Greg Boyington, one of the most celebrated US aces in the Pacific theater of naval operations during World War II and the leading pilot of the American Marines, became famous in America not so much for his numerous air victories as for his conduct on land. Notwithstanding the eccentricity of his behavior and the eventfulness of his life, Gregory Boyington’s saga is in some ways typical for America in the 1940s.
Gregory Boyington was born on December 4, 1912, in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. A descendant of Cherokee Indians, he spent his childhood in Okanogan, Washington, where his parents grew apples. His mother remarried again after his birth, but the boy and his stepfather, Gregory Hollenbeck, were always on good terms with each other.
At the age of eight, Boyington took to the air for the first time when he made the acquaintance of famous aviator Clyde Pangborn, who subsequently crossed the Pacific Ocean by plane. “I always liked the idea of flight. I read all the books about the aces of World War I, collected aircraft and glider models”, Boyington recalled later on in life.
While enrolled at the University of Washington in the Department of Aviation Design, Boyington took part in amateur sports like swimming and wrestling. He graduated in 1934 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering.
Boyington married soon after graduation. The future ace had begun his military career as a reservist while still in high school. Within four years Boyington rose to the rank of cadet captain, and by 1934 he was a junior lieutenant in the Coast Artillery School where he served for two months in the 630th Coastguard Battery, stationed at Fort-Warden, Washington.
After transfer back to the reserve on June 16, 1934, Boyington worked under his stepfather as a draftsman at Boeing in Seattle. As a married man, Boyington was barred from entering the Marines Corps. However, when he learned from his mother that his real father bore the surname Boyington, he seized the opportunity to embark on a new career. He changed his last name, altered his appearance, and abandoned his wife and three children so as to enlist as a cadet in the Marines Corps Aviation on February 18, 1936 and begin training at Pensacola Air Base in Florida. However, his ruse came to light when his first pay was issued, and Boyington was compelled to pay support to his ex-wife. On March 11 he was officially named a naval pilot and assigned to the Marine Aviation Group stationed at Quantico, Virginia (MAG 1). He finished Marine School in Philadelphia as a lieutenant, and in June 1938 was transferred to MAG 2 in San Diego. On November 4, 1940, Greg returned to Pensacola as a senior lieutenant-instructor.
“I had been in the Corps since 1934 and flying since 1935, and I became an instructor for both basic flight school and instrumentation. That was where I met many of my friends, including Joe Foss. I resigned my commission and accepted the job with the AVG in September 1941, since rank was slow in coming and I needed the money. The AVG was paying $675 per month with a bonus of $500 for every confirmed scalp you knocked down. In 1941 that was the same as making $5,000 a month today. And with an ex-wife, three kids, debts and my lifestyle, I really needed the work. Besides, the government knew damned well what we were doing. They set it up. That was when I learned that Admiral Chester Nimitz maintained files of all of the Navy and Marine pilots and ground crews going over. The only catch was that we had to be secret about the whole affair”.
Greg Boyington as a member of the AVG group. From left to right: Tom Croft, George Bargard, Greg Boyington with a revolver, Joe Roberts below, Dick Rossy and Red Probst.
Flying Tigers on the P-40 Kitty Hawk.
Before they officially entered the war, the Americans could not render open military support to China. But the U.S. Government did not want to renounce China, which is why, as Boyington recalls, volunteers, including AVG pilots, went to China under the cover of the Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company (CAMCO), allegedly producing aircrafts for the Chinese Air Force. To become a member of CAMCO, Boyington declared that he had formerly served as a pilot in the legendary Lafayette Squadron. On August 26, 1941, he signed a contract for the position of squad commander with a monthly wage of $650 and a bonus of $500 for every enemy aircraft shot down.
His baptism of fire took place on January 26.
Toward the end of his life, Boyington claimed that he shot down 6 Japanese fighters while serving in the AVG. When added to the tally of his subsequent victories in the Pacific, that sum would have made him the number one ace in the Marines Corps. However, AVG documents attribute to him only 4.5 confirmed victories, of which only 2 took place in air combat. The archive of General Claire Chennault contains the following document:
Report
On February 6, 1942, together with the other members of the squadron, second-in-command of the squadron G. Boyington went into action against Japanese fighters near Rangoon, Burma. He personally brought down 2 enemy fighters. On March 24, 1942, as a member of the Sixth Aircrafts Group he attacked Chiengmai airfield. As a result of that attack 15 enemy aircrafts were destroyed. The bonus for that operation was divided between its participants: second-in-command of the squadron Boyington was credited with 2.5 victories. Altogether that pilot destroyed 4.5 enemy aircrafts: 2 in air combat, and 2.5 on the ground. Boyington is put forward for a bonus for his outstanding airmanship and high achievements.
Claire Chennault, AVG Commander
April, 27, 1942
This document testifies to the careless recordkeeping characteristic of the AVG. General Chennault or somebody else decided that bonuses should be divided equally among the participants of the raid on Cheingmai airfield. As a result, only 1.5 victories were credited to Boyington.
In the beginning of March, Generalissimo Chan Kai Chiang himself honored the American servicemen in China with a visit in the company of his wife, who called the Americans “boys” and “angels with or without wings.” Though these words provoked considerable laughter among the pilots, most of them were moved by the sincerity of the Generalissimo’s pretty wife. Boyington later recalled the family of the Generalissimo in his usual flamboyant style: “Chiang was a legalized bandit, stealing what was not nailed down while pretending to command the Chinese army fighting the Japs. His wife was the brains of the outfit. None of us really had much respect for him, but his money was good when it was paid”.
Rather than victories over Japanese fighters, to a much greater extent the ace’s reminiscences feature stories of boozing, brothels, and brawls with fellow-pilots. Ultimately Boyington’s continuous drunkenness and rudeness caused his relationship with AVG command to deteriorate. Boyington abandoned the China-based American aviation detachment in May 1942, reached India by Chinese Air Force plane, and travelled from there to Karachi via BOAC boatplane. At that point he attempted to utilize the services of U.S. Air Force transport aviation but was rejected. In all likelihood, he was one of the first to fall under Chennault’s interdiction which forbade AVG deserters from boarding such craft. Eventually Boyington secured passage on a Brazilian SS civil vessel.
During his service in AVG, Boyington had flown 300 hours and shot down 6 enemy aircrafts.
Boyington returned to the USA in July 1942, caught an express train to Washington, D.C., and submitted a petition for reinstatement, in which he cited his previous agreement with Admiral Nimitz. He was told to go home and await the orders which were to decide his fate. After a few months Boyington had returned to his old college job of parking cars.
In November 1942 Boyington was finally ordered to San Diego, where on the second day of service he was named a major, the rank he would have held if he had not interrupted his service in the Marines.
F4F-4 from VMF-223 neighboring division Marines Aviation, Henderson Field Base, summer 1943.
In January, 1943, Boyington crossed the Pacific again on the Lurline and landed in Numea, New Caledonia. He was appointed assistant operations officer at the Espiritu-Santo airfield, though such administrative work did not suit him in the least. Boyington soon demanded a transfer to the air-unit.
Boyington was also involved with the Lockheed P-38 mission that resulted in the death of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.
At that time Boyington’s squadron flew Wildcats as convoy support for dive-bombers from Guadalcanal during the raids at Bougainville. During his first operation cycle, the ace did not bring down a single enemy aircraft; while the hero rested in Sydney, his unit rearmed with new Corsair fighters. Greg returned in the beginning of June, but on July 7 he broke his ankle in a football game and had to convalesce in a hospital in Auckland. At that time his unit, commanded by Major Hansen, went on the offensive and shot down 30 Japanese planes. “I guess they were waiting for me to leave”, commented Boyington when he heard the news of these exploits. After his return to Espiritu-Santo, Boyington was bounced from one squadron to another, although always in a non-flying status. On June 26 he was enlisted in VMF-112, where he stayed till August 11. In August Greg tried to knit together a “temporary” team composed of a great number of pilots who were out of work, like Boyington himself, owing to their personal lack of discipline. “One of my jobs was to process the disciplinary paperwork of certain officers and enlisted men. This was where I got the idea to try and form a squadron. I spoke to the MAG-11 commander, Colonel Lawson Sanderson. He gave his off-the-record approval, and I went to work, collecting pilots wherever I could find them”.
At first the idea of such a division was regarded as a joke, and noone expected anything to come of it. But after only 12 weeks of military action, the division destroyed 94 enemy fighters and its exploits were all over the front pages of the American newspapers.
