Claire Lee Chennault
Luckily, Neumann had a chance meeting with W. Langhorne Bond of the China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC). The company arranged for Neumann to enter China without a passport. He flew to Kunming, capital of the remote Yunnan province, and there he contacted the Chinese Air Force. He worked as an auto mechanic until the Pearl Harbor attack, when he accepted an offer from Colonel Claire Lee Chennault, who had established the Chinese Air Force with Madame Chiang Kai-shek, to work in support of that Air Force.