military_branch claire lee chennault
Nose art is a decorative painting or design on the fuselage of an ___MASK44___ , usually on the front fuselage . The ___MASK71___ Air Corps ( USAAC ) was the military aviation arm of the United States of America between 1926 and 1941 . The statutory administrative forerunner of the ___MASK25___ , it was renamed from the earlier ___MASK71___ Air Service on 2 July 1926 and part of the larger ___MASK71___ . The Air Corps was the immediate predecessor of the ___MASK71___ Air Forces ( USAAF ), established on 20 June 1941 . Although discontinued as an administrative echelon during World War II , the Air Corps ( AC ) remained as one of the combat arms of the Army until 1947 , when it was legally abolished by legislation establishing the Department of the Air Force . Chiang Kai - shek ( October 31 , 1887  April 5 , 1975 ), also romanized as Jiang Jieshi and known as Jiang Zhongzheng , was a Chinese political and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China between 1928 and 1975 . Chiang was an influential member of the Kuomintang ( KMT ), the Chinese Nationalist Party , and was a close ally of Sun Yat - sen ' s . He became the Commandant of the Kuomintang ' s Whampoa Military Academy and took Sun ' s place as leader of the KMT , following the Canton Coup in early 1926 . Having neutralized the party ' s left wing , Chiang then led Sun ' s long - postponed Northern Expedition , conquering or reaching accommodations with China ' s many warlords . ___MASK5___ is the practical aspect or art of aeronautics , being the design , development , production , operation and use of ___MASK44___ , especially heavier than air ___MASK44___ . The word " aviation " was coined by French writer and former naval officer Gabriel La Landelle in 1863 , from the verb " avier " ( synonymous flying ), itself derived from the Latin word " avis " (" bird ") and the suffix "- ation ". The ___MASK71___ ( USA ) is the largest branch of the United States Armed Forces and performs land - based military operations . It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States and is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution , Article 2 , Section 2 , Clause 1 and United States Code , Title 10 , Subtitle B , Chapter 301 , Section 3001 . As the largest and senior branch of the U . S . military , the modern U . S . Army has its roots in the Continental Army , which was formed ( 14 June 1775 ) to fight the American Revolutionary War ( 1775  1783 ) before the U . S . was established as a country . After the Revolutionary War , the Congress of the Confederation created the ___MASK71___ on 3 June 1784 , to replace the disbanded Continental Army . The ___MASK71___ considers itself descended from the Continental Army , and dates its institutional inception from the origin of that armed force in 1775 . World War II ( often abbreviated to WWII or WW2 ), also known as the Second World War , was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945 , although related conflicts began earlier . It involved the vast majority of the world ' s nations  including all of the great powers  eventually forming two opposing military alliances : the Allies and the Axis . It was the most widespread war in history , and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries . In a state of " total war ", the major participants threw their entire economic , industrial , and scientific capabilities behind the war effort , erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources . Marked by mass deaths of civilians , including the Holocaust ( in which approximately 11 million people were killed ) and the strategic bombing of industrial and population centres ( in which approximately one million were killed , and which included the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ), it resulted in an estimated 50 million to 85 million fatalities . These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history . Joseph Warren Stilwell ( March 19 , 1883  October 12 , 1946 ) was a ___MASK71___ general who served in the China Burma India Theater during World War II . His caustic personality was reflected in the nickname " Vinegar Joe ". The 1st American Volunteer Group ( AVG ) of the Chinese ___MASK78___ in 1941  1942 , nicknamed the Flying Tigers , was composed of pilots from the United States Army Air Corps ( USAAC ), Navy ( USN ), and Marine Corps ( USMC ), recruited under presidential authority and commanded by Claire Lee Chennault . The shark - faced nose art of the Flying Tigers remains among the most recognizable image of any individual combat aircraft or combat unit of World War II . Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in a total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale or its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations , or both . It is a systematically organized and executed attack from the air which can utilize strategic bombers , long - or medium - range missiles , or nuclear - armed fighter - bomber ___MASK44___ to attack targets deemed vital to the enemy ' s war - making capability . Claire Lee Chennault ( September 6 , 1893 -- July 27 , 1958 ) was an American military aviator best known for his mercenary leadership of the `` Flying Tigers '' and the Republic of China ___MASK78___ in World War II . Chennault was a fierce advocate of `` pursuit '' or fighter - interceptor aircraft during the 1930s when the U . S . Army Air Corps was focused primarily on high - altitude bombardment . Chennault retired from the United States Army in 1937 , and went to work as an aviation adviser and trainer in China . Starting in early 1941 , Chennault commanded the 1st American Volunteer Group ( nicknamed Flying Tigers ) . One mission which never came to fruition was the bombing of Japanese cities ; the bombers did not arrive before Pearl Harbor . ( B - 29 ' s started bombing from China in 1944 , but they were not under Chennault ' s command . ) He headed both the volunteer group and the uniformed U . S . ___MASK78___ units that replaced it in 1942 . He feuded constantly with General Joseph Stilwell , the U . S . Army commander in China , and helped China ' s leader Chiang Kai - shek to convince President Roosevelt to remove him in 1944 . By that time , however , Washington saw China as a backwater in the war . The surname Chennault is French and is often pronounced shen - o . However , his American family pronounced the name `` shen - AWLT . '' The Republic of China ___MASK78___ ( ROCAF ) is the aviation branch of the Taiwanese military . The ROCAF ' s primary mission is the defense of the airspace over and around Taiwan . Priorities of the ROCAF include the development of long range reconnaissance and surveillance networks , integrating C4ISTAR systems to increase battle effectiveness , procuring counterstrike weapons , next generation fighters , and hardening airfields and other facilities to survive a surprise attack . The Canton Coup of 20 March 1926 , also known as the or the was a purge of Communist elements of the Nationalist ___MASK40___ in Guangzhou ( then romanized as " Canton ") undertaken by Chiang Kai - shek . The incident solidified Chiang ' s power immediately before the successful Northern Expedition , turning him into the paramount leader of the country . Hiroshima is perhaps best known as the first city in history to be targeted by a nuclear weapon when the ___MASK49___ ( USAAF ) dropped an atomic bomb on the city ( and later on Nagasaki ) at 8 : 15 a . m . on August 6 , 1945 , near the end of World War II .