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A few weeks ago, I got a treasure trove of letters from Mamie Hall Porritt, a Georgia woman who worked for the Pawley brothers in China and Burma from 1939 to 1942. They give a great flavor of what it was like to build airplanes in the outback and to support the Flying Tigers. I am hugely grateful to Tracy Minter, who transcribed the letters and shared them with me. I've posted a much-shortened version, starting here.

Three AVG pilots were killed in accidents while the Flying Tigers trained in Burma. They were buried at St. Luke's graveyard on the southeast corner of the town. I tried to find the site in 1986 without success. More recently, John Armstrong's family launched a search for the graves so that his remains can be repatriated. The search is complicated by the fact that the Burmese authorities have evidently demolished St. Luke's, bulldozed the headstones off to the side, relocated the remains to another site, and turned the old graveyard into a housing development, Southeast Asian style. Photos and background here.

Machine guns are endlessly fascinating gadgets, dealing death across the length of three football fields. Two recent books deal, respectively, with AK-47s and Gatling Guns. I'm not blown away by either, as it happens.

Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

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