"Pappy" Boyington-more comonly called "Greg" , "skipper" or "Gramps" by his men-didn't fit the clean-cut image usually pushed by the war time press. He was older, rougher, and harder-drinking than most of his fighter pilot peers, and whatever he did, he did his way. Born in 1912, by 1935 he was a marine corps flight instructor. In 1941 he joined the America Volunteer Group, better known as the Flying Tigers, flying p-40's against the Japenese and China. He returned to the corps in 1942. Given the chance to form a fighter squadron in 1943, he pulled together a collection of pilots, some of whom had had disciplinary problems, and forged them into the famous "Black Sheep" squadron.(oringanaly dubbed "Boyingtons Bstards" rejected when it became clear that it would never appear in the news papers)
In the Solomons campaighn the black sheep ran up an impressive record using Boyingtons aggresive tactics-diving from superior alltitude, firing at close range-and Boyington himself ultimatly surpassed Rickenbackers record with 28 kills. In October 1943 he led 26 corsairs to Kahili. When 60 Japanese fighter pilots based there refused to rise to the challenge, he taunted them on his radio. This brought them up, and the Black Sheep sent 20 of them crashing back to earth without suffering a single loss. In January 1944, after scoring his last victory, Boyington was shot-down, and spent 20 months as a prisoner of the japanese. After the war he recieved the Medal of Honor. |
