American Volunteer Group The American Volunteer Groups were volunteer air units organized by the United States government to aid the Nationalist government of China against Japan in the Second Sino - Japanese War . The only unit to actually see combat was the 1st AVG , popularly known as the Flying Tigers . In an effort to aid the Nationalist government of China and to put pressure on Japan , President Franklin Roosevelt in April 1941 authorized the creation of a clandestine " Special Air Unit " consisting of three combat groups equipped with American aircraft and staffed by aviators and technicians to be recruited from the U . S . Army , Navy and Marine Corps for service in China . The program was fleshed out in the winter of 1940 – 1941 by Claire Lee Chennault , then an air advisor to the Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai - shek , and Lauchlin Currie , a young economist in the Roosevelt White House . They envisioned a small air corps of 500 combat aircraft , although in the end , the number was reduced to 200 fighters and 66 light bombers . 1st AVG ( Flying Tigers ) . The 1st American Volunteer Group were recruited starting on 15 April 1941 , when an unpublished executive order was signed by President Roosevelt . A total of 100 P - 40B s were obtained from Curtiss - Wright by convincing the British Government to take a later batch of more advanced P - 40s in exchange . The group assembled at a Royal Air Force airfield in Burma by November 1941 for training , where it was organized into three squadrons and established a headquarters . The Flying Tigers did not go into combat until after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 . Under Chennault ' s command , the Flying Tigers became famous in the defense of Burma and China . It was replaced by the U . S . Army 23rd Fighter Group in July 1942 . 2nd AVG . In the fall of 1941 , the 2nd American Volunteer Group was equipped with 33 Lockheed Hudson ( A - 28 ) and 33 Douglas DB - 7 ( A - 20 ) bombers originally built for Britain but acquired by the U . S . Army as part of the Lend - Lease program passed earlier in the year . The Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company , fronting for the Chinese and American governments , recruited 82 pilots and 359 ground crewmen from the U . S . Army in the fall of 1941 , and an undetermined number , including one pilot , actually sailed for Asia aboard " Noordam " and " Bloemfontein " of the Java - Pacific line . Other pilots reported to San Francisco , and were scheduled to depart aboard the Lockheed Hudsons on 10 December . The Douglas DB - 7s , meanwhile , were to have gone by freighter to Africa , where they would be assembled and ferried to China . However , the attack on Pearl Harbor caused the program to be aborted . The vessels at sea were diverted to Australia , the aircraft were taken back into American service , and most or all of the personnel likewise rejoined the military , either in Australia or in the U . S . 3rd AVG . The 3rd AVG was to have been a fighter group like the 1st . Because the 2nd AVG had been recruited from the U . S . Army , recruiting for the 3rd was to have been limited to the U . S . Navy and Marine Corps , starting in the early months of 1942 . These plans too were abandoned as a result of the U . S . entry into World War II .