San Francisco, Dec. 29 -- Victor Chang ( Zhang Songyang), a "flying tigers" member living in San Francisco, California died at Sonoma Healthcare Center on Christmas last week.

The 99-year-old veteran of the "flying tigers" was born in October 1915 in China's Guangdong province. He moved to the United States with his parents when he was eight years old and completed his schooling here.

In 1938, he attended an aviation school in Alameda for pilot training in the East Bay area of San Francisco. After that, he got further training in Kunming, capital city of Yunnan, a southwestern province in China. And then he joined the "flying tigers" to fight against Japanese Air Force in combats over the skies of China.

Chang participated in over 100 battles with the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk and p-51 Mustang single-engined, single-seat fighters. During his resistance against the Japanese army, he brought down three Japanese jets and destroyed dozens on the ground.

The hero also traveled frequently through "the Hump" route to bring in supplies over the life-death course for keeping the Chinese army in the war against Japan. "The Hump" route was pioneered over the mountain ranges between Myanmar and China, where the ranges were high, the weather often harsh and the planes overloaded. What's worse, the southern part was controlled by Japanese forces both on the ground and in the air, which made flying "the Hump" as it became known, a very dangerous job.

After the World War Ⅱ, he joined Central Air Transport Corporation in 1946 and took part in the "uprisings of two airlines" in 1949. He flied international routes as a pilot during the following years. He returned to the United States in 1976.

Chang's funeral will be held this Sunday at the Duggan's Serra Mortuary in Daly City.