Robert T . Smith Robert Tharp ( R . T . ) Smith ( February 23 , 1918 – August 21 , 1995 ) was born in York , Nebraska . His family moved to Red Cloud from Hooper , Nebraska in 1927 when his father , Earl W . Smith , was hired as Superintendent of Schools . He graduated Red Cloud High School in 1935 . Smith attended the University of Nebraska before joining the U . S . Army Air Corps in 1939 , midway through his senior year . Flight training . He received his primary flight training at the Allan Hancock College of Aeronautics at Santa Maria , California . During his training , he was given a couple of check rides with Robert L . Scott , who on May 17 , 1942 flew as Smith ' s wingman on Scott ' s first combat mission in China . Smith completed basic training with Class 40 - C at Randolph Field , Texas and advanced training at Brooks Field , Texas . He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in June 1940 , and returned to Randolph Field where his first assignment was as a basic flight instructor . American Volunteer Group . Smith resigned his commission in July 1941 in order to join Colonel Claire Lee Chennault ' s American Volunteer Group ( AVG ) as a " soldier of fortune " with the Nationalist Chinese Air Force . The Flying Tigers , as they were soon to be called , were in Burma training in Curtiss P - 40s ( actually Hawk Model 81 - A - 2s , or , as the British called them , Tomahawks ) when Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7 , 1941 ( December 8 on their side of the International Dateline ) . R . T . Smith ( sometimes called " Tadpole " after David Lee " Tex " Hill supplied the answer to a question someone posed to Smith , “ What ’ s the ‘ T ’ stand for ? ” ) saw his first combat action over Rangoon on December 23 , 1941 , when he was credited with shooting down 1 . 5 Mitsubishi Ki - 21 " Sally " bombers followed on Christmas Day with credit for two more Sally bombers and a fighter . Promoted to flight leader in the Third Pursuit Squadron , " Hell ' s Angels " , Smith was credited with shooting down a total of 8 . 9 Japanese planes , and was twice decorated by the Chinese government . The AVG continued to fight throughout Burma and southwest China until it was officially disbanded on July 4 , 1942 . 1st Air Commando Group . Smith returned to the United States on the " USAT Mariposa " along with 82 other AVG pilots and ground personnel . Prior to being drafted as a private in December 1942 , Smith served as the Technical Advisor on " The Sky ’ s the Limit " directed by E . H . Griffith and starring Fred Astaire and Joan Leslie . The side of the P - 40 Astaire is flying at the beginning of the movie has a sitting Hell ’ s Angel of the AVG ’ s Third Squadron that was on the side of Smith ’ s P - 40 # 77 . After being drafted , Smith was quickly recommissioned as a U . S . Air Corps Second lieutenant and promoted to Major the next month . For the next few months , as Commanding Officer of the 337 Fighter Squadron , 329 Fighter Group at Glendale , California and Paine Field , Everett , Washington , he trained replacement pilots using Lockheed P - 38 Lightning fighter aircraft . Smith married Barbara Bradford in June 1943 , adopting her son Brad from a previous marriage to vaudeville performer George Mann . Shortly after being appointed Commanding Officer of the 329th Fighter Group in September 1943 , he volunteered to return to the China - India - Burma Theater with the 1st Air Commando Group , flying occasional P - 51 Mustang missions and commanding that group ' s B - 25 Mitchell squadron in support of British General Orde Wingate ' s troops working out of India and moving behind Japanese lines in Burma ( now Myanmar ) . The story is told of when Smith was flying alone in his P - 51 ( named " Barbie " after his wife ) and saw a crowd gathered around a jeep on the flying field . Someone was making a speech and Smith assumed it was Phil Cochran , Co - commander ( with John Alison ) of the 1st Air Commando Group . He put his P - 51 into a dive and buzzed the speaker , nearly taking his hat off , at over 450 miles an hour . It was only after Smith landed that he learned the speaker was Lord Louis Mountbatten , Supreme Allied Commander , South - East Asia . Lord Mountbatten wasn ' t angry at Smith , but was angry at his aide for having him make a speech on an active flying field . Smith ( " R . T . " according to Chuck Baisden , for " Round Trip " while in the 1st Air Commando Group ) was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in March 1944 , flew 55 combat missions over Burma , and was awarded the Air Medal , Distinguished Flying Cross and Silver Star . After discharge . Smith returned to the States in the late spring of 1944 and was assigned as Director of Flying Training with the 441st Army Air Force Base Unit at Van Nuys , California , a P - 38 training base . The Base Operations Officer at the time was Major Barry Goldwater . He resigned from the Air Corps at the conclusion of World War II and bought a home in the San Fernando Valley in Southern California across from the Los Angeles River when it was actually a river instead of the concrete channel it is today . After flying DC3s and Constellations between Los Angeles and Kansas City for a year and a half with Trans - World Airlines ( TWA ) , he wrote radio scripts for the Hopalong Cassidy Western Adventure Show , Lum and Abner , The Phil Harris - Alice Faye Show , and the Clyde Beatty Show . He also wrote the screenplay ( with Frank Taussig ) for the movie " Perils of the Jungle " starring Clyde Beatty . Smith was co - owner of a toy manufacturing company ( Smith - Miller ) ; developed and sold a product for conditioning automobile convertible tops ( Top Secret ) ; and worked for Roy Weatherby as a sales manager for Weatherby ' s Inc . A check on eBay will disclose that Smith - Miller trucks have become expensive collector ’ s items . R . T . and Barbara Smith were divorced in 1955 . About this time Smith joined Lockheed Aircraft Corporation as a technical writer , working his way up through the organization , first as a military sales representative for the F - 104 Starfighter , and later to open and manage a new corporate office for Lockheed in Newport News , Virginia . Smith served at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force Reserve from 1949 to 1966 . R . T . Smith married Ronni Burkett in July 1965 . During the late 1960s , he joined the Flying Tiger Line , first as Vice President for Industrial Affairs in Washington , D . C . and later as Vice President for the Far East headquartered in Tokyo . He left the Flying Tiger Line and Tokyo in the early 1970s to live and work in Palm Springs , California R . T . Smith and Ronni were divorced in the mid - 1970s . He returned to the San Fernando Valley where he wrote and published " Tale of a Tiger " , based on facsimiles of his original diary entries and several articles for " Air Classics " . He also established a mail - order business , selling his book and color photographs he shot while he was in the AVG and 1st Air Commando Group , including this often reproduced formation shot of the 3rd Squadron Hell ' s Angels taken on May 28 , 1942 near the Salween River along the China - Burma border . He died at age 77 ( the number he selected for his first P - 40 in the AVG ) of lung cancer on August 21 , 1995 . Smith was survived by his sister , June , who died in 2001 ; three sons , Bradford , Robert , and William ; and three grandchildren . William Smith is named in honor of his good friend Bill Reed , who died in December 1944 while serving with the Chinese - American Composite Wing .