Gregory "Pappy" Boyington (December 4, 1912 – January 11, 1988) was an American combat pilot who was a United States Marine Corps fighter ace during World War II.

A Marine aviator with the Pacific fleet in 1941, Boyington joined the "Flying Tigers" (1st American Volunteer Group) of the Republic of China Air Force and saw combat in Burma in late 1941 and 1942 during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

[1] After graduation from high school in 1930, Boyington attended the University of Washington in Seattle, where he was a member of the Army ROTC and joined the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.

[citation needed] In the spring of 1935, he applied for flight training under the Aviation Cadet Act, but he discovered that it excluded married men.

[2][7][8] When he obtained a copy of his birth certificate, he learned that his father was actually Charles Boyington, a dentist, and that his parents had divorced when he was an infant.

Boyington quickly resigned his commission in the Marine Corps on August 26, 1941, to accept a position with the Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company, which was a civilian firm that contracted to staff a Special Air Unit to defend China and the Burma Road.

He was frequently in trouble with the commander of the outfit, Claire Chennault and reportedly was disliked and distrusted by the other pilots in the organization, who considered Boyington a "liar and a drunk."

The name "Gramps" was changed to "Pappy" in a variation on "The Whiffenpoof Song" whose new lyrics had been written by Paul "Moon" Mullen, one of his pilots, and this version was picked up by war correspondents.

During periods of intense activity in the Russell Islands-New Georgia and Bougainville-New Britain-New Ireland areas, he shot down 14 enemy fighter planes in 32 days.

[1] 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.

[citation needed] On January 3, 1944, he beat World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker's record of 26 enemy planes destroyed, before Boyington was shot down, though his last two kills for a total of 28 were confirmed after his return.

He described the combat in two books and numerous public appearances (often with Boyington), but this claim was eventually "disproven", though Kawato repeated his story until his death.

After being held temporarily at Rabaul and then Truk, where he survived the massive U.S. Navy raid known as "Operation Hailstone", he was transported first to Ōfuna and finally to Ōmori Prison Camp near Tokyo.

Boyington returned to the United States at Naval Air Station Alameda on September 12, 1945, where he was met by 21 former squadron members from VMF-214.

[1] Shortly after his return to the U.S., as a lieutenant colonel,[22][25] Boyington was ordered to Washington, DC, to receive the nation's highest military honor—the Medal of Honor—from the president.

Boyington frequently told interviewers and audiences that the television series was fiction and only slightly related to fact, calling it "hogwash and Hollywood hokum".

[32] While paintings and publicity photographs often show Boyington with aircraft number 86 LuluBelle covered in victory flags, he had not flown this in combat.

[1] A publicity photo taken of Boyington in F4U-1A Corsair number 86 was taken at Espiritu Santo (code named BUTTON), in the New Hebrides on 26 November 1943.

[1] Boyington was part of the 1981 Black Sheep reunion in Washington, DC, hosted by the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum.

The dedication program was attended by 18 Black Sheep veterans, museum dignitaries, and astronaut Michael Collins representing the Ling-Temco-Vought Company (successor to Corsair manufacturer Vought).

[36] During World War II, his three children were placed in the charge of their aunt and grandmother after Boyington divorced Helen when he returned to America in 1941 after serving with the Flying Tigers.

[43] After the burial service for Boyington, one of his friends, Fred Losch, looked down at the headstone next to which he was standing, that of boxing legend Joe Louis, and remarked that "Ol' Pappy wouldn't have to go far to find a good fight.

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 September 12, 1943, to January 3, 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 October 17, 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.

[46][47][48][49] An independent documentary film called Pappy Boyington Field was produced by filmmaker Kevin Gonzalez in 2008, chronicling the grassroots campaign to add the commemorative name.

[54] One student senator, Ashley Miller, said that the university already had many monuments to "rich, white men" (Boyington claimed partial Sioux ancestry[55] and was not rich);[2] another questioned whether the university should memorialize a person who killed others, summarized in the minutes as saying "she didn't believe a member of the Marine Corps was an example of the sort of person UW wanted to produce.

("GPB" on the shoulder patch and an F4U Corsair in the background)[63] In 2019, Boyington was inducted into The National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio.