David Lee "Tex" Hill

From The Air Combat Wiki

David Lee Hill was born on 13 July 1915 in Kwangju, Korea, the son of Presbyterian missionaries, who moved to Texas when he was 6 years old. After finishing Austin College in 1938, “Tex” completed naval flight school and served in a torpedo squadron (VT-3) on USS Saratoga and in a dive-bomber squadron (VB-41) on USS Ranger.

He was recruited in 1941 to serve in the Claire Chennault’s American Volunteer Group (AVG). He reported in July and served as flight leader and then squadron leader of the 2nd Squadron, flying the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk. In his service with the Flying Tigers, he was credited with destroying 10.25 Japanese planes, one of the top aces of that famous unit.

His first victories came on January 3, 1942, when he downed two Ki-27 Nates over the Japanese airfield at Tak, Thailand. He claimed two more on the 23rd, and "made ace" on the 24th, when he shot down a bomber and a fighter over Rangoon. In March, he succeeded Jack Newkirk as Squadron Leader of the Second Squadron.

After the deactivation of the Flying Tigers in July 1942, Hill was one of only five Flying Tigers to join its USAAF successor, the 23rd Fighter Group. He was promoted to major in the Army Air Corps, and activated the 75th Fighter Squadron and later to command the 23rd Fighter Group.

Before returning to the states in late 1944, "Tex" Hill and his P-51 Mustang scratched another six Japanese aircraft. It is believed that he was the first to down a Zero with a P-51. Altogether, Hill destroyed 18.25 enemy aircraft. During the closing months of World War II, Hill commanded the 412th Fighter Group, the first jet unit in the Army Air Forces. The group flew the Bell XP-59 and later the Lockheed P-80.

In July 1946, "Tex" Hill resigned his commission and left active duty. Shortly thereafter, he joined the Air National Guard and became the youngest brigadier general in the history of that service. He retired from the military in 1968.

Colonel Hill's honors include: Nationalist Chinese Order of the Cloud Banner, Chinese Victory Medal, British Distinguished Flying Cross, U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, 2 Air Medals, Silver Star, and Legion of Merit.

In 1999, Hill returned to the dense jungle of northern Thailand. From the little village of Lampun, Hill and other former Flying Tigers walked into the thick jungle until they came to a clearing where a small cross stuck out of the ground. “That’s where they buried Newkirk,” Hill said of Jack Newkirk, his squadron leader. In a raid over Ching Mai in March 1942, Newkirk’s plane was struck by anti-aircraft fire and hit the ground at 300 mph. While Hill became the new squadron leader, Newkirk’s plane remained hidden for almost 60 years. “Anyone with war experience asks, ‘Why am I still here when others are dead all around me?’ All I can say is that God has a plan,” Hill said.

Hill long had been considered a hero of World War II — John Wayne modeled his character in the 1942 film “Flying Tigers” on Hill — but a political squabble made him wait 60 years to be awarded with the Distinguished Service Cross. Claire Lee Chennault assembled the AVG to help defend China from Japan. He lured pilots away from the Army, Navy, and Marines with lucrative contracts and a $500 bonus for each plane shot down. But to join the AVG, pilots had to leave the military, which angered many officers. Hill simply outlived the officers who held a grudge against him and received the Distinguished Service Cross at a San Antonio ceremony in May 2002.

Hill spent much of his time traveling around the country to air shows.

On October 11, 2007, Hill died at the age of ninety-two in San Antonio, Texas, of congestive heart failure. More than 2,000 people attended his funeral.