on the field, waving the aircraft off for flight. "I was a real hot-shot Charlie. That's a big operation for a first lieutenant."
The mission was a success, and all the U.S. planes returned safely.
"We received a radio-gram from General MacArthur: 'Thank you, thank you,' " Wong said.
Wong was born in Sacramento, but spent his childhood shuttling back and forth between California and China, to get a bicultural education, said his granddaughter, Rachael Wong.
During the Depression, Chew King Wong worked as a translator, and eventually put himself through flight school in San Francisco.
Wong left for China and graduated from the military academy in Canton in 1932, before signing on with the Chinese air force. War broke out between China and Japan in 1937, and Wong flew some 70 missions with the Chinese air force.
Wong's wife, Jennie, was with him most of that time. Once, he took a bullet to the foot while walking with his wife and holding one of their children, then an infant, between them.
Chew King Wong remembers being in Rangoon, Burma on Dec. 7, 1941.
"The crew chief yelled, 'Japan bombed Pearl Harbor,' and I told him, 'Get away, they wouldn't dare,' " Wong said. "I was shocked. How stupid we were getting all the battleships in Pearl Harbor — it was like an invitation for Japan to clear it up."
The AVG disbanded on July 4, 1942, but the China Air Task Force and 23rd Fighter Squadron carried on as the Flying Tigers under the command of Brig. Gen. Chennault, who had been recalled to active duty. In March 1943, the Tigers became part of the 14th Air Force.
Wong served with them all. He recalls Chennault advising him to take the president's commission as a first lieutenant, and the commander looking out for his men.
"One time a full colonel from the Pentagon said, 'Lt. Wong, you listen, you do this and do that.' He said it too loud. General Chennault overheard, and said, 'Colonel, Lt. Wong is running the show — he knows what he is doing.' The colonel about had a heart attack."
Wong, who retired from the Air Force in 1966, received the Legion of Merit medal. The Chinese air force awarded him its equivalent, the Mochi medal.
What he shows off most proudly, however, seems at first a lesser memento — a card sent to him in 1996 when he could not attend a 14th Air Force reunion.
Among the signatures is that of retired Col. David Lee "Tex" Hill, a flight leader and squadron leader with the Flying Tigers.
"All the best CK. You are the greatest," Hill wrote.
"What more could I want?" Wong said.
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.
