Winter Garden hero soared with Flying Tigers

It’s been 75 years since George McMillan returned home to Winter Garden to a hero’s welcome in July 1942.

Writing on the front page of the Orlando Sentinel for July 17, publisher Martin Andersen declared that McMillan had carried the honor of his hometown, Orange County and the whole United States of America “through the burning skies of Rangoon and Burma.”

The United States had been in World War II less than a year. But when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor the previous December, McMillan had already been battling the Japanese in the skies over China as a member of the Flying Tigers, one of the most famous fighter units in history (see flyingtigersavg.com).