End of the A.V.G.

China's heart was in the words from Chungking: General Chennault and his company of air knights will always be remembered by the Chinese people as comrades in arms and as the friendly representatives of a friendly people.

An official review listed the A.V.G. score: 284 Jap planes destroyed in seven months, as many more probably destroyed, ten A.V.G. pilots and one crew chief killed in action, nine flyers killed in accidents. An A.V.G. squadron had a last flight, shooting down at least six Japs over Hengyang. The Generalissimo gave a dinner for General Chennault. Then, as they all knew it must, came July 4 and with it the formal end of the American Volunteer Group.

Chungking said: As a successor to the A.V.G. we welcome the regular American Air Force. It, no doubt, will show the same brave mastery of machines in air combat.

Some of the pilots, some of the mechanics, radiomen and other groundmen who made up the Group donned the khaki with winged insignia of the U.S. Army Air Forces. Some were already headed home. For some of these, the end had not been altogether pleasant. General Chennault at first had not looked kindly on their going, although he later relented. Two-thirds of the A.V.G.'s pilots had come out of the U.S. Navy, and they did not relish going into the Army any more than the Navy liked the Army's bid for them. But for those who stayed in China, the shift from the happy-fly-lucky A.V.G. to the Army was easier than they had expected.

One of their best pilots, newly commissioned Major "Tex" Hill of San Antonio, commanded the Army squadron which they joined. At the head of their Army group was Colonel Robert L. Scott Jr., a regular who had put in his time with the A.V.G., specializing in one-man raids on Jap airdromes and troops. Brigadier General Chennault commanded all U.S. air forces in China.

On their last night as a group, the pilots and their honorary commander, Mme. Chiang Kaishek, played musical chairs at the home of China's aged President Lin San. Then they tramped through rain and mud to motorcars, returned to their barracks and slept through the midnight hour when the A.V.G. passed into the U.S. Army Air Forces. Said rangy, blond Major Tex Hill: "People don't seem to understand you got feelings. When you work and fight together for a long time you hate to split up. It's like something going out of your life."

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