United States Army Air Corps

United States Army Air Corps

The United States Army Air Corps was a forerunner of the United States Air Force. Renamed from the Air Service on 2 July 1926, it was part of the United States Army and the predecessor of the United States Army Air Forces , established in 1941...

 2nd Lieutenant Wah Kau Kong (Chinese

Chinese language

The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

: 江華九; Pinyin

Pinyin

Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...

: Jiāng Huájiǔ; born ca. 1919 in Honolulu, Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

; killed in action over Blomberg

Blomberg

Blomberg is a town in the Lippe district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with c. 17,000 inhabitants.-External links:*...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, February 22, 1944) was the first Chinese American

Chinese American

Chinese Americans represent Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans...

 fighter

Fighter aircraft

A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...

 pilot. Kong graduated from McKinley High School

President William McKinley High School

President William McKinley High School, more commonly referred to as McKinley High School, is a public, co-educational college preparatory high school of the Hawaii State Department of Education and serves grades nine through twelve...

 and the University of Hawaii

University of Hawaii

The University of Hawaii System, formally the University of Hawaii and popularly known as UH, is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment...

 and was working towards his master's degree in chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

 when he volunteered for military duty. He recorded the highest national score in his entrance examination and was subsequently assigned to the 353rd Fighter Squadron, flying a P-51B Mustang, which he named "Chinaman's Chance". Kong was shot down over Blomberg Germany in the same month his first kill was reported in Time

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

magazine. His childhood friend, Mun Charn Wong

Mun Charn Wong

Mun Charn Wong was a Chinese American businessman from Hawaii. Wong served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II along with his friend, Wah Kau Kong, the first Chinese American fighter pilot. He played football on the Air Force team and was a noted quarterback...

 located his remains which were then re-buried in Holland. After the war, Wau Kau Kong was re-buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific

National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific

The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific is a cemetery located in Honolulu, Hawaii that serves a memorial to those men and women who served in the United States Armed Forces...

, gravesite SECTION D SITE 453. His friend Wong initiated the Wah Kau Kong Memorial Award Scholarship at the University of Hawaii in his honor.