Even the rookies had accumulated high flight hours, and the outfit’s 10 veterans included several with more victories than Boyington. Initially, he flew with the Marine Aircraft Group 11 of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing in South Pacific.

On November 1, the Allies finally landed on Bougainville, capturing just enough beachhead for a staging field at Torokina. During the summer holidays, he worked part-time at a mining camp and a logging camp in Washington.

That October on the White House lawn, President Harry S. Truman awarded Boyington his “posthumous” Medal of Honor, but not before Pappy had his promised reunion with the Black Sheep—one so legendary that it’s said to have been the first bender to rate a photo feature in Life magazine. After the World War II broke out, Boyington left the Marine Corps and was recruited by the legendary ‘Flying Tigers’ for combat in China, Burma, and Japan in late 1941 and early 1942.

For further reading, frequent contributor Don Hollway recommends Baa Baa Black Sheep, by Gregory “Pappy” Boyington (“more for flavor than accuracy”); Bruce Gamble’s The Black Sheep and Swashbucklers and Black Sheep; and Once They Were Eagles, by VMF-214 intelligence officer Frank Walton. And they were just getting started.

(National Archives). He brought down several enemy aircraft in the Russell Islands-New Georgia and Bougainville-New Britain-New Ireland areas. The flight crews in the hangar deck never knew what hit them. In 1934, he received a B.S. Pappy Boyington was born on December 4, 1912 in Coeur d'Alene, a city in northwest Idaho, US, to Charles and Grace Boyington. He eventually retired from the Marine Corps with the rank of colonel on August 1, 1947.

Nothing to it…. Following him down, the other Corsair pilots found the bombers pounding Ballale and dozens of Japanese fighters coming up to do battle.

©2013 Jack Fellows, ASAA Don Hollway

McClurg broke formation to dive after a Nakajima A6M2-N “Rufe” floatplane, his fourth kill: “He was sitting there just flying straight and level. What America knows as the Black Sheep Squadron flew together as a unit for only about three months—less than one 13-week television season—but destroyed 97 enemy aircraft, with 35 probables and 50 damaged, plus almost 30 ships sunk. The Corsair had changed too. Choose an adventure below and discover your next favorite movie or TV show. His wingman, Captain George Ashmun, was killed that day. The most significant claim was made by Masajiro "Mike" Kawato, who was present that day over Rabaul as an enemy pilot. His greatest accomplishments as a fighter pilot occurred during his tenure with the Vought F4U Corsair in VMF-214. Gram Parsons, influential singer, songwriter, guitarist; member of The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers and International Submarine Band. “The wings went each way.” But he had lost sight of Gramps, who was hours overdue returning to base. On January 3, 1944, Boyington led another sweep to Rabaul. After he went missing, the American military launched a search operation, but by then he had been picked up by a Japanese submarine. After the course ended, he served with the 2nd Marine Aircraft Group at the San Diego Naval Air Station as well as took part in naval exercises off the aircraft carriers USS Lexington and USS Yorktown. There are a lot of speculations about who had finally brought down Boyington. (National Archives). The Navy judged it unfit for shipboard ops, but good enough for the Marines. “I was in a state of shock.” Over Vella Lavella, however, Bolt got behind two Zeros in succession, flaming both for a double kill. More than 800 men died, with almost 500 wounded.

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