Clifford Groh was born October 29, 1918 in Chicago and grew up in Wilmette, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. He attended ROTC courses at Northwestern University and graduated in 1940, then assigned to Pensacola, FL for additional US Naval Reserve training.
By August 1940, Groh resigned from the Navy and accepted an offer to fly with the American Volunteer Group (AVG). Groh completed 6 weeks of training in Burma and was then assigned to the “Hells Angels” squadron of the AVG. On April 2, Groh was assigned to fly a P-40 back to base for repair, but a terrible storm in the area required him to land the plane, literally on a sandbar in a river in the middle of a jungle. With the help of local missionaries, Groh started to walk the 350-mile journey back to the AVG base. The AVG had all but given him up for “lost” when Groh walked into the bas on June 6. The AVG disbanded just a month later in July 1942 and Groh was credited with 2 air victories.
Cliff stayed in Asia and signed up with the Chinese National Aviation Corporation (CNAC) through 1944; he made 442 trips over the Himalayas (The Hump).
Cliff Groh returned to the US, and, along with many of his AVG and CNAC buddies, became an original investor in a new start-up cargo carrier, National Skyway Freight Corporation, that shortly after incorporation, was renamed to the The Flying Tiger Line. Cliff Groh flew for Tigers for 22 years and died later in October 1979.