By Luke Lorenz
Director of Legislative Affairs
Navy League of the United States
This is part of an ongoing series, where we look at the lives and legacies of U.S. sea service men and women.
As we heard repeatedly throughout the speeches and poems of the inauguration earlier this week, our nation is a complicated place. Our story is one of highs and lows, epic victories and painful losses, contradictions, self-inflicted wounds, hope, courage, bravery and sacrifice. There is perhaps only one thing can be said consistently of America: We are not perfect, but we are the best hero that this crazy world can hope for. Considering this, I immediately thought of Gregory “Pappy” Boyington.
Pappy, a nickname given to him by the famous Black Sheep Squadron which flew under his command, was a hard drinking, chain-smoking, bar brawling Marine Corps fighter pilot whose victories in the air and escapades on the ground were custom-tailored for a Hollywood movie, and in fact they would end up being depicted in a TV series starring Robert Conrad.
Joining the Marine Corps in 1936, Pappy became a pilot and spent several years as a flight instructor. Always restless and looking for action, he resigned from the Corps so that he could join the American Volunteer Group that had already begun fighting the Japanese in China and Southeast Asia. Pappy and his fellow American Flying Tigers were sent to Burma, modern day Myanmar, where he would begin a combat career that would become legendary.
After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Pappy rejoined the Marine Corps as a major and took command of the newly formed Black Sheep Squadron. This squadron would go on to shoot down 94 enemy planes, and Pappy himself would shoot down 28 of them. In 1944, he was shot down over the ocean and picked up by a Japanese submarine. He would spend the rest of the war in a prisoner of war camp, where he suffered brutal treatment, though he would later joke that he was healthier as a POW because he couldn’t have any alcohol. He received the Medal of Honor for his heroism.
Returning home, Pappy would go through a myriad of jobs, nearly as many romantic affairs, money troubles, fame, highs and lows, until his death in 1988. Pappy’s heroism, his eagerness to risk life and limb to defend the people of Asia against tyranny and oppression, his checkered past and uncertain future, all seem to embody the story of America. To start where I began, in this crazy world you will not find better heroes than complicated men like Gregory “Pappy” Boyington, and complicated nations like America.