Valor Friday

In the first couple of years of World War II, many Americans disagreed with the isolationist stance of the federal government. A lot of young men would hear the call to service pre-war, and enlisted into the American military. The armed forces were rapidly expanding long before the Attack at Pearl Harbor, with America already having been on a wartime footing for quite some time (including the nation’s first peacetime military draft). Some were even more eager to join the ongoing war, and went to other countries to enlist. You might remember that before he was a colonel, triple war veteran, and Medal of Honor recipient, Lew Millet (https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=150280) ran away from the US Army to enlist with the Canadians. John C. Morgan (https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=132106), who would get the Medal of Honor as well, also went to Canada to fight first. George McMillan would end up in China so he could join the war before America’s entry.

Born in 1919 in Winter Park, Florida, McMillan would grow up there. He sought an appointment to both the US Naval Academy and to west Point, but when neither materialized he enrolled at the Marion Military Academy (one of the little-known junior military academies) in Alabama. He only spent a year there before transferring to The Citadel.

McMillan left The Citadel, just six credits short of graduating with the Class of 1938, to become an aviation cadet with the US Army Air Corps. McMillan would, many years later, receive a posthumous degree from the institution (one of only two men to have been so honored). He earned his wings in May 1939. McMillan became a fighter pilot, flying the Curtiss P-36 Hawk at several bases in the American South.

In 1941, with American entry to the World War seemingly not going to happen, a plan was hatched to help our ally the Republic of China (ROC). China was in desperate need of fighter pilots to combat the Japanese Empire, who had invaded in 1937. While largely forgotten in the west, the war in the Far East was brutal. The Japanese committed many atrocities and war crimes against their Asian enemies, and estimates of the dead in China alone number 20 million. While it’s widely known that chemical warfare was an element in the First World War, it’s not remembered by many to have been used in WWII. The Japanese extensively used chemical and biological weapons against China.

Volunteering to go to China meant that these American airmen would have to (for official purposes) resign their commissions in the US Army to enlist with the ROC Air Force. They got issued Chinese uniforms and would fly “Chinese” aircraft. In reality, this was a sanctioned operation by the US Army. These men would be held unofficially on US Army rolls. As such, the American Volunteer Group (AVG) as it was called would not be fully integrated into the ROCAF. American volunteers would remain together, fly planes provided to China by the American government, have American ground crews, and aside from the national markings on their aircraft being Chinese, would be American squadrons.

The aircraft sent with the AVG was the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk. At the time this was a state-of-the-art fighter. An update from Curtiss’s P-36 Hawk, it was superior in every way. It’s still fondly remembered as the best American fighter of the early war, but would be overshadowed by newer designs as aviation technology progressed rapidly during the conflict.

One of the things the AVG did was to paint shark teeth on the noses of their aircraft. While they didn’t originate the practice, it became their signature. They took the nickname “Flying Tigers”, and after some training in Burma, went to China to fight Japan.

The 1st AVG, of which McMillan was an officer, entered combat in the fall of 1941. McMillan flew with the unit’s 3rd Squadron, known as “Hell’s Angels”, and started to tally enemy kills. By Christmas 1941 he had 4.5 kills to his name. Five kills is the magic number for fighter pilots, because that is the line to cross to earn the coveted title of “Ace.” On that Christmas Day, McMillan narrowly survived a crash landing of his plane when he flew it back to base after it had been heavily damaged in action.

With the American declaration of war on Japan, the AVG didn’t disband immediately. It wasn’t until July 1942 that they stood down, with the men returning to the US Army. When he came back to the States, McMillan was re-commissioned as a major.

In July 1942, with American involvement in the war so new, McMillan returned home to Winter Park for some leave. He received a hero’s welcome, being one of the few with combat experience so soon after we entered the war. He told the local newspaper he was looking forward to “some of Mom’s good meals, and [to] enjoy myself for a while, and I’ll be ready to get back into harness again.” He was posted to Florida where he served as a test pilot, and flew virtually every fighter in the American inventory.

In October 1943 McMillan returned to China, now with the US Army Air Force’s 449th Squadron, part of the 51st Fighter Group. Interestingly, this assignment placed McMillan under the command of General Claire Chennault, who had been the organizer and commander of the Flying Tigers. In a matter of days, he would be promoted to lieutenant colonel and be given command of the squadron after the previous commander was killed in action.

McMillan was a natural leader. An experienced combat pilot, he chose to ease into his new combat assignment. He would fly as a wingman to his subordinates, who had been in-theater for some time before he arrived, and let them lead their missions. Their chaplain, Father Joseph Cosgrove, said McMillan was the “first to roar down the runway and first to turn into enemy fighters when sighted. I never saw a pilot who so relished combat with the enemy.” Lieutenant David Williams said of his commanding officer, “I could not say more and mean more than to say … I would ride his wing any day, any where.”

The 449th Fighter Squadron flew Lockheed P-38 Lightnings. In June 1944, the squadron was at the vanguard against a determined Japanese offensive. They were so close to the front that they were in the process of getting ready to abandon their base. McMillan was about to take off on a bombing mission on 24 June when his wing commander Brigadier General Casey Vincent arrived and called him off. Instead, he ordered McMillan to have his squadron reconnoiter reports of an enemy column near Pingxiang.

With worsening weather and a low cloud ceiling, the sortie was a suicide mission in McMillan’s eyes. He told the general such to his face. Vincent flew into a rage, and the two officers had a very public row about the matter right there on the flightline in front of the whole squadron. Finally, Vincent threatened McMillan with court martial, and, throwing up his hands, McMillan said I’ll “fly the damn thing!” McMillan wasn’t the type to order his men to do something he wouldn’t do himself. He ordered his ground crew to unload the general purpose bombs and instead put a loadout of fragmentation rounds onto his Lightning.

Leading the mission himself, McMillan found soldiers in the town of Pingxiang. He couldn’t tell if they were Chinese or Japanese, but when the troops opened fite on him, he unleashed his bombs and made to leave. Unfortunately, his right engine started smoking as he pulled out. He called to his wingman that his right engine’s radiator had been hit, and he was losing coolant on that side. On the left side, his oil pressure was dropping fast. Both engines were failing him.

About ten miles out McMillan decided to ditch his aircraft in a river. “How do these things land on water?” he asked his flight. “Climb out of your parachute,” one of them told him. McMillan’s wingman said, “Right after this I started overtaking him and saw that he seemed to be removing his parachute shoulder straps. I passed him and saw that his left engine was froze and was losing altitude. When I looked back from about 500 feet the ship had crashed in flames about 200 yards south of the river bed. I saw no parachute in the area.”

McMillan was on his 53rd combat mission with the squadron when he was shot down and died. During the preceeding few months he’d claimed kills against four more Japanese planes, earning the title of a Fighter Ace. His men were crushed, but had no time with the Japanese closing in. Just two days after he died, McMillan’s men had to flee their base.

McMillan’s remains were first buried in Shanghai, but would later be returned to the United States. He’s now buried in Arlington National Cemetary. His record of 8.5 kills places him amongst just 26 men of the Flying Tigers who would become aces before the end of the war.

Lieutenant Colonel McMillan was just 27 when he was killed, but he’d earned several valor awards from both nations he’d served. The Chinese awarded him the Order of the Cloud and Banner, for contributions to Chinese national security. He received two Distinguished Flying Crosses from the US Army, with one of these a posthumous award. He was also a recipient of a meritorious Bronze Star Medal, three Air Medals, and a Presidential Unit Citation.

Category: Air Force, China, Historical, Valor, We Remember