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Over 'the Hump' and beyond: Kincannon to lecture for History Roundtable
By Skipper Steely
Jul 23, 2025
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Greenville, Texas -- Communities across Northeast Texas each had a World War II participant who either regularly flew that which became known as “The Hump” from India to China, or fought with General Claire Chennault and subsequent Allied units in China against the Japanese.

Margaret Kincannon, born just days after her father arrived in the China-Burma-Indian (CBI) theater, will lecture on this subject to the World War II History Roundtable Audie Murphy Chapter at its quarterly meeting July 24. The gathering will be at the Audie Murphy /American Cotton Museum in Greenville at 7:00 p.m. The public is invited and the event is free.

Several local books have been written on the China subject. Attorney Mary Walker Clark of Paris not only wrote of her father’s experience but traced every step of his mission to gather information for her book on his actions. Otha Spencer, pilot and former photography and semantics professor at East Texas State University, wrote a highly descriptive view of his flights over the huge mountains. Kincannon produced a book called The Spray and Pray Squadron, a look at the 3rd Bomb Squadron, 1st Bomb Group, Chinese-American Composite Wing of WWII. Her father was part of a B-25 crew at times, serving in the tail turret.

James “Hank” Mills flew the Hump to near Kunming in his B-25, then on to Luliang and by August 30, 1944 to Kweilin (Guilin), a huge military center. Preparations to attack the Japanese in China and later Japan were underway. Tech Sergeant Mills became a member of Major General Claire Lee Chennault’s Flying Tigers. 

“I intend to focus primarily upon the Chinese-American Composite Wing,” says Kincannon, “emphasizing Chennault’s purpose in establishing it to rehabilitate the Republic of China Air Force, enabling the Chinese to defend against the Japanese invasion, and to promote good relations between the United States and China for the future.”

Chennault also had a Northeast Texas connection. He was born in Commerce.

With many examples of successful operations that kept China in the war and contributed to its successful conclusion, Kincannon molds her story with information taken from official records found at the Air Force research facility at Maxwell AFB.