On Thursday, about 20 American veteran fighter pilots and their families paid a visit to the Monument to the Aviator Martyrs in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province.

The American Volunteer Group, who fought in China as the "Flying Tigers," was organized by Claire Lee Chennault on August 1, 1941.

Between December 1941 and September 1945, the Flying Tigers shot down and blew up 2,600 Japanese military planes, destroyed 44 warships and killed 66,700 Japanese soldiers.

The monument was completed in August 1995, and is inscribed with the names of more than 3,000 martyrs including 870 Chinese, 2,186 Americans and 236 former Soviet Union soldiers in Chinese, Russian and English.

Edward J. Komyati, aged 84 and a member of the Flying Tigers who flew three times across the Camel Peak Aviation Route between 1942 and 1945, was one of the veteran visitors to the monument.

The former colonel and volunteer soldier has devoted much of his time to friendly exchanges between the Chinese and American peoples since his retirement.

He has been organizing visits to the monument for groups of young Americans since 1996.

(Xinhua News Agency May 20, 2005)