He left a detailed record of his experiences as a fighter pilot for the Republicans in his memoir Some Still Live, published by Funk & Wagnalls Co in New York, 1938[3] and recently republished by The Clapton Press, London.

He and other classmates then enrolled in the United States Army Air Corps, and received flight training at Randolph Field.

In 1934, he received his naval commission, flight training at Pensacola, Florida, and assigned as a reconnaissance floatplane pilot on the USS San Francisco cruiser.

and 12 Spanish pilots, joined Andrés García La Calle's Wright Cyclone powered Polikarpov I-15 squadron in Los Alcázares.

[6]: 127–128 [5]: 65–68, 74, Appendix F On May 3, 1937, Tinker and Baumler, the remaining American fighter pilots, were assigned to Ivan A. Lakeev's squadron, and on 30 May, started flying the Polikarpov I-16.

[6]: 161–162, 169–170, 188–189, 193–194, 202 [5]: 87, 89, 93, 95, 97, Appendix F While in Spain, Tinker socialized with Ernest Hemingway, Herbert Matthews, Martha Gellhorn, Henry Tilton Gorrell, and members of the Lincoln Brigade.

He was found in his Little Rock hotel room with a fatal gunshot wound to his head, an empty whiskey bottle, and an acceptance letter from the Flying Tigers.

[7] On July 11, 2009, the centennial of his birth, his niece and the Grand Prairie Historical Society, honored his memory in a DeWitt, Arkansas ceremony.