UPDATE: The PGR has received an invitation to attend the services for Brig General David Lee “Tex” Hill. I’ll be taking off work this Tuesday so I can ride with my fellow PGR riders to San Antonio to honor this American Hero.
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Famed WWII Fighter ace Brig. Gen. David Lee “Tex” Hill, of the Flying Tigers passed away in San Antonio, Texas Thursday afternoon at age 92:
Flying a single-engine Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk fighter with a shark’s mouth painted on the nose, Hill recorded his first aerial victory on Jan. 3, 1942, by shooting down two Japanese fighters over their base in Thailand.
“We went in string (in a line),†Hill told Air Force Magazine in 2002. “The first thing I knew was there were more than three of us in that pattern. Then this guy came in between me and Jim Howard and got on his tail. I pulled up behind him; I was so damn excited I didn’t even think about looking at those damn gun sights. Just flew right up on his tail and hosed the tracers on to him. He just flat blew up.”
Hill counted 33 bullet holes in his plane when he landed.
Less than two weeks later, he shot down two more planes. Later that same month, Hill’s downing of another fighter and a bomber over Burma made him an ace – a flier with at least five victories in aerial combat.
Gen. Hill is supposedly the inspiration for John Wayne’s character in the 1942 movie Flying Tigers about the squadron.
Gen. Hill will be buried at the Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio on Tuesday. The Patriot Guard Riders (PGR) are still awaiting family permission to attend the services for this American Hero. If we’re invited to ride in his honor, I’ll take the day off work to attend.
Aircraft flying over the cemetery in his honor will include four Apache helicopters from Fort Knox followed by four A-10s from Moody Air Force Base, followed by four P-51s and then a lone P-40.
The Veterans of WWII are dying off at a reported rate of 1000 per day — it won’t be much longer before there aren’t any more men left from our nation’s Greatest Generation.
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Gen. Hill’s obituary and guest book are here.
God Speed, Gen. Hill.
Thank you for your service in defending this great nation.
I hope the family allows the PGR to honor his life.
I was assigned to the USAF 23rd Tactical Fighter Wing, and it is the direct descendant of the “Flying Tiger” volunteers that served so valiantly in China.
Here is a heritage page of The Flying Tigers, and even many years after the deeds of Gen. Hill and his colleagues, the USAF carried their tradition forward, proudly.