In early October of 1943, newspapers across the US announced that the 14^th Air Force had officially adopted a new Flying Tigers emblem, with Maj. Gen. Claire L. Chennault's approval and endorsement. Former commander of the renowned American Volunteer Group that gained fame as the original “Flying Tigers,” as well as of the China Air Task Force that succeeded it, Chennault now served in command of the 14^th Air Force. Its effectiveness soon earned it the moniker, "the Fighting Fourteenth.” Carrying on the Flying Tigers legacy under Chennault’s leadership, the 14^th went on to win air superiority in China. In his memoirs, Chennault later praised the accomplishments of his air force and wrote, “It was a record of which every man who wore the Flying Tiger shoulder patch can be proud.”

Following an aborted mission to bomb the infamous Yellow River Bridge just north of Chenghsien, a single Chinese-American Composite Wing B-25 flew on August 12, 1945, to the Nangyang-Yochow-Siangying delta area and dropped hundreds of thousands of “informational leaflets” printed in both the Chinese and Japanese languages. They announced the joyous news that “JAPAN HAS SURRENDERED! WAR IS COMPLETELY OVER!”