Iowa’s heroic Flying Tiger lost 80 years ago

Japan invaded China during the reign of Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of a free China, in 1937, and it was two Iowans who tried to stop them.

Colonel William Reed, of Marion, and Flight Leader Noel Bacon, of Fayette County, enrolled with the legendary Flying Tigers Squadron after the invasion. Mercenary pilots, Reed had served in the Army following graduation from Loras College and Bacon had enlisted in the Navy once he received his degree from the Iowa Teachers College, today’s University of Northern Iowa.

The two were required to resign their commission as aviators in the armed forces in order to join the top secret paramilitary outfit under the cover name of the Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company, which would send them to China with a promise to pay six hundred dollars a month and a five hundred dollar bonus for every plane they shot down.

The United States, however, had not declared war on Japan, so the aircraft these adventurous men flew were outdated, underpowered Curtiss P-40 fighter planes called the Tomahawk. Each was stripped of its U.S. Army markings and had a freshly painted blue circle with a beaming white sun shining from the center. The symbol of free China, it is an emblem that endures today as the flag of Taiwan.

Reed and Bacon arrived in Southeast Asia the autumn of 1941 with the assumed credentials of tourists and rode along the twisting and winding Burma Road, which was the only way to reach the interior of China as the Japanese had cut off all access to the country from the Pacific Ocean. Setting up camp at their base near Toungoo, Reed was encamped with the 3rd Squadron, known as the Hell’s Angels, and Bacon, was assigned as a member of the 2nd Squadron, affectionately called the Panda Bears.

There were a total of three squadrons with the First being known as the Adam and Eves. Together, the units were comprised of about 100 pilots and 300 ground crew for maintenance support.

Shortly after arrival, learning that Japanese were afraid of tigersharks, which infested the waters off their islands, Reed, Bacon, and the remaining pilots had long mouths with outlines of sharp teeth painted on the nose of their aircraft to look like their enemy’s aquatic nemesis.

The mercenaries formally were designated the American Volunteer Group, or AVG, but lacked an insignia to represent all of them as a single force. Walt Disney then had his studio design a beautiful logo featuring a tiger bearing wings lunging forward from a “V” for victory with its claws ready to clinch its foe. It would become one of the most recognized insignia of the Second World War.

That war hit home for the Tigers the day before Christmas Eve when twenty-one Japanese bombers attempted to attack the area near Rangoon, in Burma, where access remained to China by sea. Reed intercepted one Japanese 97 bomber and sent it into the jungle for his first aerial victory.

Sadly, the first Flying Tiger was lost in action. Hank Gilbert, of the 2nd Squadron, a close friend of Bacon’s, was shot down and died in the line of duty, showing how dangerous their missions were. The Japanese were intent on their removal from the region.

On Christmas Day, the AVG awoke to promises on the radio being broadcast from Japan of holiday gifts arriving soon. That afternoon, 60 bombers and 25 fighter planes attacked Rangoon and the Flying Tigers’ base nearby at Mingaladon.

The AVG pilots only had time to scramble and take off in eleven aircraft. All pilots ascended to maximum altitude and dove down on the enemy formation at nearly five hundred miles per hour. By the end of the engagement, thirty-eight Japanese planes had been destroyed or damaged.

Reed was awarded credit for two aerial victories and his Wing Man, Ken Jernstedt, was credited with the same. Bacon was not officially credited with any victories, but would soon add to the unit’s total.

Four days after Christmas, the Japanese sent 50 bombers to hit Rangoon and the airfield at Mingaladon. The Second Squadron of the AVG was sent up to meet them and eighteen enemy aircraft were splashed into the jungles below. When the unit returned to the base, Bacon was credited with his first official aerial victory. It was the first of four that he would claim in his time with the Volunteer Group.

The following spring, however, after his fourth victory (there are those who credit him with five, qualifying him as an Ace), he returned to the United States in early 1942 to report of the Flying Tigers success to the Bureau of Aeronautics.

The AVG would not last much longer itself. Reed scored eight more victories by destroying five fighters, two bombers, and a transport plane on the ground in March, but the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declaration of war by Congress rendered the Volunteer Group unnecessary as the Army could now fly missions in U.S. marked planes against Japanese troops in China.

The pilots, though, were given the option of staying in Asia and flying with the 23rd Fighter Group. Bacon chose to continue his career in the Navy. Reed signed up with the 23rd and flew P-40s under U.S. Army markings against the Japanese occupiers of China.

In 1943, he resumed his duties with the 3rd Squadron of the 23rd Fighter Group and shot down or damaged five more aircraft in early 1944. That summer, Reed was promoted to Commander of his unit and awarded the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He then shot down two additional planes in August and October, bringing his total credit, including damaged, to eighteen enemy planes destroyed.

While December 1941 had been very productive for him, December in 1944 would not. On Dec. 19, Reed had led a mission and was returning to base. As the evening set in, the landing lights of the airfield had been turned off to prevent nighttime bomber raids.

The squadron’s commander then headed for an alternate landing base, but clouds covered it. Circling back to the original intended landing site, he ran out of fuel and was forced to jump out of his plane. As he did so, it is believed his head hit the tail of the aircraft and he was knocked unconscious. Unable to have his parachute fully open, he fell into the jungle below.

A search party was immediately sent out and recovered Reed’s body. His remains were shipped to Iowa where he was buried with full honors at Riverside Cemetery in Anamosa. At the time of his burial, he was the highest scoring Ace from Iowa in World War II.

His fellow Hawkeye Flying Tiger, Noel Bacon, survived the war in the Navy and continued in the service and aboard aircraft carriers until after the Vietnam War. In 1985, he dedicated a monument in honor of his fellow pilot, Hank Gilman, at Gilman’s hometown of Lovell, Wyoming. Bacon, himself, died in 1996 and is interred at Arlington National Cemetery.

In 2000, a memorial tribute to Colonel Reed was held in Marion. At The Eastern Iowa Airport, a P-40 fighter and B-25 bomber had been arranged to perform a flyby. Ken Jernstedt, who had been Reed’s Wing Man, was the guest of honor.

Jernstedt was lifted into the bomber, which, after takeoff, made a thundering low pass, then headed northeast toward Anamosa where he held a wreath to release over Reed’s grave. Jernstedt died in 2013 at his home in Oregon. He was the last surviving 3rd Squadron pilot.

David V. Wendell is a Marion historian, author and special events coordinator specializing in American history.