On a mission to preserve the habitats of Flying Tigers

The three founded the historical organization, worked with different government departments in China, collected memorabilia from the veterans and raised the funds for the construction of the Flying Tiger Heritage Park, which preserves the site of Yangtang airfield in Guilin.

Opened in 2015, the park includes a museum, aircraft shelters and relics of the command post located in the cave.

The organization has collected and donated around 4,000 exhibits to the park so far, says Ma.

In 2016, the organization donated a Douglas C-47 Skytrain, a type of transport plane used by the Flying Tigers during the war, and conducted a re-enactment of the wartime route with the old plane.

During the war, transporting military supplies to China involved flying across the Himalayas, a deadly route that claimed lives of many American pilots.

Jobe was on the plane during the re-enactment flight, with four other pilots.

"We didn't fly the 'Hump route' under the adverse conditions that they did in World War II. We didn't have any fighters shooting at us. We had much better weather reporting and GPS for navigation. We had everything going for us and nothing going against us," he says.

The flight was nevertheless dangerous. Having taken off from Australia on Aug 16, 2016, the old plane's engine failed twice during the flight, and an original eight-day trip was prolonged to three months. On Nov 19 that year, the plane finally landed in Guilin.

"Through the re-enactment, we wanted to shine a light on the history and bring that forward a little bit more, and we wanted a plane in the museum," he says.