Phil Saunders was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U. S. Army in 1942. After receiving further training at Fort Benning and serving as a training officer at Camp Wheeler, he was assigned as a combat liaison officer with Chiang Kai-shek's nationalist army in China. He arrived in the China-Burma-India theater in the fall of 1943 and soon discovered the Chinese soldiers were underfed, underpaid, unprepared for combat, and reluctant to engage the Japanese. Advising Chiang's Army details Phil's two years spent in China and describes how the troops he worked with gradually became an effective fighting force, shifted from defensive to offensive combat, and ultimately defeated the enemy. The book also recounts his post-war career in state politics and with the National Labor Relations Board.

Advising Chiang's Army won a CIPA EVVY Merit Book Award in the Military/Military History category.