When I set out for Yunnanyi on the rainy morning of Friday, August 22, I wasn’t just visiting another small town in Yunnan. I was stepping into a place that holds a piece of my family’s story. My grandfather was based here during World War II, part of the Army Airways Communications Service (AACS).

First Lieutenant Robert H. Mooney was a fighter pilot from Kansas City who came to China after Pearl Harbor.

The next stop on my journey to retrace my grandpa's footsteps during World War II in China brought me to Dali, which he referred to as "Tali" (Wade-Giles name) in his notes and photos. We took the high-speed train from Kunming, which took about 2.5 hours, and my first impression was that the lake looked huge! It was also the first time I got to see the beginnings of the famous Hump mountains, and they sure looked ominous.