This past Monday I had the chance to start the serious research aspect of my thesis at the Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA) on Maxwell AFB located in Montgomery, AL.  AFHRA houses an amazing collection of documents pertaining to the United States Air Force. The staff is unbelievably patient, kind and generous with their time.  As part of my research, I gathered a list that contained some 115 files that I thought might be helpful and supportive of my thesis. Now if you know me then you know this is not surprising if nothing else I am extremely thorough when I am working on a major paper.  However, I was worried that maybe this time I was asking too much of a sparsely manned archive.  Needless to say, my worries were for nothing, one thing I can say about the personnel at AFHRA is that they will go out of their way to ensure that any and all materials that a researcher may need, providing they are not classified, is gathered and made available.

So what does 115 files from AFHRA look like? Well as you can see below, it is a cart full of boxes along with 5 DVDs full of digitized files. It is amazing how many files they can put on these DVD

Each of the boxes contained individual files some as many as 15, of which were very thick with documents.  The DVDs on average contain about twenty-five individual files containing hundreds of documents. While it may only show four or five different call reel numbers, each reel is equal to one, sometimes two of those boxes from the cart.

Among some of the documents, I was able to hold in my hands and read were things like the telegram sent between Brigadier General Clayton L. Bissell and General Joseph Stilwell regarding fuel that will be needed for the Doolittle Raiders to refuel so they could get out of China after the raid on Tokyo. In this same file was after action reports from the various components such as the navigator, the engineer, the bombardier, along with the pilot/co-pilot of the April 18, 1942 mission. There is value in reading these various documents as it gives us a chance to see through the mission through their eyes. To see what they saw, to experience the work that each man was responsible for while understanding what they saw as positive and negatives.  The positive and negatives that the military would use to improve the mechanical workings of planes, and additions that could be made going forward in the future.

Doolittle’s Raiders was not the only subject of this day of research. I have been in love with the Flying Tigers legend for as long as I can remember. Long before the United States was officially drawn into World War II, Claire Chennault and the Flying Tigers were in China teaching and assisting the Chinese Air Force in hopes of helping them prevent the Japanese from overtaking the country.  Here I was disappointed that little files existed at AFHRA about the unit, ironic since the AFHRA is located on Chennault Circle. This could be due to the fact, that the early important years of the Flying Tigers they were not acting in conjunction with the United States Military, but rather as civilian volunteers. What few files I did find, celebrated the men for providing the victories our nation needed at a time when our military was suffering set back after set back.

Overall, I felt it was a successful day. I was able to get a plethora of source materials that will enable me to put together a well researched and framed argument for my thesis. I still have vital research that I need to do, but that will come from other sources such as the National World War II Museum (they were kind enough to send me two DVDs of oral histories along with copies of documents as well), and hopefully a trip to the National Air Force Museum where I am hoping to find more material on Chennault. However, in the meantime, I will be searching out where Chennault’s papers are archived as those papers hold valuable information that will take the Flying Tigers from legend to the reality of the impact they played in the war.