^* Claire L. Chennault, following his retirement in 1937 from the U.S. Army, went to China, where he formed the volunteer Flying Tigers for operations in support of Chiang Kai-shek in the war against Japanese invaders. During World War II, the general commanded the U.S. Fourteenth Air Force based in Kunming. At the end of the war, he founded CAT, a commercial airline, whose planes were leased in the Civil War to the Nationalist forces.