Pappy of the Black Sheep

MARINES

A bent-winged, big-nosed Corsair fighter slid down the South Pacific sky to the Bougainville runway. A balding, disgruntled pilot hopped out. Marine Major Gregory Boyington had just shot down his 25th Jap plane, over Rabaul.

But he had expected better hunting: he was still one short of tying, two short of beating the U.S. record of 26 enemy planes shot down, a record held jointly by World War II's Captain Joe Foss and World War I's Captain Eddie Rickenbacker. "Pappy" Boyington stomped off the jungle-hemmed field, vowing that he and his Corsair would buzz up every day until they notched a new mark.

Pappy, pugnacious ex-wrestler and father of three children back in Washington state, had been racking up his score since Flying Tiger days under Claire Chennault. In China he had downed six Jap bombers. In the South Pacific since last summer he had become not only the hottest U.S. fighter pilot but the chief of one of the hottest U.S. fighter squadrons.

Flight from a Desk. Because Pappy had just recovered from a broken leg and was getting along in years (he is all of 31) someone had tried to put him behind a desk. A hell-raiser by temperament, he stirred up such a row that someone had another thought, gave him a squadron no one else wanted: a bunch of casual transfer and replacement pilots, well-trained but never welded into a team.

Pappy dubbed them his "Black Sheep," taught them all his cunning. In their first action the Black Sheep bagged eleven Zeros. Within six weeks their kill stood at 58 certain, 22 probables.* Pappy himself shot down five Zeros in a single engagement last September, got four Jap planes on Christmas Eve over the Rabaul hunting ground. His supreme worry now: that he will be retired from combat duty before he makes his mark.

*Other Marine Corsair squadron records: Hellhawks, 104; Wolfpack, 86; Swashbucklers, 33; Eightballs, 28; Flying Deuces, 22.

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