The True Story of the Black Sheep Squadron

the freewheeling attitude of the lid for today because you may die tomorrow fighter pilot was epitomized by Marine Corps major Gregory Pappy Boyington his exploits in the air and on the ground made him one of the most colorful controversial and best remembered characters of world war ii by 1943 at the age of thirty Boyington commanded a squadron of marine pilots and was hailed as one of its top fighter aces in the skies over the pacific Boyington spy le'ts tangled with japanese aviators in a deadly duel to the deck it was man against man machine against machine but victory did not belong to the pilot with the most horsepower it went to the man with the most talent and the most luck Major Gregory Boyington and his squadron fit the mold of guts and determination he was one of the few people that I've ever seen in my 30 years in the Marine Corps who was a born leader and could inspire people not only through talking to them through his flying ability there wasn't a man in that squadron that wouldn't lay down his life for Pappy Point he was a complete total 100% maverick Boynton's autobiography published in 1958 painted a picture of his squadron as a group of hard drinking hard flying and hard fighting marines more intent on battling their own superior officers than Japanese pilots a successful 1970s television series on which Boynton served as a consultant went even further creating an indelible image of his pilots as a collection of screwballs one step away from court-martial have the members of this celebrated combat flying squadron been misrepresented by the media and - by their own commander or is there some truth behind their brawling larger-than-life legend by 1943 the battle for control of the South Pacific was proving to be a difficult bloody campaign the battles of Coral Sea Midway and Guadalcanal had shown the Japanese to be tenacious skilled fighters additional bases had been established or were in the process of being established in the new Georgia group especially Munda and bella la vella and that was part of a stepping stone procedure aimed at putting land-based tactical air power within range of Rabaul which was the major Japanese Naval Air complex on New Britain the largest such Japanese facility in that part of the Pacific nicknamed fortress revolt by American Flyers the chain of islands was defended by anti-aircraft guns and large numbers of highly skilled fighter pilots of the Japanese Navy additional marine fighter pilots were needed to escort American bombers on their hazardous missions to destroy Rabaul a stout headstrong 30-year old major named Gregory Boynton arrived at espírito Santo Island on August 14 1943 he took command of a newly formed Marine fighter squadron he had a tremendous background and started training us and his methods were effective and been very favorable on the marine corps role book boyington x' new command was designated fighting squadron v MF 214 v for heavier than aircraft m for marine corps and f for fighters their aircraft the Vought f4u corsair was a sturdy powerhouse of a fighter plane well-suited to go up against the famous japanese zero this deadly aerial contest of marine corps sayers against Japanese zeroes combined to create an unusual and lethal kind of rivalry that the self-confident young American pilots were more than up for most of Boynton's men had at least a few years of college and several were graduates of major universities such as Notre Dame and Princeton the day after Pearl Harbor I with hundreds of thousands of other young men left college campuses and went into the military because we thought that the country was in grave danger which of course it was the Marines in the press knew that the Americans back home needed heroes and nothing creates heroes like competition major Gregory Boynton was the type who would fight at the drop of a hat in the air or on the ground if America was going to win the war they were going to need men like Boyington no matter how hard nosed or undisciplined Gregory boyington was born in Coeur d'Alene Idaho in 1912 to Charles Poynton a dentist and grace Gregory within two years his parents were divorced and grace took young Gregory with her to Spokane Washington the pair moved in with Grace's boyfriend Ellsworth Hollenbeck the common-law family soon resettled in the lumber town of st. Mary's Idaho in 1917 growing up as Gregory Hollenbeck Grace's son developed a pugnacious love of fighting often challenging other boys to fights he couldn't possibly win during the 1920s aviation captured the imagination of many young Americans successful World War one pilots like Eddie Rickenbacker became heroes to millions of boys daredevil Barnstormers thrilled audiences across the country with their aerial stunts and daring it just seemed to be a lot of romance connected with the helmet and goggles and flying scarf around your neck in 1919 barnstorming pilot Clyde Pangborn performed for awestruck crowds in st. Mary's six year old Gregory got a ride in pangborn's plane and was instantly captivated by the time he graduated high school in Tacoma Washington in 1930 he was known as a top wrestler but quiet and studious one day after entering the University of Washington in Seattle Gregory came across the Boeing aircraft company's new Marine Corps fighter testing its engine along the Duwamish River he saw this beautiful Marine Corps fighter and decided that it was something that he wanted to try to pursue the chance encounter with Boeing's Marine fighter steered Gregory into getting his degree in aeronautical engineering while in Seattle he met a local high school girl 18 year old Helene Clarke they were introduced and had some kind of a whirlwind romance and they got married as soon as Boynton finished his college degree he soon found himself the father of a son Gregory jr. and took a steady but unfulfilled job with the Boeing aircraft company as a draftsman Gregory Hollenbeck would fight an uphill struggle to achieve his dream of becoming an aviator only to see those dreams jeopardized by his self-destructive behavior in 1935 during the hard times of the depression young draftsman Gregory Hollenbeck still longed for a life of high flying aerial adventure that same year Congress passed the aviation cadet Act which funded the training of 1,000 military pilots Hollenbeck seized on this opportunity to fulfill his dream of flying only to learn that he had to be a bachelor to be accepted but this temporary roadblock would lead him to afford to it his discovery in the process of getting his birth certificate he realized that his real name is Greg Boyington was unknown to anybody as far as whether or not he was married from that point Gregory Hollenbeck became Gregory boyington he was accepted as a Marine aviation cadet in January of 1936 and left his wife and son in Seattle to attend naval aviation flight school in Pensacola Florida he was 23 years old a slow learner he failed nine flight checks and often had to defend himself in front of a review board to continue with his training but he proved to be an instinctive and aggressive pilot as he went through the program he got better and better because of his wrestling background he had the ability to squeeze muscles and withstand higher gravity forces in the plane then some average pilots could Boyington graduated as part of marine aviation class 88c in September of 1937 and eventually stayed on at Pensacola as an instructor he countered the tedium of flight training by hanging out at the officer's club bar though alcohol didn't appeal to him in high school or college at Pensacola he told his fellow pilots I don't know why I stayed away from this stuff for so long because it was made for me and lieutenant Gregory Boynton turned out to be a mean drunk he'd pick out the biggest nugget looking person he could find and say let's rational he'd spring at you and just come on like a wild Panther lion boyington also began to display a growing disrespect for authority after being assigned to marine squadron one at Quantico Virginia he and another pilot staged an impromptu mock dogfight over the base Boyington tank ran dry he was unable to get back around couldn't get the engine started and had to make what's called a dead stick landing on the only flat safe terrain that he could find this turned out to be the rifle rains meanwhile Boyington was paying to keep his family off-base now with three children hidden from the military he watched as his expenses grew far beyond his mains at expensive uniforms to buy and those uniforms amounted to hundreds of dollars it would equate to thousands of dollars today plus the fact that according to some of his peers their bar tabs often exceeded their rent in August of 1941 first lieutenant Boynton's life and marine aviation finally spiraled completely out of control he got in a fight with a naval lieutenant commander a superior officer over another woman boyington was placed under house arrest for five days he could see the handwriting on the wall that this was going to be his last duty with the Marine Corps his marriage broke up and Helene took their children back to Seattle on August 6 1941 in the air-conditioned bar at Pensacola's Hotel San Carlos Boyington cashed a bad check hoping to drink his problems away a friend of his at the bar said this is your lucky day there's a man upstairs he was recruiting pilots to go over and fight for Chang in the 1930s Chinese leader Chiang kai-shek was trying to combat invading Japanese Manchuria had been overrun in 1931 and the rest of China was being quickly and brutally taken over by Japanese troops to combat Japanese aggression influential warlord Chiang and the US government covertly recruited US military pilots to fly his mercenaries in a new fighter outfit called the American volunteer group later known as the Flying Tigers facing possible dismissal from the Marines boyington quickly seized on this unique opportunity because of his reputation and problems the Marine Corps was almost is willing to let him go as Boyington was to resign and put his problems behind in September 1941 Boyington found that he had the kind of right stunt the Chinese Nationalist government was looking for the three hundred pilots and ground crew members of the Flying Tigers were organized and led by a no-nonsense former American Army Air Corps officer Claire Chennault they were going to be paid nearly three times the amount that they were currently receiving as military pilots the fact that they would be paid a bonus of $500 for every Japanese plane that was destroyed this is going to be big money the pilots of the Flying Tigers flew the Curtiss p40 tomahawk a sturdy although not highly maneuverable single-seat fighter Boyington instinctively handled the controls of the p40 well gaining the respect of his peers in the air but on the ground he began alienating many of his fellow Flying Tigers with his drinking and wild behavior he could get drunk on two drinks poppy would come up to me you know and he would lean forward at about thirty degrees and put his fist in my mouth and say give me one good reason why I shouldn't bust your teeth in and so I'd say goodnight Bobby the next day he wouldn't even remember it after the devastating Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor December 7th of 1941 Chennault unleashed his pilots on the Japanese in China Boynton was frustrated almost from the beginning by the fact that a lot of the other pilots quickly racked up victories and got big amounts of bonus money On February 6 1942 boyington 's personal combat drought ended boyington and five other pilots of the Flying Tigers Adam and Eve 1st squadron attacked 35 Japanese ki 27 Nate's they shot down 15 of them with Boyington accounting for two down Japanese planes himself his first aerial victories in combat in his next major fight Boynton was part of a group who destroyed 15 Japanese planes but all were on the ground not facing the enemy in air-to-air combat Boynton was one of the four shooters the credit was divided equally amongst all ten of the pilots who had taken part in the raid he had seen that bonus money dwindled down to just 750 dollars Boynton felt cheated out of money for four victories that he sorely needed to take care of his huge debts back in the United States those four planes destroyed on the ground would later become part of Boynton's own self-perpetuating legend he loved a good pilot he was fearless he it tackle anything the only problem was was a drinking problem and that kind of message mind up angered over a perceived loss of more than $1100 boyington let his resentment build to the boiling point in April of 1942 Chennault began talking about merging his pilots into established US Army Air Force units boyington had joined the Flying Tigers with the idea that he would be able to return to the Marine Corps if the Flying Tigers were ever disbanded with no interest in flying for the Army Air Force Boyington quit the Tigers what little money Boynton made in china' he spent getting back to the United States once back in the States Gregory Boynton set to work to try to redeem his sullied image with the Marine Corps in July of 1942 29 year olds seasoned former flying tiger pilot Gregory boyington disembarked the ship SS Brazil in New York City and promptly proceeded to Washington DC he applied for reinstatement as an aviator in the Marine Corps it took more than four months but he finally talked his way into a majors commission he started to talk about the fact that he had six victories as a Flying Tiger two victories were arial four victories that he thought he should have been paid for on the ground so he established himself early on by embellishing the facts as an ace where in the US naval services have never recognized aircraft destroyed on the ground as part of a pilot's cumulative record by late January 1943 US forces were pushing their way north through the Solomon Islands Guadalcanal felt in Navy guns and marine rifle companies boyington was ordered to the Solomons area to serve the first of three six-week tours required of all marine fighter pilots at the end of the first combat tour Boynton was relieved of his command by the Air Group commander and their personalities also clashed it was again one of those authority figures that Boynton just seemed to take offense to but Admiral bull Halsey the commander of American forces in the Solomon Islands was in dire need of more fighter plane squadrons through backchannels a new marine fighter squadron was quickly assemble and Boyington was given command the ad-hoc outfit would eventually fight its way from the russell islands to Vella la Vella and Bougainville his men were immediately taken with their unorthodox and tough-minded commander you just seem to have a a will to win in everything on the ground you know fighting argument or in the air with an airplane that soon became apparent to us too that he was not popular with the other senior officers and this tended to make us jealous he turned more to us than he did to his peers of the first 29 pilots in boyington squadron almost all of them had at least some college in their background Paul moon Mullen was a graduate of Notre Dame Bruce Matheson enlisted after one year at the University of Illinois this was interestingly enough one of the most qualified and highly capable squadrons just based on their level of experience even though it had been with that collective unit pilots bill higher Don Moore and Chris McGee had started out with the Royal Canadian Air Force Chris McGee was nicknamed wild man because in one of their early missions he carried a grenade with him and when they were attacking a barge or a small ship down in a Cove he had his canopy open and he pulled the pin on this grenade chucked it out of the cockpit and it went off right over the target but there were many other combat-tested pilots in this hastily organized squadron with the same kind of killer instance Moe Fischer Bob McClure bill case all of these guys were aces there were nine aces altogether plus several others who managed to get not quite enough victories to become aces but still the pilots set an incredible record having created this squadron from back-channel methods the outfit decided that they wanted to have their own name they've tested sarivola Boeing tunes bastards was one that failed to make the cut but when they came to black sheep it was why they accepted taking it a step further the new black sheep designed their official insignia with a black bar cutting diagonally across the shield and so they were able to use that symbol for legitimacy in their squadron logo the name they came up with the black sheep with a forlorn looking little lamb on the Pats was more appropriate to Boyington z' reputation in the Marine Corps and also to the way that the squadron was formed at the age of 30 Boynton was almost 10 years older than most of the pilots serving in his command when you're 21 looking at 32 and 33 year old people there are old folks one of the correspondents started using the reference to Pappy in the media and so before too long he became Pappy Boyington reveling in their new nickname the black sheep met the pilots of the Japanese Imperial Navy head-on on September 16th 1943 in the air over the heavily defended island of Bilal a Boyington 'he's 20 planes of the black sheep were providing air cover for 70 American and New Zealand dive bombers the black sheep when they were fighting in and around were bald their primary opponents were the zero fighter pilots from the 201st the 204 and the 253 kokutei or air groups of the three main units they're the the toughest was a 250 third Co Co time the Japanese naval carrier pilots had been fighting in the South Pacific since early 1942 almost a year longer than any of the black sheep in the crowded skies over the island of bali these Japanese veterans proved to be deadly adversaries about twenty or thirty Japs jumped us and it started the dogfight spread all over the sky and maybe ten miles by 10 miles I was in the middle of the Japanese air force it must have been twelve or fourteen zeros are always I was right in the middle of I was chasing one zero down at about fifteen hundred feet he rolled up around his back and pulled a split s right underneath me my airplane wouldn't have done it in their first fight as a squadron the black sheep racked up eleven victories and eight probables five of which were all out victory scored by the steely-eyed Boyington he took a group of disparate pilots who mostly did not know each other had probably never flown together before and in a matter of just a very few weeks turned them into an extremely potent and effective fighting organization but back at the black sheeps new Russell Island airfield boyington paid little attention to the paperwork and administrative details necessary to running a fighter squadron first lieutenant Frank Walton a former Los Angeles police officer was brought in as the unit's intelligence administrative and unofficial press officer Walton in essence ran the squadron everyplace but in the air he kept it together he saw two things he did all the things that other squadrons had adjutants and so forth to do Walton secondarily and possibly even more importantly was the one who sort of rode herd on Boyington and tried to keep him from drinking too much and did a remarkable job of it because somehow Boynton was a sort of like a liquor magnate if there was liquor around he found it sometimes when he took off in the morning that you just staggered out and airplane but in the air caught I'll tell you something major Gregory Boynton and his black sheep raised the stakes during the air war in the South Pacific and became some of the most deadly fighter pilots in Marine Corps history by mid September of 1940 three major Gregory Pappy Boyington and the pilots of his Black Sheep squadron had an impressive string of victories over the Japanese naval pilots in the South Pacific with his five recent confirmed victories during the air battle over Bell Ali and his six claimed victories with the Flying Tigers boyington was now considered a top ace the independent-minded Boynton had definite and innovative ideas on how US military aviation needed to best fight the Japanese he pioneered the idea of fighter sweeps designed to lure the enemy into aerial combat the fighter sweeps unlike the bomber escorts were purely air-to-air designed from the very very start to find their fighters and shoot them down twenty-one-year-old lieutenant john bull took Boyington x' in defended and aggressive fighting style very much to heart single-handedly destroying a number of Japanese troop barges in the harbor at Bougainville he later received a commendation from Admiral Halsey for that mission Boyton had a knack of surrounding himself with the pilots that he liked he liked the way they flew and if you weren't aggressive you didn't fly with peppy pointed but the kind of spectacular success Boyington and his pilots achieved in the air battles over the South Pacific did not come without a price the Black Sheep squadron lost ten pilots during the fall of 43 but Boyington himself seemed to be impervious to Japanese bullets by December Boyington was approaching the record of 26 aerial victories recently achieved by an old Pensacola friend during the earlier campaign over the skies of Guadalcanal in the Pacific War a pilot named Joe Foss and the Marine Corps had tied Eddie Rickenbacker's record of 26 aerial victories Boyington had 14 as a Marine from his first combat tour and then claimed that he had six victories as a flying tiger and a few days before Christmas downed four planes in one flight which is another major accomplishment so now he had 24 the former flying tiger and his command made for good headlines back home everyone wanted to know when he was going to break Joe fauces record of 26 victories Boyington could hardly come back from a mission without a microphone being thrust into his face major Gregory Boyington in air bottles he shot down 25 Japs now in a raid against trove all the Marine Corps ace was going after that record of 26 Boynton was in really high spirits and one of his pilots voice and concern about Boynton almost as if is his flame was a little bit too bright that he was starting to worry that Boynton was pushing too hard and was going to be shot down but Boyington told his men don't worry about me they can't kill me if you guys ever see me going down with 30 zeros on my tail don't give me up help I'll meet you in a San Diego bar six months after the war and we'll all have a drink for old times sake on Monday January 3rd 1944 boyington took off from Turakina airfield on the island of Bougainville in command of 46 American fighters including seven of his own black sheep in a dangerous fighter sweep over rebel farm from their home base Boyington fighters lured the Japanese pilots into a tumultuous battle we were attacked by fairly sizable number of zeros we'll more than ten or twelve it just broke up into a just a big gaggle and I can recall seeing Boyington shoot down an airplane the shooting down of that Japanese zero raised Boyington victory tally to 26 and Titan with major Joe Fox the irony was that Boyington and his wingman George Ashman did not come back from the mission no one had heard of Boyington harassment no one had reported anything they had just disappeared and over a period of hours people all of a sudden came to the realization that he wasn't coming back we mount about search and rescue missions and so forth but the last I had seen of him was when he'd shot down one airplane it was a shock to all of us when he was but he was the last person in the world that we thought would ever be shot down major Gregory Boynton disappeared into the st. George's channel area on January third 1944 it was big news demoralizing both Americans back home and the men of his Black Sheep squadron though there was no actual confirmation of Boyington s death America's still mourned the loss of one of its most famous fighter pilots we never expected it would happen to him all of a sudden all of us I'm sure I did in particular felt very much more mortal and said if this can happen to him there's nobody better than he is in the air that there but for the grace of God go I the Marines still had a long and tough fight ahead of them on land and in the air the bloody beaches at Saipan Iowa Jima and Okinawa became the final resting places for thousands of Marines it would take nearly two more years of fighting in the Pacific before the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought Japan to its names on August 29th 1945 while American warships steamed into Tokyo Harbor a swarm of US Navy landing craft headed for amore island the small island set inside Tokyo Bay was the location of a prisoner of war camp as the landing craft approached the beach scores of elated Allied prisoners of war swarmed out to greet their liberators come on was a grateful Marine Corps pilot major Gregory boyington he had been a captive of the Japanese since he was shot down nearly 20 months before when he was shot down and theoretically lost nobody ever really gave up they said if there's one guy that can make it this old dude probably can and by god he did Boyington had gone down fighting and then as he had always predicted emerged like a phoenix from the ashes the Marine Corps flew everybody they get every black sheep they could get to San Francisco for three-day wild last party they wield the portable stairway up to the side of the plane and fly open door and there he was he was the first one off and of course he came down the stairs and we all grabbed him and threw him up on her shoulders and carried him over to the ready room where the press descended on him twenty-one of his black sheep sat enthralled as he took them back to that fateful air battle almost two years earlier he told them how he had shot down two more Japanese zeros breaking Joe fauces record of 26 planes seeing his wingman swamped by zeros he dove his course air into the fray but he suddenly found himself hotly pursued by almost a dozen zeros I shot down between football and new Ireland you know over the st. George channel at dusk submarine surfaced just alongside of me and I thought old boy here might be an American sub then I saw tarpaulin stretched around a conning tower and there on the side was painted a great big meatball this is a whole point in a jigs up now a pow1 was transferred among several local Japanese prisons before finally being sent to the Japanese mainland after reuniting with the black sheep he was quickly overwhelmed with adulation promoted to lieutenant colonel and informed that in his absence he had been awarded the Medal of Honor on Friday October 5th 1945 he stood before President Harry Truman and received the medal along with 15 other marine and Navy heroes now proclaimed the marine corps s top ace at 32 Boynton was on top of the world but he quickly slid back into his old alcoholic ways a Portland Oregon newspaper reported Boyington assailing a war bond dinner crowd belligerently he said I know what you want me to talk about you want me to talk about how I shot him down I was flat on my back at 40,000 feet that's what you want isn't it I'm here to sell war bonds buy war bonds why I don't know just buy him within a few months the Marine Corps managed to find a reason to work him into an early retirement almost overnight boyington was forgotten for the next 12 years he hopped from one dead-end job to another he was a professional wrestling referee beer salesman insurance salesman and part-time commuter pilot but many other members of Boyington 's former squadron continued on in the service an ace in the South Pacific John bolt stayed in the Marine Corps shooting down six North Korean MiG's during the Korean War I'm the only jet ace in the Marine Corps and the only to war pays double a's pay in naval aviation I enjoyed the combat liked it just like hunting as far as I'm concerned Bruce Matheson also stayed in the Marine Corps and retired a colonel and I went to Vietnam where I was a commanding officer of a marine aircraft move helicopter group and I flew several hundred missions there in a Huey gunship with the Huey squadron the black sheeps Wildman Chris McGee traveled an entirely different Road McGee continued being colorful after the war through to the Israeli Air Force and used to say that wouldn't Willy Messerschmitt turn over in his grave if he saw the Messerschmitt being used if by the Israelis against the Arabs occasionally Boyington still lived up to his own colorful reputation in 1949 at an American Legion aeronautics dinner he found himself helping out as a bartender when he ran into his old friend fellow Marine ace and Medal of Honor winner joão Fontes I said less razzle I wanted a whip hell out of you he reached around me and he put these nuts between my shoulder blades and I just kicked off that wall and we just plowed US senators and dignitaries out of the way next morning going to knocked on fauces door talking about what kind of fun they'd had the night before and phos just couldn't believe it Boyington periodically made attempts at sobriety and went through two more failed marriages in 1958 he wrote his memoirs originally started years before under the tutelage of his former administrative officer Frank Walton the book was published under the title baa baa black sheep while he did take occasional liberties with the facts such as perpetuating his inflated success with the Flying Tigers his self-deprecating style made it a huge success on the last page boyington quoted f scott Fitzgerald with what had become his own personal mantra show me a hero and I'll prove he's a bum the book eventually sold more than a hundred thousand copies there was even talk of a major film set to star Robert Mitchum but the project never made it to theater screens Boyington once again found himself drifting back into obscurity the drinking resumed and his marriage failed and he found himself struggling again for years and years in 1976 The Legend of Pappy Boyington and the Black Sheep squadron was resurrected for a whole new generation with a one-hour network television show based very loosely on Boyington zone book Boyington served as the show's technical advisor though he actually provided little in the way of correct historical advice it was not lost on Greg that if I got this show on NBC that was going to be good for him the last thing the world he was going to do is say to me hey wait a minute you got to do it this way or that way then he had his eye on the bigger prize you know get this thing on the air however you think you can get it on the air that's fine with me just don't put me in a dress but the men who had served valiantly with him during the war initially took great offense to their depiction as screwballs and misfits awaiting court-martial it portrayed all of us as just a bunch of bombs two things were factual about it squadron designation was 2:14 the commanding officer was Gregg Boynton the long run we've done them a service I think they were heroes I mean that was a tough game they were I know it's hard to be portrayed as something other than what you really are but my excuses I'm in the entertainment the show started a new career for Boyington showed up on the air show circuit where he sold and signed his books and charged for personal appearances yet even in his late 60s he occasionally went back to the bottle it's 68 years old he was driving back to Fresno and he got pulled over by two highway patrolmen and he took them on Amanda Mason but even this hero who once seemed to rise from the dead was mortal living in Fresno California in 1986 the 73 year-old Boynton was suddenly hospitalized with cancer in January of 1988 Ned Corman and Fred lush two former Black Sheep squadron members drove to Fresno to see they're dying former commander we walked in on his Pappy in his bed and he's just horribly may CA to just skin and bones and I leaned over to him and said Pappy you get your butt out of here you've been a tougher spots in this nice as well Ned he said there are times when you get in a situation where the odds are completely against you and you can't do a damn thing about it and I walked out of that room and the tears were just I couldn't stop crying on January 11th 1988 at the age of 75 Colonel Gregory Boynton passed away quietly in his sleep he was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery he certainly was an icon I mean he was an icon because to begin with you know icons are have to be larger than life and Greg was icons have to have cool nicknames and Greg did you can't be an icon and be a pretender you know because you'll get busted and Greg wasn't a pretend vmf 2:14 the Black Sheep squadron was the first marine aviation unit to receive a Presidential Citation under Maj Gregory boyington z' leadership the 54 members of the black sheep shot down 97 Japanese planes during the course of their service in the South Pacific few pilots have worn the globin anchor of the United States Marine Corps with more honor than the men of the Marine fighting squadron 214 during their service in World War 2 despite their colorful and often contentious commander they were still a team their accomplishments flying those inexpensive piston-driven corsair fighters helped America decisively win the war in the Pacific out of the 54 and the two combat tours we're getting down to a few in fact I wonder it was going to fly the last mission I hope it's me you

Channel: WarhoundFlies

Views: 1,994,339

Rating: 4.7973995 out of 5

Keywords: WW2, WWII, world war 2, Black sheep, VMA-214, Baa Baa

Id: -yyZY1aauxk

Length: 43min 13sec (2593 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 20 2012