In photos: Mainland’s only surviving Flying Tigers pilot, 91, hospitalized in critical condition (6)

The 91-year-old pilot was hospitalized in July with serious lung infection, according to doctors at No. 1 Hospital affiliated with Chongqing University of Medical Science. Long said he wants to recover to take part in events marking the 70th anniversary of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45) to be held in Beijing in 2015. Long is the last survivor of the “Flying Tigers” squad, several members of which are buried in the cemetery.

From May 1942 to September 1945, a group of young U.S. pilots formed the "Flying Tigers" and flew a dangerous air route called “the hump.” The route started at the eastern end of the Himalayan Mountains, with military transport aircraft bringing supplies from India to China to fuel the war effort. "The hump" was at one point the only overseas supply line for China during the war.

Long would have not been a pilot without the war. Born to a well-off family in Hong Kong, he was admitted by chance to a U.S. pilot training center after Hong Kong was seized by Japan.

After the United States declared war against Japan in 1941, Long’s team was absorbed into the U.S. Fourteenth Air Force with General Claire Lee Chennault as commander. In June 1944, six Chinese pilots, including Long, officially became part of the U.S. Air Force.