China Pilot: Flying for Chiang (H)

After WWII, Claire Chennault, founder of the Flying Tigers, organized a collection of pilots into a company called Civil Air Transport (CAT), which delivered food, ammo, medical supplies and reinforcements to the Nationalists during China's 1946-1949 civil war. The author of this vigorous, anecdote-packed memoir was one of their number. Here he recalls his adventures in the wild blue yonder and some of the raffish characters he met on terra firma, many of them straight out of ``Terry and the Pirates'': Y.L. Yang, the Cigarette King, who helped finance the airline; Chiang Hseuh-liang, the Young Marshall, whose feud with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek became legendary; James ``Earthquake Magoon'' McGovern, the Falstaffian CAT pilot who went down in flames on a relief mission to Dienbienphu. Smith describes CAT's involvement on the margins of the wars in Korea, Laos and Vietnam and its role in establishing the Nationalists on Taiwan. He further reveals how the airline retained its private identity after becoming a major air arm of the CIA. His view of the various wars is unabashedly romantic, but the memoir as a whole is wonderfully entertaining. Illustrations. (Dec.)