(See Corrections & Amplifications item below.)

John Alison was a U.S. combat ace in World War II and an innovator in developing Air Force commando tactics.

Maj. Gen. Alison, who died Monday at age 98, served in the China-Burma-India and Pacific theaters, was shot down at least twice and had seven confirmed kills as well as a number of probable kills.

An intimate of Air Force commander Henry "Hap" Arnold, he also advised Gen. Dwight Eisenhower on using gliders to ferry troops on D-Day.

John Alison in 1942 Air Force Association

Starting in 1942, Mr. Alison served as deputy commander of the 75th Flying Squadron, part of the successor to the fabled "Flying Tigers," who defended Chinese cities against Japanese air assaults.

Soon after arriving at the airfield in Hengyang, Mr. Alison initiated a daring night interception of Japanese bombers, downing two. His P-40 fighter—ill-equipped for night fighting—was badly shot up and Mr. Alison ended up ditching in a river. He was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross for the action, in part because of the novelty of the night kills.

In 1944, as co-commanders of the first Air Commando Force, Mr. Alison and Lt. Col. Philip Cochran organized an unprecedented operation inside Burma—now Myanmar—then occupied by experienced Japanese jungle fighters.

Using a combined force of fighter planes, bombers, transports, gliders, ambulance planes and newfangled helicopters, the commanders established fortified bases behind Japanese lines in Burma, greatly facilitating a larger assault from British forces. Mr. Alison personally led the force into action, piloting a glider and 15 men to an improvised landing area in a teak forest.

Mr. Alison said he was inspired to become a pilot when he was in high school study hall in Gainesville, Fla., and heard a Curtiss P-1 fighter go into a dive. He joined the ROTC while a student at the University of Florida, then attended flight school. His was the first class to train on monoplanes as opposed to the World War I-style biplanes.

After earning his wings in 1937, Mr. Alison was stationed at Langley Field, Va., where he proved a prodigy on a wide array of aircraft. With the outbreak of World War II, Mr. Alison was sent as a military attaché to Great Britain to help the Royal Air Force assemble and fly American P-40s supplied under the Lend-Lease program. In 1941 he performed the same role in the Soviet Union after it was invaded by Germany. He watched from the U.S. ambassador's rooftop as the German army approached Moscow's outskirts.

Mr. Alison escaped to Iran and then to Basra, Iraq, where he continued to supervise Lend-Lease sales to the Soviets. Following Pearl Harbor, he successfully petitioned Gen. Arnold for a combat assignment and was sent to China.

After the war, Mr. Alison served as assistant secretary of commerce for aeronautics in the Truman administration. He later worked as an executive with Northrop Corp.

In 1940, he was selected to demonstrate the P-40 Warhawk for Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, who was on a visit to the U.S. The Chinese leader proclaimed that he needed 100 of the planes.

"No," replied Claire Chennault, a former U.S. Army Air Forces general who founded the Flying Tigers. He pointed to Mr. Alison and said, "You need 100 of those."

—Email remembrances@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications:
John Alison in 1940 gave a demonstration of fighter aircraft for a delegation sent by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. This Remembrances obituary incorrectly says that Mr. Alison gave the demonstration for the generalissimo.