Born in Nebraska in 1889, Floyd Shumaker was an early flyboy with the US Army Air Service. Arriving in China in 1929 as a representative of the Aviation Corporation of America, owned by the Douglas Aircraft Company of Santa Monica, California, Captain Shumaker drew up a 133-page report urging the Nationalists to reorganize their air force along American lines. He advised Chiang to build a series of airfields near the new capital, Nanjing, from which his air force could strike almost anywhere in China.
