David Lee Hill was the youngest son of Pierre Bernard “P. B.” Hill (1877 – 1958) and Ellen Lee Thraves Hill (1875 – 1958). David Lee was born in Korea on July 13, 1915 while his parents were serving as Presbyterian missionaries there. His three older siblings were born in Virginia between 1906 and 1912.
P. B. Hill was a native of Virginia. After graduating from Hampden-Sidney College in Virginia, he attended a Presbyterian seminary in Richmond. In 1905, he married Ellen Thraves, the sister of his best friend in college. The couple lived in the southeast for several years where P. B. served as pastor of local Presbyterian churches. In 1912, they moved to Korea, at that time a Japanese possession, where they served about four years. During World War I, the Y. M. C. A. commissioned a number of American pastors to serve as chaplains to the armed forces and P. B. served in that capacity.
After the war, P. B. served at a church in Louisville, Kentucky for a few years before moving to Texas. He was a long time pastor of First Presbyterian Church in San Antonio and in 1939 he founded the Hill Country Cowboy Campmeeting and served as the organization’s dean of ministries until his retirement. He also had a keen interest in law enforcement and served as a chaplain of the Texas Rangers for many years. In addition, he served at various times as chaplain of the Texas Border Patrol, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Old Trail Drivers Association, the old Freighters of Texas, the Texas Pioneers and numerous other groups. P. B. was one of the first ministers in Texas to have his sermons broadcast on the radio. He was awarded five honorary degrees and spoke seven languages. Both P. B. and Ella died within months of each other in 1958.
David Lee “Tex” Hill attended San Antonio Academy and McCallie School (a prep school in Chattanooga, Tennessee) and college at Texas A&M before transferring to Austin College in Sherman, Texas, where he graduated in 1938. A tribute to Tex says that he acquired his nickname while participating in athletics at McCallie School and it stuck with him afterward.
Tex wanted to fly, and first applied for flight training in the Army Air Corps but was declined. Undeterred, he enlisted in the United States Navy in 1939. After somewhat of a roller coaster start, he graduated from Navy flight school that same year. He was assigned to the USS Saratoga in a dive bomber squadron. Tex served aboard at least two more carriers, lastly the USS Ranger, before resigning to join the American Volunteer Group (AVG). This organization recruited combat pilots and support personnel from branches of the United States military to assist the Chinese National government and oppose the Japanese. Tex and others were transported to Burma to join Col. Claire Chennault and begin flying the AVG’s Curtis P-40B. The unit which became known as the “Flying Tigers” engaged the well equipped Japanese aircraft until the summer after after the United States formally entered World War II. The AVG was deactivated in 1942 and incorporated into the 23rd Fighter Group, later part of the 14th Air Force, in the Army Air Corps.
Tex had demonstrated his flying and pursuit skills with the AVG in January of 1942 by quickly becoming an “ace” with his first five enemy aircraft shot down. By the time the unit was disbanded, Hill accumulated 12 1/4 victories.
Col. Robert L. Scott was a West Point graduate of 1932 at the rank of second lieutenant. By the time the war approached, Scott had been training pilots for at least seven or eight years. After Pearl Harbor, he strongly desired to take part in the fighting against the Japanese, but he was told that he was too old to fly missions as a combat pilot. For a while, Scott was assigned to fly ferry missions in the Far East to Burma. After Burma fell to the Japanese, he had become acquainted with Claire Chennault and was offered a job with the AVG during its short life. Scott went on to fly almost 400 combat missions in the Far East, becoming one of the first aces in the war. His book “God Is My Co-Pilot” was released in 1943. Portions of this book were serialized in United States newspapers. One such excerpt appeared in the December 7, 1944 edition of The Hood County Tablet of Granbury, Texas and mentioned Tex Hill, then a major. Scott described Hill as a blue eyed Texan, six feet two inches tall and who was at that time squadron commander of his own Flying Tiger outfit in Hengyang. In this excerpt, Scott went on to describe a one on one dogfight between Hill’s P-40 and a Japanese pilot in a Zero that had somehow survived the AVG strafing attack on their airstrip. Scott witnessed as the two fought until Hill prevailed and shot down the Zero. Scott mentions Hill numerous times throughout the book.
Robert L. Scott’s book was adapted to film in the 1945 Warner Brothers release of the same name. Directed by Robert Florey. Dennis Morgan was cast as Scott, Raymond Massey as Chennault and John Ridgely as Hill. Other actors who might be recognized included Alan Hale, Craig Stevens and Richard Loo. The production was filmed in Arizona and California. Later versions of the P-40 were used in the filming. For the Japanese Zeros, North American Aviation AT-6 trainers were used. Warner Brothers wanted Scott to play himself, but the Air Force denied the request, saying Scott was too valuable where he was serving at the time.
The main character in the John Wayne film “Flying Tigers” is named Jim Gordon. Though the script is fictionalized, Wayne’s character is generally thought to be at least loosely based on Hill. Wayne’s character is nicknamed “Pappy” in the script which leads some to assume that it might also be based on another pilot named Gregory “Pappy” Boyington, whose book “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep” was the basis for a television series. However, Boyington was not a squadron commander, although he flew with the “Flying Tigers.”
Hill continued to serve in the Army Air Corps in the Far East until he was reassigned to a post in the United States in late 1944. During his time with the Army Air Corps, he was credited with downing six more enemy aircraft. After his return, Tex flew in one of the early Air Force jet fighter groups before he retired from active duty in the Air Corps in 1945. After a few months as a civilian, he accepted a commission to command a fighter group in the Texas Air National Guard until the 1950s. He remained in the Air Force Reserve for many years, finally retiring as a brigadier general. After his military retirement, Tex lived in Bexar County. He passed away on October 11, 2007 and is interred at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.
Sources:
Dr. P. B. Hill Obituary, Kerrville Mountain Sun, Kerrville, Texas January 23, 1958
Hill Country Cowboy Camp Meeting
“Famed Flying Tiger Tex Hill Dies” – Air and Space Forces Magazine
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