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Posted : 05/26/2002 12:00 AM
It came 59 years late, but famed Flying Tiger David Lee "Tex" Hill received his Distinguished Flying Cross like a long lost friend Saturday night.
Already standing, 286 well-wishers that included Texas oilman Oscar Wyatt Jr. and retired test pilot A. Scott Crossfield erupted into loud applause. "What can I say? My God, I mean, I can't believe what I'm seeing," a visibly moved Hill said. "All these wonderful people here that came out. It's a very emotional thing for me." The night was the climax of a career made famous by Hill's service with the American Volunteer Group, better known as the feared Flying Tigers that flew over China. A three-member Air Force board that awarded the medal last year said Hill had been denied it because of a conflict between two Army generals and his boss, Brig. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault. The story opens on Oct. 25, 1942. Fighting battle fatigue and malaria, Hill led his U.S. 23rd Fighter Group on a daylight bomber escort mission. High above enemy-occupied territory in China, 24 Japanese fighters jumped his formation. Seeing six enemy planes climbing steeply from the left of his bombers and others closing to attack from the right flank, Hill turned his P-40 Warhawk on its back for a speed dive and put his plane between the Japanese fighters and the bombers. "He repeatedly attacked the large number of Japanese fighters and by sheer force carried the fight to the enemy," an Air Force board said in a report issued on the 60th anniversary of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. "Furthermore, during the attack, he so relentlessly held his fire that had his plane not gone into a spin he would have rammed the Japanese fighters." Outnumbered 24 to eight, Hill and his men fought on. He shot down one Japanese plane and damaged three others while forcing an enemy retreat. Only one bomber was damaged. Chennault recommended that Hill receive the Distinguished Service Cross, a medal the Army gives to soldiers who display extraordinary heroism not justifying the Medal of Honor. Two months later, though, he received the Silver Star instead. An Air Force Decorations Board at the time found that Hill 's actions did not rise to the level of extraordinary heroism, but there was more to the tale. The three-member panel that awarded the Distinguished Service Cross found that Army Lt. Gen. Joseph W. "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell, commander of the China-Burma-India Theater, and Brig. Gen. Clayton L. Bissell downgraded Hill 's honor because of a personality conflict with Chennault. Stilwell and Bissell, a World War I ace who commanded the 10th Air Force at the time, are dead. Hill and retired Air Force Col. J. Ward Boyce, former director of the American Fighter Aces Association, said the dispute centered on Stilwell's prejudice against air power. A retired Air National Guard brigadier general, Hill is a triple ace with 181/4 kills. He emerged from the war a national hero. John Wayne portrayed him in the 1942 film, "The Flying Tigers," and Hill earned numerous medals, among them the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, four Distinguished Flying Crosses, the British Flying Cross and six Chinese combat decorations. Hill's time with the Flying Tigers was retraced in a video clip that showed him and other P-40 pilots taking off from grass airfields, flying in formation, strafing Japanese airfields and shooting down enemy bombers and fighters. Big Band tunes accompanied parts of the film. A longtime San Antonian, Hill logged 3,500 hours, flew 150 combat sorties and later tested the first U.S. jets before joining the Air National Guard, where he became its youngest brigadier general. Viccellio, who praised Hill's leadership and contributions to national defense during the Cold War, said a 60-year wrong at last had been redressed. "You usually have to go out to the movies these days to see the good guys win in the end," he said. "But not tonight. Tonight we're going to sweep all the forces of evil aside. We're going to overcome bureaucracy — 60 years of it. The good guys are going to win in the end." sigc@express-news.net
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