Flying Tiger to Air Commando is an enlisted man's story of over twenty years of service to his country. From enlistment in the Army Air Corps at age nineteen as a Private to his retirement at age 44 as a Master Sgt., his unusual tale will interest all aviation, history, and gunnery buffs. At age twenty he volunteered for the American Volunteer Group, hardly aware of China and its problems with Japan, but was soon to find out as an armorer with Chennault's famed Flying Tigers. When that elite group was broken up, he returned to the States, soon to return to the CBI theater flying as a B-25 gunner with his good friend from the Tigers, R.T. Smith, in the First Air Commandos. The end of WWII was not the end of combat for Sgt. Baisden, who saw service in the Korean War, both as an armorer in the 80th Fighter-Bomber Squadron of the 8th Fighter-Bomber Group, and as a gunner on B-29s in the 93rd Heavy Bombardment Squadron, 19th Bomb Group. His last days in the Air Force were flown as an in-flight refueling technician in KC-97s with the 308th, 2nd, and 19th Air Refueling Squadrons. His down-to-earth narrative is interesting and informative, and is presented along with his own period 100 b/w photos
