{"id":9447498,"date":"2026-08-04T16:38:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T14:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/?p=9447498"},"modified":"2026-08-04T17:05:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T15:05:24","slug":"pappy-boyington-black-sheep-squadron-vmf-214","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/de\/pappy-boyington-black-sheep-squadron-vmf-214\/","title":{"rendered":"Pappy Boyington and the Black Sheep Squadron"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n\r\n<p>He was a brawler, a drinker, a man who forged his own name to get into flight school and punched a superior officer on his way out of one. He was also, when strapped into the cockpit of a bent-wing Corsair over the Solomon Islands, one of the finest fighter pilots the United States ever produced. Gregory Boyington contained both of those men, and never apologised for either.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The squadron he built from spare pilots and cast-offs became the most famous in Marine Corps history: VMF-214, the Black Sheep. For a few blazing weeks over the Pacific they were untouchable. Then their leader vanished, and America spent a year and a half believing he was dead.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;padding:20px 22px;margin:24px 0;border-radius:8px;border:1px solid #e5e5e5\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;font-size:18px\">Kurzinfo<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:20px;line-height:1.8\"><li><strong>WHO:<\/strong> Col. Gregory &ldquo;Pappy&rdquo; Boyington (1912&ndash;1988), U.S. Marine Corps<\/li><li><strong>Geschwader:<\/strong> VMF-214, the &ldquo;Black Sheep,&rdquo; formed in the South Pacific in 1943<\/li><li><strong>Flugzeug:<\/strong> the Vought F4U Corsair<\/li><li><strong>Score:<\/strong> credited with 28 aerial victories by war\u2019s end (the six from his Flying Tigers days remain debated)<\/li><li><strong>Abgeschossen:<\/strong> 3 January 1944 over Rabaul; captured and held as a POW for 20 months<\/li><li><strong>Auszeichnungen:<\/strong> Medal of Honor and Navy Cross<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Gramps Takes Command<\/h2>\r\n<p>Before the Marines, Boyington had flown for the Flying Tigers in Burma, where he was credited with six kills &mdash; a figure argued over ever since &mdash; and where fellow pilots frankly disliked him. He returned to the Marine Corps in 1942, and in 1943 was handed a scratch squadron of replacement pilots in the Solomons. At 31 he was a decade older than most of them. They called him Gramps, which a war correspondent softened to Pappy, and the name stuck forever.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=5421352  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:tU-i.ca4e\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/pappy-boyington-corsair.jpg\" alt=\"Pappy Boyington beside an F4U Corsair\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">Major Gregory Pappy Boyington, commander of VMF-214. At 31 he was a decade older than his pilots, who nicknamed him Gramps, then Pappy. Photo: San Diego Air & Space Museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>What Pappy did with those men was astonishing. In one 32-day stretch he personally shot down 14 Japanese aircraft. He led from the front and fought dirty-smart, studying enemy tactics and then using them. His most famous stunt came on 17 October 1943, when he circled the Japanese airfield at Kahili with two dozen fighters and simply dared the enemy to come up. Sixty aircraft were based there; twenty of them were shot down that day, and not one Black Sheep was lost.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/puLcps169hk\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The squadron\u2019s swagger became legend. When major-league baseball players offered to send caps, Boyington\u2019s men promised to shoot down a Japanese Zero for every one. Twenty caps arrived. They made good on the deal.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"display:flex;justify-content:center;margin:2em 0\"><blockquote class=\"reddit-embed-bq\" data-embed-height=\"500\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/WWIIplanes\/comments\/1lccvq7\/marine_major_gregory_pappy_boyington_commanding\/\">Major Gregory Pappy Boyington, commanding officer of VMF-214<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/embed.reddit.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Day He Disappeared<\/h2>\r\n<p>On 3 January 1944, Boyington led a fighter sweep over the great Japanese stronghold at Rabaul. He downed another plane &mdash; and then, in the swirling dogfight, he was gone. His wingman, Captain George Ashmun, was killed. No one saw what happened to Pappy. After a fruitless search, the Marine Corps declared him missing, and in March President Roosevelt awarded him the Medal of Honor, assuming it would be given to his family.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=2095178432  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:tU-i.ca4e\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/f4u-corsair-in-flight.jpg\" alt=\"F4U Corsair in flight\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The bent-wing Vought F4U Corsair. In Boyington\u2019s hands it became one of the deadliest fighters in the Pacific. Photo: U.S. Navy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>He was not dead. Boyington had been fished out of the sea by the crew of a Japanese submarine and spent the next 20 months in prison camps, from Rabaul to a camp near Tokyo, alongside other famous prisoners including the Olympic runner Louis Zamperini. The Japanese never registered him as a POW, so to the world he remained lost. He was finally freed at the end of August 1945, gaunt but alive, and &mdash; by his own wry admission &mdash; healthier for two years of forced sobriety.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Legend and the Man<\/h2>\r\n<p>Boyington received his Medal of Honor from President Truman in October 1945. The rest of his life was rockier than his war: heavy drinking, several divorces, a string of civilian jobs, even a spell as a professional-wrestling referee. In the 1970s a television series, <em>Baa Baa Black Sheep<\/em>, made him famous all over again &mdash; a version of events he cheerfully dismissed as &ldquo;hogwash and Hollywood hokum.&rdquo;<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;Yeah, I could fly it today, if it was airworthy.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Gregory \"Pappy\" Boyington<\/strong> &mdash; asked in 1981 whether he could still fly the Corsair<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>He never lost the fighter pilot\u2019s certainty. At a 1981 reunion at the Smithsonian, standing before a restored Corsair, a young fan asked if he could still fly it. Pappy did not hesitate.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sEQt3agNxiU\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>He died of lung cancer in 1988 and was buried at Arlington, in a plot that happens to sit beside that of the boxer Joe Louis. One of his old Black Sheep looked at the two headstones and said the only thing that really needed saying.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;Ol\u2019 Pappy wouldn\u2019t have to go far to find a good fight.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Fred Losch<\/strong> &mdash; Black Sheep veteran, at Boyington\u2019s grave in Arlington &mdash; beside that of boxer Joe Louis<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Difficult, unruly, larger than life &mdash; Pappy Boyington was never the model Marine the recruiting posters wanted. He was something rarer: the man you wanted leading the flight when the odds were bad and the enemy was coming up to meet you.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-style:italic;color:#777;font-size:14px\">Sources: Wikipedia; Bruce Gamble, <em>Black Sheep One<\/em>; U.S. Marine Corps History Division; Los Angeles Times; The New York Times.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">\u00c4hnliche Beitr\u00e4ge<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/the-curtiss-p-40-warhawk-and-the-flying-tigers\/\">Die Curtiss P-40 Warhawk und die Flying Tigers<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/f4u-corsair-first-flight-may-29-1940-anniversary\/\">Heute vor 86 Jahren: Die F4U Corsair absolviert ihren Erstflug<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/saburo-sakai-zero-ace-guadalcanal-wounded-flight\/\">Durch den Sch\u00e4del geschossen, flog er weiter<\/a><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A brawling, hard-drinking Marine built the most famous squadron of the Pacific war \u2014 then vanished for 20 months as a prisoner of Japan.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":9446889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9447498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - 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