A Tiger Zoo--Flying Tigers AVG, CBI, & 23rd Fighter Grouping + Other PTO ETO Heroes

[josesharontraders]

Hello & Happy Sunday to All,

 

 

Rare & Original Flying Tiger Disney Pins. I'm sharing with you herein picture of a Tiger Zoo, assembled over time. On the top row are good mint condition artefacts of the Disney designed pin fabricated by Whitehead & Hoag and given out to the American Volunteer Group in late January 1942. You'll note the 4th Tiger Pin is quite a hard to come by pin as the Tiger has a Burma-sourced ruby in its mouth.

 

AVG Member John Overley. On the top row too, counting from left to right is Tiger number six, a Whitehead & Hoag miniature Tiger Pin gold filled to 10k rather than gold plated like the bigger ones. This little Flying Tiger pin inclusive of the rare, numbered twin white Peacocks pin--symbolizing the WW2 unity of China & the USA and given only to the 300 AVG members--and the 2 AVG collar devices, belonged to AVG Crew Chief John Overley. The items were bought directly from his family's estate. The crew chief after his US Navy & USAAF discharge lived a long fruitful life & involved in the business of mineral mining until 2001 at 83 or 84. He seemed humbly proud of his AVG days, given how well he preserved his military effects, including intact documents and certificates.

 

AVG Wing For An AVG Clerk. On the second row on the left is a small wing with AVG etchings. This wing came from the Sam Pelenaro Collection, a gentleman from the western part of New York who assembled military, civilian aviation-related badges including American Civil War stuff. Mr. Pelenaro bought this wing from another collection in Holland, NY circa 1998. The AVG Clerk Typist who wore this unofficial wing badge was Doreen Davis. Hence, not all AVG members had the Chinese Air Wings to take back home to remind them of their brave survival and success.

 

Circa WW2 US Navy Wings Of An AVG Pilot. The US Navy Wings on the second row is a Balfour 10k gold filled badge. These are one of the badges owned by AVG Ace Pilot William Bartling who flew on the USS Wasp before signing up with the Flying Tigers. Veteran Captain Bartling then became an executive of a freight airline service (Skyway Freight Corp.), that merged with the Flying Tigers Line. Guess he was a close buddy of latter company's main principal, AVG Ace Robert Prescott.

 

Capt. Robert Hawthorne Neale. At the very bottom centre of the display are the Chinese Air Force wings of AVG top Ace Pilot Capt. Robert ¨Bob¨ H. Neale. In the 50s Bob Neale turned over with letter these military effects to a famous early collector now passed away. He included his AVG uniform, the Chinese wings and his officer cap badge. Referring to Bill Bailey's autographed picture of Capt. Neale, one can see the same wings and pertinent style--unlike the longer softer early 30s to late 1941 Chinese wing version most AVGers received--worn by the fighter pilot.

 

A lot has been said of the gentleman. His other badges and 10-star wing medal are at the San Diego Aerospace Museum, whilst shortly after his death, the rest of his AVG related items including documents were transferred to the Seattle Air & Space Museum as final repository, by the wishes of his Washington State-based widow and children. All I can say is that Capt. Neale lived a long and quiet, stress free life after his air battle days, especially looking at his AVG anniversary photos of the 50s and 60s--ageing less than his mates at the peak of the their lives.

 

Various CBI, ETO, PTO Stuff. There are some items like the CNAC device, Captain Morgan's air pin from PTO Tokyo bombings, Eddie Rickenbacker's 94th Fighter Squadron ETO Dui, the numbered CATF Dui insignias, the 8th Aerodrome Duis, and the 23rd Fighter Group ¨Flying Tigers¨ of the 14th Air Force Dui collection (Massaro 23A1-A5 plus variants). Plus, some other numbered (1200-2000) Chinese Air Force Wings of the CBI.

 

The remainder I shall explain when I find another hobby time or when there are any questions from the experts of the USMilitaria Forum. But the foregoing description seems good enough for a Sunday afternoon.

 

In the meanwhile, Señores, please enjoy!!

 

 

josesharontraders

[Patchcollector]

Wow That is quite a "Zoo"!

[JDK]

Beautiful stuff. Great AVG breast pins. The 23rd DIs are great as well. Does the 94th pin have a drop in catch or side entry?

 

JD

[Thor996]

wow that's a neat collection of cats man.

[josesharontraders]

Beautiful stuff. Great AVG breast pins. The 23rd DIs are great as well. Does the 94th pin have a drop in catch or side entry?

 

JD

Hola Jd,

 

Buenos dias.

 

On my way to work, I was thinking what you meant if the pin entered at the centre or side. I'm curious myself so will take picture and send to you later today Spain time.

 

Saludos,

 

Jose

[Patchcollector]

Hola Jose,
I (and I'm sure all the other Forum Members) would love seeing a closer look at your amazing "zoo"!If you ever find the time,please post some close up front and rear images of your Badges.

 

 

Muchísimas gracias,
PC

[josesharontraders]

Hola Jd,

 

Buenos dias.

 

On my way to work, I was thinking what you meant if the pin entered at the centre or side. I'm curious myself so will take picture and send to you later today Spain time.

 

Saludos,

 

Jose

Hola JD,

 

Buenas noches from Granada.

 

I suddenly have the pleasurable time for this and now the mystery is resolved. So, it is a centre entrance for the pin to be locked. Lookee:

 

 

[josesharontraders]

Hola Jd,

 

Buenos dias.

 

On my way to work, I was thinking what you meant if the pin entered at the centre or side. I'm curious myself so will take picture and send to you later today Spain time.

 

Saludos,

 

Jose

Once i found uploading and shrinking so tedious. With my poor eyesight and low techy, seemed embarrassing to ask my kid or my office persons to do this. Jejejejejaja. Now that i'm getting the hang of this, more pics I uploaded early this week from dropbox:

[josesharontraders]

Hola Jd,

 

Buenos dias.

 

On my way to work, I was thinking what you meant if the pin entered at the centre or side. I'm curious myself so will take picture and send to you later today Spain time.

 

Saludos,

 

Jose

And some more of Eddie Rickenbacker 1920s auto company stuff. I have a wall of boxes from auction houses full of pins from last year I haven't opened or assembled yet, so pardon that this has packing pads in the background. Life and stress gets in the way at times. This hobby helps with lowering the bp, mi amigo JD:

[josesharontraders]

Hola Jose,

I (and I'm sure all the other Forum Members) would love seeing a closer look at your amazing "zoo"!If you ever find the time,please post some close up front and rear images of your Badges.

 

 

Muchísimas gracias,

PC

Aaah mi tio PC, I am lucky today. I forgot it is local Spain holiday next Monday and in our Asia office it is holiday starting tomorrow. So, with family visiting we went up from tip of Southern Spain to visit Alhambra in Granada, only to find out we have to wait two days to get in. So many of you adventurous Yanks and the howling british have booked appointments to visit the number one site in this country. So, now I have time to stumble through my unreliable macbook and shrink your request. Don't get me wrong it is gran placer with all this sudden hobby time to send you the close ups.

 

Un Cordial Saludo, Señor.

[josesharontraders]

Hola Jose,

I (and I'm sure all the other Forum Members) would love seeing a closer look at your amazing "zoo"!If you ever find the time,please post some close up front and rear images of your Badges.

 

 

Muchísimas gracias,

PC

And, without the flash:

[josesharontraders]

Hola Jose,

I (and I'm sure all the other Forum Members) would love seeing a closer look at your amazing "zoo"!If you ever find the time,please post some close up front and rear images of your Badges.

 

 

Muchísimas gracias,

PC

Tio PC, I so admire John Overley who seldom went to the Flying Tigers Anniversary gigs, almost never signing anything nor making a big deal about his being an AVG. And yet, his big grouping of docus and insignia I was able to review shows how quietly and humbly proud in the way he preserved his memorabilia of high risk.

[josesharontraders]

Hola Jose,

I (and I'm sure all the other Forum Members) would love seeing a closer look at your amazing "zoo"!If you ever find the time,please post some close up front and rear images of your Badges.

 

 

Muchísimas gracias,

PC

Lower First Half with Flash:

[josesharontraders]

Hola Jose,

I (and I'm sure all the other Forum Members) would love seeing a closer look at your amazing "zoo"!If you ever find the time,please post some close up front and rear images of your Badges.

 

 

Muchísimas gracias,

PC

Lower First Half without Flash:

[josesharontraders]

Hola Jose,

I (and I'm sure all the other Forum Members) would love seeing a closer look at your amazing "zoo"!If you ever find the time,please post some close up front and rear images of your Badges.

 

 

Muchísimas gracias,

PC

Lower Second Half w Flash with AVG Captain Neale's Bullion Cap Badge and wings on the left :

[josesharontraders]

Hola Jose,

I (and I'm sure all the other Forum Members) would love seeing a closer look at your amazing "zoo"!If you ever find the time,please post some close up front and rear images of your Badges.

 

 

Muchísimas gracias,

PC

Lower second half without Flash:

So that's it for now, as I'm away from my home. Please let me know if you know anyone who'd like to forward his pet Tiger Pin to our Tiger Zoo for a good honourable price--jejejajja. Atentamente Salads, tio PC

[josesharontraders]

Tio PC, I so admire John Overley who seldom went to the Flying Tigers Anniversary gigs, almost never signing anything nor making a big deal about his being an AVG. And yet, his big grouping of docus and insignia I was able to review shows how quietly and humbly proud in the way he preserved his memorabilia of high risk.

[Patchcollector]

Hello Jose,thank you for the additional images,everything is just outstanding!

[firefighter]

Amazing stuff. Thank you for sharing your collection.

[JDK]

Yes, very nice Jose! 94th pin is very nice. You want the drop in catch like you have shown. Great selection of some rare badges. Thanks for sharing them and for adding the extra photos.

 

JD

[josesharontraders]

Yes, very nice Jose! 94th pin is very nice. You want the drop in catch like you have shown. Great selection of some rare badges. Thanks for sharing them and for adding the extra photos.

 

JD

Hola Guys,

 

Buenas tardes.

 

You are all welcome and great pleasure to share with you.

 

Saludos cordiales,

 

Jose

[josesharontraders]

Lower First Half without Flash:

This Autographed Photo is attributed to author-collector J.R. ¨Bill¨ Bailey. It shows Ace of Aces AVG Flying Tigers Pilot Robert ¨Bob¨ Neale wearing the same style Chinese Air Force Wings in this particular forum. Note how different the wings are from the 1930s to late 1941 wings that were sharper and easily malleable, and had the China Star crudely encrusted and held by rounded, folded metal edges.

[josesharontraders]

Here is the front and back of Flying Tigers AVG Ace Robert ¨Bob¨ Hawthorne Neale's Chinese Air Force Wings

 

 

[flytiger]

Amazing group! It is just amazing! You have done well Sir and I salute you for keeping a group such as this together. I am a older dude now but in my "better"day's "I was lucky enough to fly as a pilot with the Flying Tiger Line and flew some long trans-pac flights with a number of former AVG guy's and also CNAC. They were all just plain good Captains and a pleasure to fly with. I once asked one of them over a cool one in Hong Kong if he had any spare items from the AVG day's and he said he had all his stuff in a trunk at home and one day he would sort it out and send me a few things. Never happened, maybe one two many cool one's talk, but he was a super person and I never asked again.This was the "Duke" and his nick name fit him to a T, great guy.

Again, wonderful collection!

[Jumpin Jack]

Good morning Jose, Fantastic collection! I'm a general collector, so do not have a great deal of AVG material in my collection. I can certainly appreciate the time and effort you expended in putting your collection together! Thank you for showing. Jack