Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Pappy Boyington

September 7, 2015
 
Dear Pastors:
 
Please continue to pray for the physical needs of the bride of my youth regarding her hip-replacement surgery which we hope to get scheduled before the end of September!  And I pray that each of you will have a GOOD LABOR DAY!
Tomorrow is the anniversary of our friend Dr. Ron Fenwick’s death.  Ron has been in Heaven now for 7 years.  What A PREACHER!  I HAVE BEEN PRIVILEGED TO KNOW SOME GREAT ONES --- John Rice, B. R. Lakin, John Rawlings, Jerry Falwell, Jack Hyles, Ford Porter, Lee Roberson, and I could go on.  But, Ron Fenwick was a GREAT PREACHER also.  I sure do miss him.
Ron was a Pilot.  He loved to talk about the great ACES America had.  He loved to talk about Major Gregory “Pappy” Boyington, USMC.  Eddie Rickenbacker shot down 26 planes in WWI.  Joe Foss of the USMC broke that record, shooting down 27.  Foss was given the Medal of Honor and pulled from combat to save his life.
Ron would tell me how “Pappy Boyington” was a prime example of the “classic archetype of the swash-buckling hero who breaks the rules off the battlefield while being both brave and effective in battle!”  In the Air Pappy B was an extraordinary pilot and a skilled squadron leader with an almost uncanny knack for aerial combat.
On the ground, however, Ron would tell me how Pappy B drank heavily and had an almost unnatural proclivity for fistfights.  Boyington was the “bad boy” fighter pilot who became “highest scoring ace” to ever fly with the USMC, having scored 22 of his 28 total victories with the Marine Corps, plus another six with the American Volunteer Group ---the legendary “Flying Tigers” in China.
Ron would tell me how that when the Flying Tigers were incorporated into the USAAF at the start of WWII, Pappy chose to return to the USMC.  Because of Pappy’s bad temper and discipline issues, it was not until January 1943, 12 months after Pearl Harbor, that he was able to get his USMC Commission reinstated and to have an opportunity to go overseas again.
File:Boyington MOH.JPEG

 
From Wikipedia:
Boyington had begun his military training as a member of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), at the University of Washington, where he became a cadet captain. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the US Army Coast Artillery Reserve in June 1934, and then served two months of active duty with the 630th Coast Artillery at Fort Worden, Washington.
U.S. Marine Corps
On June 13, 1935, he managed to transfer to the Marine Corps Reserve. He returned to inactive duty on July 16 that year.[1] On February 18, 1936, Boyington accepted an appointment as an aviation cadet in the Marine Corps Reserve. He was assigned to the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida, for flight training. He was designated a Naval Aviator on March 11, 1937, then transferred to Quantico, Virginia, for duty with Aircraft One, Fleet Marine Force. He was discharged from the Marine Corps Reserve on July 1, 1937 in order to accept a second lieutenant's commission in the regular Marine Corps the following day.[1]
Boyington attended the Basic School in Philadelphia from July 1938 to January 1939. On completion of the course, he was assigned to the 2nd Marine Aircraft Group at the San Diego Naval Air Station. He took part in fleet problems off the aircraft carriers USS Lexington and USS Yorktown. Promoted to first lieutenant on November 4, 1940, Boyington returned to Pensacola as an instructor in December.[1]
Flying Tigers
(World War II)
Boyington resigned his commission in the Marine Corps on August 26, 1941, to accept a position with the Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company (CAMCO). CAMCO was a civilian firm that contracted to staff a Special Air Unit to defend China and the Burma Road. This later became known as the American Volunteer Group (AVG), the famed Flying Tigers in Burma. During his time with the Tigers, Boyington became a flight leader. He was frequently in trouble with the commander of the outfit, Claire Chennault.
Boyington was officially credited with 2 Japanese aircraft destroyed in the air and 1.5 on the ground, but AVG records suggest that one additional ground "kill" may have been due to him. (He afterward claimed six victories as a Tiger, but there is no substantiation for that figure, and aircraft destroyed on the ground normally do not count as victories.) In April 1942, he broke his contract with the American Volunteer Group and returned on his own to the United States.
U.S. Marine Corps
(World War II, "Black Sheep Squadron")
On September 29, 1942, he rejoined the Marine Corps and managed to gain a major's commission.[1] The Marine Corps needed experienced combat pilots and in early 1943, he was assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 11 of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing and deployed to the South Pacific as Executive Officer of Marine Fighter Squadron 122 operating from Guadalcanal until April 1943. While assigned to VMF-122, Boyington did not gain any victories. He became commander of Marine Fighter Squadron 112 from July to August 1943. In September 1943, he became Commanding Officer (CO) of Marine Fighter Squadron 214, better known by its nickname, the "Black Sheep Squadron."[1]
Boyington received the nickname "Gramps", because at age 31, he was a decade older than most of the Marines serving under him. 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.[1]
Boyington is best known for his exploits in the Vought F4U Corsair in VMF-214. During periods of intense activity in the Russell Islands-New Georgia and Bougainville-New Britain-New Ireland areas, Boyington added to his total almost daily. During his squadron's first tour of combat duty, he shot down 14 enemy fighter planes in 32 days. By December 27, his record had climbed to 25.[1]
A typical feat was his attack on Kahili airdrome at the southern tip of Bougainville on October 17, 1943. Boyington and 24 fighters circled the field, where 60 hostile aircraft were based, goading the enemy into sending up a large force. In the fierce battle that followed, 20 enemy aircraft were shot down, while the Black Sheep returned to their base without loss.[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. They received 20 caps and shot down more than that number of enemy aircraft.
On January 3, 1944, he tied World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker's record of 26 enemy planes destroyed, before he was himself shot down. On that mission, forty-eight American fighters, including four planes from the Black Sheep Squadron, were sent on a sweep over Rabaul. Boyington was tactical commander of the flight and arrived over the target at eight o'clock AM. He was seen to shoot down his 26th plane, but he then became mixed in the general melee of dogfighting planes and was not seen or heard from during the battle, nor did he return with his squadron. Boyington's wingman, Captain George Ashmun, was killed in action.[1] In later years, Masajiro "Mike" Kawato claimed to have been the pilot who shot down Boyington.
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. Kawato was present during the action in which Boyington, as one of 70 Japanese fighters which engaged about 30 American fighters.[2]
POW
Following a determined but futile search, Boyington was declared missing in action. He had been picked up by a Japanese submarine and became a prisoner of war. (The submarine was sunk 13 days after picking him up.) According to Boyington's autobiography, he was never accorded official P.O.W. status by the Japanese and his captivity was not reported to the Red Cross. He spent the rest of the war, some 20 months, in Japanese prison camps. 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. During that time he was selected for temporary promotion to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
A fellow American prisoner of war was Medal of Honor recipient submarine captain Richard O'Kane.[1] At Ōfuna Boyington was interned with the former Olympic distance runner and downed aviator Louis Zamperini.[3]
During mid-August 1945, after the atomic bombs and the Japanese capitulation, Boyington was liberated from Japanese custody at Omori Prison Camp on August 29. 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. That night a party for him was held at the St. Francis Hotel in downtown San Francisco that was covered by Life Magazine. The coverage of the party marked the first time that the magazine had ever shown people consuming alcohol.[4] Prior to his arrival, on September 6, he accepted his temporary lieutenant colonel's commission in the Marine Corps.[1]
Post World War II
 
Boyington shortly after receiving the Medal of Honor
Shortly after his return to the U.S., as a lieutenant colonel, Boyington was ordered to Washington to receive the nation's highest honor — the Medal of Honor — from the President. The medal had been awarded by the late president, Franklin D. Roosevelt in March 1944 and held in the capital until such time as he could receive it. On October 4, 1945, Boyington received the Navy Cross from the Commandant of the Marine Corps for the Rabaul raid; the following day, "Nimitz Day," he and other sailors and Marines were decorated at the White House by President Harry S. Truman.[1]  
[OUR FRIEND WOODY WILLIAMS RECEIVED THE CMOH THAT VERY DAY WITH PAPPY B.]
Following the receipt of his Medal of Honor and Navy Cross, Boyington made a Victory Bond Tour. Originally ordered to the Marine Corps Schools, Quantico, he was later directed to report to the Commanding General, Marine Air West Coast, Marine Corps Air Depot, Miramar, San Diego, California. He retired from the Marine Corps on August 1, 1947, and because he was specially commended for the performance of duty in actual combat, he was promoted to colonel.[1]
Later life[edit]
Boyington was a tough, hard-living character known for being unorthodox. He was also a heavy drinker, which plagued him in the years after the war, and possibly contributed to his multiple divorces. He freely admitted that during the two years he spent as a P.O.W. his health improved, due to the enforced sobriety. He worked various civilian jobs, including refereeing and participating in professional wrestling matches.[1]
 
Now, Brethren, you know that the BHO ADMINISTRATION made an end-run around our lawmakers by taking his IRAN DEAL to the Security Council of the UN.

After Sen. Bob Corker, a REPUBLICAN, MIND YOU, and  the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, passed the law obligating Obama to secure the support of a mere third of the members of either House to implement his nuclear deal, its implementation was a foregone conclusion.
From our friend Caroline Glick, we read:  The US Constitution gives sole power to approve international treaties to the Senate and requires a minimum of two-thirds approval for passage. Corker turned the Constitution on its head when he went forward with his bill. Far from curbing Obama’s executive overreach, Corker gave Obama unprecedented power to enact his radical, reckless nuclear agenda.

So if the fight against the deal was doomed to fail, why did the Israeli government decide to fight it for all it was worth? And why is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu still fighting it even though there is no longer any way to stop Obama from enabling Iran to sprint across the nuclear finish line? By fighting Obama’s nuclear deal, Israel seeks to advance two larger efforts.
First, it uses the battle to expand its capacity to act without the US to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Second, it is shaping its relations with the US both for the duration of Obama’s presidency and for the day after he leaves office.
 
BRETHREN, WE HAVE OUR WORK CUT OUT FOR US IN PRAYING FOR THE JEWS WORLD-WIDE, AND PARTICULARLY FOR THE PEACE OF JERUSALEM!
 
JIM VINEYARD
YEDIDIM OF ISRAEL

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