On January 13, The National Interest published my story of the passing of Col. Perry Dahl (USAF, ret.), who had been one of the last living World War II fighter aces; Dahl had passed away at his home in Tampa, Florida, on December 2, 2024, at the age of 101.

Now, I have the sad duty of reporting on the death of another hero of the American WWII fighter pilot community. On January 15, 2025, Ambassador Nicholas Burns, U.S. ambassador to China, posted the following announcement on X (formerly Twitter):

“We at Mission China pay tribute to Captain John Angel Chu 朱安琪, the last Chinese-American Flying Tiger hero, who recently passed away at the age of 102. His courage and sacrifices during WWII will never be forgotten. Rest in Peace.”

John Angel Chu’s Early Life

John Angel Chu, a second-generation Chinese immigrant, was born on April 4, 1922, in Oakland, California. According to Ann Lee of the Association of Chinese Americans for Social Justice, John’s father, Zhongcun Chu, was a 1919 graduate of Peking University and the first principal of “Chinese School” in Hanford, California. Meanwhile, John’s mother, Wenzhi Yu, came from a family of scholars.

Young John Angel spent his formative years in San Francisco. His father was a strong supporter of Sun Yat-Sen, the founder of Chinese Nationalism who, among other things, issued a clarion call to “save the country by aviation.” This call to patriotic aviation service took on an extra sense of urgency after the Mukden Incident of 1931, which the Imperial Japanese used as the pretext for the invasion and conquest of Manchuria; this prompted Chinese expats in the United States to found aviation schools in major cities with significant Chinese populations, such as Portland, Chicago, Detroit, New York, Pittsburgh, Boston, and, of course, San Francisco.

San Fran’s China Aviation School of America was established in July 1933 by renting the site of the Chinese Middle School in Stockton Street, Chinatown. Zhongcun Chu became one of the school’s first graduates, with fifty flying hours, and became dean of the school. Zhongcun would bring his son to his flying practice sessions, so with hindsight, it’s obvious that this would have a profound influence on young John’s choice of career path.

John boarded his first flight at the tender age of fourteen, an Arrow Sport F (which used a Ford V-8 engine). The following year, he completed his first solo flight, and on April 15, 1939, he finished following in his father’s footsteps as a graduate of that same Chinese Aviation School of America. The only downside was that he had to drop out of high school in order to concentrate on his aviation schooling.

The Making of Hero: Capt. Chu’s WWII Career with the Flying Tigers

The new graduate didn’t waste any time putting his pilot’s wings to deadly practical use. On July 1, 1939—a mere two-and-a-half months after his graduation ceremony—John, still only seventeen years old at the time, bade goodbye to his family at the Port of San Francisco and embarked for China to battle the Imperial Japanese menace. In John’s own words:

“My father was a very patriotic man. I knew what he was thinking about me going back to China to join the war battles – I would not come back alive. Of course my mother was very sad, the whole family was very sad. On the day I left, we didn’t talk much to avoid the sad conversation. At that time, I was only thinking about saving China. I still think it’s worthwhile for my generation to make the sacrifice for a peaceful future. Then, our next generations could study hard and do things they like with no more fighting!”

Thus it was that John Angel Chu wound up serving as the youngest pilot in the Nationalist Chinese Air Force, more specifically with the American Volunteer Group (AVG), better known as the Flying Tigers, under the leadership of General Claire Lee Chennault. Like his fellow Flying Tigers, Chu flew the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter plane; the AVG’s P-40s were immortalized by their shark mouth nose art. He was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant on February 10, 1941.

After the AVG was disbanded in 1942 on account of America’s official entry into WWII, John continued flying and fighting with a successor group known as the Chinese American Composite Wing out of Chongqing, earning a promotion to captain in 1944.

None of my sources indicate whether Chu attained any air-to-air kills. However, he flew more than his fair share of air-to-ground strikes in the close air support (CAS) role and flew at least seventy-two combat sorties.

Chu’s Life After WWII

After the war ended, Chu initially had his U.S. citizenship revoked for volunteering with a foreign military service, but this outrage was finally corrected in 1949. He brought over his Chinese-born wife and son and finally finished high school, studied engineering, and became a draftsman and a mechanical engineer.

The Taiwanese government honored Chu with a banquet and parade in the summer of 2015. As noted by Taiwan’s Veterans Affairs Council:

“During the Chinese Civil War, he was shot down and captured by the Chinese Communist Party. After his release, he applied for discharge in order to go back to the United States, but he only received the certificate ‘Duty Suspended,’ meaning he is technically still considered active, so he is also nicknamed ‘the Forever Captain’ … In 1999, Chu was received by President Bill Clinton to recognize the contributions made by Chinese Americans during World War II. Chu said he was willing to sacrifice the primes of his life for his mother nation and the hope of world peace: ‘I am flying for freedom.’”

R.I.P. and God bless, “Forever Captain” John Angel Chu, ‘til Valhalla. You’ve earned your spot in Fighter Pilot’s Heaven and now “fly with angels out beyond the stars.“

About the Author: Christian D. Orr

Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ). He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch, The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). If you’d like to pick his brain further, you can ofttimes find him at the Old Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, partaking of fine stogies and good quality human camaraderie.

Image: Ryan Fletcher / Shutterstock.com