Profile of Gregory H. 'Pappy' Boyington on Famous Like Me

Colonel Gregory "Pappy" Boyington (December 4, 1912 - January 11, 1988) was an American fighter pilot who flew with the American Volunteer Group (the Flying Tigers) in China and became a US Marine Corps ace in World War II.

Early life

Boyington was born in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho but grew up in the logging town of St. Maries, Idaho and later, Tacoma, Washington where he was a wrestler in high school. He first flew when he was eight years old, with Clyde Pangborn, who later flew the Pacific non-stop.

In 1930, Boyington entered the University of Washington where he participated in the ROTC and became a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. He was a member of the college wrestling and swimming teams, and at one time held the Pacific Northwest Intercollegiate middleweight wrestling title. He graduated in 1934 with a B.S. in aeronautical engineering.

He spent his summer vacations working in his home state. He worked in a mining camp and a logging camp and with the Coeur d'Alene Fire Protective Association in road construction and lookout work.

He married his first wife, Helene, shortly after his graduation, after which he worked for Boeing as a draftsman and engineer.

In his youth, Boyington went by the surname of Hallenbeck, after his step-father. It was not until he decided to apply for flight training that he obtained his birth certificate and learned that his father was one Charles Boyington, and that his parents had divorced when he was a child. The discovery was fortuitous: since there was no record that Gregory Boyington had ever been married, he was free to become a cadet pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Military career

Boyington started his military career in college as a member of the Reserve Officers Training Corps, in which he became a cadet captain. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Coast Artillery Reserve in June 1934, and served two months of active duty with the 630th Coast Artillery at Fort Worden, Washington. On 13 June 1935, he enlisted and went on active duty in the Volunteer Marine Corps Reserve. He returned to inactive duty on 16 July.

On 18 February 1936, Boyington accepted an appointment as an aviation cadet in the Marine Corps Reserve. He was assigned to the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida, for flight training.

He was designated a naval aviator on 11 March 1937, then was transferred to Quantico, Virginia, for duty with Aircraft One, Fleet Marine Force. He was discharged from the Marine Corps Reserve on 1 July 1937 in order to accept a second lieutenant's commission in the regular Marine Corps the following day.

He was sent to The Basic School in Philadelphia in July 1938; on completion of the course, Boyington was transferred to the 2d Marine Aircraft Group at the San Diego Naval Air Station. He took part in fleet problems off the aircraft carriers USS Lexington and USS Yorktown.

Promoted to first lieutenant on 4 November 1940, Boyington went back to Pensacola as an instructor the next month.

Boyington resigned his commission in the Marine Corps on 26 August 1941 to accept a position with the Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company. CAMCO was a civilian organization that contracted to staff a Special Air Unit to defend China and the Burma Road. The unit later became known as the American Volunteer Group, the famed Flying Tigers of China. During his months with the "Tigers", Boyington became a flight leader. He was frequently in trouble with the commander of that outfit, Claire Chennault. As a member of the AVG 1st Squadron, Boyington was officially credited with 3.5 Japanese aircraft destroyed in the air and on the ground, but AVG records suggest that one additional "kill" may have been due to him. (He afterward claimed six victories as a Tiger, but there is no substantiation for that figure.) In the spring of 1942, he broke his contract with the American Volunteer Group, and was dishonorably discharged from that unit.

Boyington wangled a major's commission in the Marines, which were in great need of experienced combat pilots. He was assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 11 of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, where he became Executive Officer of VMF-121 operating from Guadalcanal. While assigned to VMF-121, Boyington did not shoot down any enemy planes. Later, he became Commanding Officer of Marine Fighting Squadron 214, better known by its nickname, the "Black Sheep Squadron."

Boyington is best known for his exploits flying the Vought F4U Corsair in VMF-214. During periods of intense activity in the Russell Islands-New Georgia and Bougainville-New Britain-New Ireland areas, Boyington added to his total almost daily. During his squadron's first tour of combat duty, the major shot down 14 enemy fighter planes in 32 days. On 17 December 1943, he headed the first Allied fighter sweep over impregnable Rabaul. By 27 December, his record was 25.

The CO earned the nickname "Pappy" because, at 31, he was a decade older than most of his men. A typical daring feat was his attack on Kahili airdome at the southern tip of Bougainville on 17 October 1943. He and 24 fighters circled the field where 60 hostile aircraft were based, goading the enemy into sending up a large force. In the fierce battle that followed, 20 of the enemy planes were shot out of the skies. The Black Sheep returned back to their base without the loss of a single ship.

Boyington’s squadron, flying from the island of Vella Lavella, offered to down a Japanese Zero for every baseball cap sent to them by major league players in the World Series. They received 20 caps and shot down many more enemy aircraft.

He tied the American record of 26 planes on 3 January 1944 over Rabaul, but was shot down himself later the same day. The mission had sent 48 American fighters, including one division of four planes from the Black Sheep Squadron, from Bougainville for a fighter sweep over Rabaul. Boyington was the tactical commander of the flight and arrived over the target at eight o'clock in the morning. In the ensuing action, the major was seen to shoot down his 26th plane. He then became mixed in the general melee of diving, swooping planes and was not seen or heard from again.

Following a determined but futile search, Boyington was declared missing in action. He had been picked up by a Japanese submarine, and became a prisoner of war. (The sub was sunk 13 days after picking him up, though not before dropping him off). He spent the rest of the war, some 20 months, in a Japanese prison camp, where he was selected for temporary promotion to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

During mid-August 1945, after the atom bombs and the Japanese capitulation, Boyington was liberated from Japanese custody at Omori Prison Camp near Tokyo on 29 August and arrived in the United States shortly afterwards. On 6 September, he accepted his temporary lieutenant colonel's commission in the Marine Corps.

Shortly after his return to his homeland, Lieutenant Colonel Boyington was ordered to Washington to receive the nation's highest honor, the Medal of Honor, from the President. The medal had been awarded by the late president, Franklin D. Roosevelt in March 1944 and held in the capital until such time as he could receive it. On 4 October 1945, Boyington received the Navy Cross from the Commandant of the Marine Corps for the Rabaul raid; the following day, "Nimitz Day," he and other sailors and Marines were decorated at the White House by President Harry S. Truman.

Following the receipt of his Medal of Honor and Navy Cross, Colonel Boyington made a Victory Bond Tour. Originally ordered to the Marine Corps Schools, Quantico, he was later directed to report to the Commanding General, Marine Air West Coast, Marine Corps Air Depot, Miramar, San Diego, California.

Colonel Boyington retired from the Marine Corps on August 1, 1947, and, because he was specially commended for the performance of duty in actual combat, he was advanced to his final rank.

In addition to the Medal of Honor and Navy Cross, Colonel Boyington held the American Defense Service Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, American Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal.

Later life

Boyington was a tough, hard-living character who was known for being unorthodox. He was also an alcoholic, which plagued him in the years after the war, and contributed to multiple divorces as well as disciplinary problems with the Marines.

Many people know him from the 1970s television show Baa Baa Black Sheep, a drama about the Black Sheep squadron based very loosely on Boyington's memoir of the same name, with Boyington portrayed by Robert Conrad. Like Chuck Yeager in the movie The Right Stuff, Pappy had a short walk-on role as a visiting General during the second season of the show. Many of Boyington's men were very irate over this show charging it was mostly fiction and presented an over glamorized portrait of Boyington. At least on the television show, Boyington was depicted as owning a bull terrier dog, named "Meatball," although it is not certain he owned such a dog in real life.

While artist depictions and publicity photos often show Boyington with aircraft number 86 ("Ma Belle") covered in victory flags, this was not his combat aircraft. In fact, he rarely flew the same aircraft more than a few times. It has been said that he would choose the F4U in the worst shape, so none of his pilots would be afraid of flying their own aircraft.

Boyington was an absentee father to three children by his first wife. One daughter committed suicide; one son graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 1959.

Boyington died of cancer on January 11, 1988 at the age of 75.

He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery on January 15, 1988, in plot 7A-150 with full honors accorded to a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, including a missing man fly-by conducted by the F-4s of the Marine detachment at Andrews Air Force Base. Before his flight from Fresno, California VMA-214 (the current incarnation of the Black Sheep Squadron) did a flyby. They intended to do a missing man formation, but one of the four aircraft suffered a mechanical problem.

After the burial service for Boyington one of his friends, Fred Losch, looked down at the headstone that he was standing next to, the boxing legend Joe Louis. Bruce Gamble comments on this by saying, "Ol' Pappy wouldn't have to go far to find a good fight."

Medal of Honor citation

His citation reads in full:

The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR to MAJOR GREGORY BOYINGTON UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS RESERVE for service as set forth in the following CITATION

For extraordinary heroism above and beyond the call of duty as Commanding Officer of Marine Fighting Squadron TWO FOURTEEN in action against enemy Japanese forces in Central Solomons Area from 12 September 1943 to 3 January 1944. Consistently outnumbered throughout successive hazardous flights over heavily defended hostile territory, Major Boyington struck at the enemy with daring and courageous persistence, leading his squadron into combat with devastating results to Japanese shipping, shore installations and aerial forces. Resolute in his efforts to inflict crippling damage on the enemy, Major Boyington led a formation of twenty-four fighters over Kahili on 17 October and, persistently circling the airdrome where sixty hostile aircraft were grounded, boldly challenged the Japanese to send up planes. Under his brilliant command, our fighters shot down twenty enemy craft in the ensuing action without the loss of a single ship. A superb airman and determined fighter against overwhelming odds, Major Boyington personally destroyed 26 of the many Japanese planes shot down by his squadron and by his forceful leadership developed the combat readiness in his command which was a distinctive factor in the Allied aerial achievements in this vitally strategic area.

/S/FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

AVG victory claims

There is some controversy surrounding Boyington's AVG victory claims. His official CAMCO account showed 3.5 for enemy aircraft destroyed, of which only 1 was an air-to-air victory. However, AVG records suggest that Boyington was short-changed of an air-to-air victory during his tour of duty at Mingaladon airport in Rangoon, and that his total should have been 4.5.

According to Bruce Gamble, Boyington also felt that the AVG staff overlooked claims from a raid on Chiang Mai, Thailand. Six pilots were involved in a raid that supposedly destroyed 15 Japanese aircraft on the ground, giving each man 2.5 victory credits for the raid. Boyington apparently decided that the two pilots who flew top cover should not have shared in the bounty, and that his score should have been calculated this way:

• Confirmed air to air victories: 2 (this is what the US military officially acknowledges normally)
• Chiang Mai Raid: 3.75 (15 aircraft destroyed divided by 4 shooters)
• Total: 5.75

He then rounded it up to 6, and convinced the Corps to officially acknowledge it. This was probably good for the Corps' image during the final days of the tour as Boyington neared the record of 26 victories held at the time by Joe Foss and Eddie Rickenbacker. He ultimately tied the record on the same mission in which he was shot down.

After the war, Boyington insisted on the term "victories" rather than "kills", and was known to lose his temper over the issue.

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