Newsreel footage - "Pappy" Boyington found alive in POW camp. Shows him greeting fellow soldiers; short interview at the end about his treatment by the Japanese. August 29, 1945
I met him at a CAF air show in Harlingen, Texas in the 70’s. He was there at a reunion with other men who had flown in the Flying Tigers in China. I was a Civil Air Patrol Cadet and we were doing ‘guard duty’ while the CAF WWII aircraft were on display. He went out of his way to talk to us cadets and let me sit under his awning, to get out of the heat, where he was signing his autobiography that was for sale. I was a kid and didn’t have the money to pay for a book, but when It was time to leave that evening he gave me a book that he had signed, and it says: To Herbert, With the Black Sheep! One’s Best, Gregory Boyington
As I recall he and Louis Zapperini (made famous by the book "Unbroken" were together for a while in that infamous Japanese prison. Honor. Respect. Remembrance.
@@mikesnyder1788 The city i was living in had him for a speaking engagement because he was on their one city one book list. They had booked one of the little shotgun theaters at the multiplex and asked me to help with the event. The first thing I told them was, "You need the bigger theater." (Think Jaws, "We're going to need a bigger boat.") For once, someone listened to me and they booked the larger theater, which was immediately filled on the reservation list, so they asked his son if he could do it twice. Getting a yes, they booked the theater for immediately after the first event. It filled up. Many people never got in. Such a privilege. The city people just had not understood until that day.
@@ptaylor4923 Great story! And how wonderful that you selected the right venue for this most excellent speaker. Must have been one of your career highlights! Would have been for me! Regards...
@@mikesnyder1788 Heck, I was justice a disaster response volunteer helping out who recognized what a hero he was and cognizant of the number of people who loved and appreciated him.
The US Army had Murphy and the USMC had Boyington! Two of the greatest of The Greatest Generation! The debt this nation and the free world owes them can never be repaid!
I feel so honored to have met Greg at an airshow in the early 80's. I talked with the man for about 10 minutes and didn't even know who he was at the time. I was a kid and thought Greg Boyington was Robert Conrad. lol About a dozen years later I was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, NC. 5 years later after discharge and returing home, I found a book on my desk written by Joe Foss, personally inscribed and autographed. Seems my dad had an honor while I was away. Rest In Peace brothers, Semper fi!
The disgusting thing is that the University of Washington students (several years ago) vetoed a statue in his honor on the campus (he was a UW alumni) saying that people like marine officers who served their country don't deserve honor. Now, a statue in his honor is going up in Tacoma, WA.. but, what a bunch of disgusting punks who are so self righteous. They have no idea what Pappy did or suffered at the hands of the cruel Japanese when he was in their prison camps.
I met Pappy at an air show in Bellingham, WA back in the early 80s. He signed his book and a print for me. The real treat was when one of the two F4U owners let Pappy take one up for a short flight.
"Mr. Can I shake your hand?" I said to pappy when I was 10 years old and met him at Glenview Naval Air Station. He switched his Kool cigarette from one hand to the other and swung his free hand around to meet mine. I remember his eyes were glassy but his grip was firm, he looked me directly in the eye and after a second said "Thanks Kid"... I will never forget that handshake!
Many years ago , I met a man named Chester . This man and many of us (it was a boarding home when I was a newlywed) would be watching TV. When the Black Sheep Squadron show would come on , Chester would say "I flew with them, see my plane" This was at the intro to the show and they were showing actual film of the Black Sheep Squadron flying. I tried a few years ago to look up the pilots names, but I never could find a Chester. That was back in the 70's a long time ago. I'm sure Chester has long since passed away.
I've read his autobiography, which glosses over a lot of the darker elements of his life. I've also read other accounts of him which did not. He was a brave and excellent flyer, and very pugnacious and aggressive, but we don't need more like him. We need men like Joe Foss. He was everything Boyington was and everything Boyington was not. And I suspect even Pappy would agree with my conclusion. I'll leave it at that.
Dogsoldier ; A lot of our veterans reached out for the bottle or other substances to try to kill the demons they brought home. I had Uncles, Navy and Army, that fought those demons up till their passing in the mid 1970's 1980's. For those of us who have never been/seen in combat, we will never understand 100%, the mental trauma these veterans suffered. God Bless our veterans, past, present and, future.
@@harrisonmantooth3647 In that generation men didnt go to shrinks and talk about their traumas much to the detriment of some who hit the bottle or their wives and kids.
@@qtig9490 That is so true. Also everyone of my relatives that served during WW 2 and Korea, experienced heavy battles, on the Seas, the ETO & PTO, had failed marriages. Some, more than one. I thank God for our veterans and the sacrifices they and their families made for this country.
Dogsoldier 1950 ; In Coeur D'Alene Idaho, there's an airfield named in his honor. Everytime we go up there, I have the intention of going there to visit, see what all is there but, grandchildren and other obligations doesn't permit me the time. A visit is still on my bucket list.
General Berger's smoking out any traces of the Confederacy on USMC bases AND is promoting "female combat commanders" as his stated two priorities (as stated in media in early '20). That's the kind of prioritization we need to defend our sagging, borderless nation.
"Boyington welcomed in Oakland, California" ...that might be Alameda NAS. Is an island. Today one of Oakland's finest neighborhoods. The old Naval Air Station was located on the northern portion of the island overlooking Oakland's seaport, the long Bay Bridge and San Francisco on the background, across the bay. It was from there where the USS Hornet aircraft carrier sailed out in mid 1942 for the first American attack on Japanese soil by launching Jimmy Doollittle's B-25 twin engine bombers from its deck (its replacement, USS Hornet 2, is permanently anchored there as a Naval Air Museum). Today, the base's old runways still there. Decomisioned but they been used throughout the years for many activities, among them for the film industry. Many TV commercials were shot there, like the Tesla comercials and its electric cars running through a 'wide endless highway'. Most were shot there over the wide open tarmac which is very practical for that purpose. The highway scenes for the movie 'The Matrix Reloaded' in 2003, were also shot there; as well as the rocket engine trials from newly formed aerospace company Astra Space which is based nearby in one of the old jet engine test facility buildings from the old Alameda Naval Air Station.
In 1983 I was on the Enterprise after a nine month west pac cruise we ran aground 500 yards off the Alameda pier and were stuck there for like 8 hours lol
@@HootOwl513 lol actually Zulu from star trek was honorary skipper on the way into the bay, it was the ports fault, there had been lots of rain and flooding that year and silt had built up in front of the pier for the carriers.
All - a number of people posting have commented on Boyington’s “plump” face and apparent lack of physical stress. Be advised that you (may) be witnessing a phenomenon of POW’s that have been repatriated-the body bounces back quickly. This doesn’t mean the person under brutal captivity was specially treated or exceptional...if you’re starving, malnourished and abused, the human body is well capable to readjust quickly. The mind/spirit are wholly different matters...don’t be fooled by full cheeks or smiles. When this film was shot, be aware it could have been many, many days past Boyington’s repatriation. 10, 12, 14 days of steady nutrition, water and hygiene will ‘reconstitute’ a human.
True, however, in Boyington's case, he was forced to work in the main kitchen in the camp where he was helped by Japanese who were slave labor. They slipped him food, plus he stole food. He was the only POW of the Japanese who gained weight in captivity. As an aside, the kitchen was the place he was able to get saki after more than a year of sobriety, rekindling his alcoholism.
I had the honor of doing about an hour long interview with him in his living room when he lived in Fresno with his wife. Sad to say that marriage did not last. Only a handful of years later he succumbed to cancer. He was a hell of man despite his problems. God rest his soul.
@@paulsullivan6392 Considering what he went through in the Japanese Prison camp, I'm surprised anyone could lead any kind of normal life. He was an amazing man. I used to be a huge fan of the TV show Baa Baa Black Sheep. Boyington's book was far, far better than the TV show. Have you ever read it?
@@buisyman great point, I met "pappy" at the Reno Air Races in 1987, he was selling books out of his motor home, family assisting him. Very frail, but managed to autograph my copy " Carl- best wishes Pappy Boyington, (for my dad) he managed to return my salute then back inside his motor home. He passed away a few months later. Never another like him. RIP Pappy
and it seems that china is trying to make men like that, while we are.... not, unfortunately. we have a generation that will sucker punch someone in the face just because they dont like that persons politics, someone that has not done any harm to anyone.
I actually read Pappy Boyington's biography. I was quite surprised to learn after all he went through, he harbored no ill feelings towards the Japanese. He said that any Japanese who spoke any English never beat him or did anything bad to him. He also wrote all the civilians he met while he was a POW never gave him a problem. Of course, there were a few Japanese military men who weren't very nice.
I read his autobiography as well. Impressive that with all he went through that he could still see the difference between the 'average' Japanese and the 'radical' Japanese. I'm not sure if I could have been that open minded. I guess that is just one more thing that rates him as a 'great man', and not just as a 'great warrior'.
He was asked by the US Government to “volunteer” for the Flying Tigers and signed a secret contract with the US Government that said he would be paid for each Japanese plane shot down and that if a war came they would be restored to their rank with no time in service lost. The government never kept their part of the deal and he was very bitter about that. It wasn’t the money, it was that they treated the men that they recruited as if they had been mercenaries instead of doing what they’d been asked to do. They WERE NOT MERCENARIES. Later the military owned up to the fact that they’d been promised to have no time in service lost, but only because Boyington and other former Flying Tigers had become national heroes and got embarrassed for screwing them over. SOS.
@@daveb.4268 They were not mercenaries. You are in error. They were asked by the US Government to go to China and fly for the AVG. They signed contracts that promised that they would not lose any time in service and would be restored to their rank when their service with the AVG ended. The military tried to renig on the contract and treated them like crap when they brought them back. Boyington was more bitter about that than anything the Japanese did while he was a prisoner of war. He finally got his time in service restored but was disgusted with how the military treated the AVG flyers after they had done what was asked of them. SOS.
Civilians don't have a clue. My own sister after my father and my older brother had both been ncos without a college degree told me that I couldn't be an NCO after I told her I just made NCO status because I did not have a college degree 🤣🤣. Just to prove her wrong the next time I went home on leave I wore my dress uniform with my staff sergeant chevrons sewn on it 👍👍
@@mrschuyler I was just trying to point out the absurdity of what some civilians Even in our own families say. Please don't get me wrong because I love my brother and sister to no end may they both rest in peace 🙏🙏🙏
I was really a fan of the show in the seventies and I bought his book. I’m sure it was a re-release because of the show. He told of how tough the prison camp was. They were really starving. He seized the chance to steal a fish that was meant for the guards. He knew it would mean a severe beating. He said it was extremely hot and Japanese came up to him. He had to hold the fish by the tail and not swallow it to prevent it from burning his stomach! That’s tough to hold something that hot in your mouth and pretend nothing is going on. He had a serious alcohol problem when he got home. I’m amazed they all didn’t!
@Denny Jay: I spent a week on a dive boat at Truk Lagoon, now named Chuuk Lagoon, diving on sunken Japanese shipwrecks. Japan was almost out of oil towards the end of WW2 & "hid" about half their Naval Fleet in the Truck Lagoon. An off course & sort of lost PBY accidentally flew over Truk and found their ships. It was basically like shooting fish in a barrel when our Carriers launched their Dive Bombers & literally sank hundreds of Japanese ships & a few submarines at anchor. Made for an excellent diving experience.
@@Raftjumper07: It was sir; however, I was working at the U.S. Ballistic Missile Test Range at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands at the time & our own Kwajalein Lagoon, the largest lagoon on the planet at 1,750sq. mi., also had excellent wreck diving just not on the massive scale as Truk. I was on a months vacation & diving all over Micronesia & Mariana Islands. (1991) The WW2 German Heavy Cruiser, the Prinz Eugen, was located directly across the lagoon from Kwajalein Island where I lived, and was a great dive. Prinz Eugen was the main escort ship to the German Battleship Bismark & actually fired the first salvo on the HMS Hood, Britain's prize Battleship. Bismark finished her off. Hence the war cry "Sink the Bismark". After the war Prinz Eugen, along with 89 other ships, was used in the infamous Operation Crossroads Abel & Baker day test at Bikini Lagoon. You've most likely seen the film of the nuclear explosion amid the 90 ships. I've actually stood on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga which sank & landed perfectly upright on the bottom of Bikini Lagoon. The Prinz refused to sink so they towed her to Kwajalein for "de-contamination" by spraying water on it while sitting docked at the pier. It started listing to starboard about a week later & they tried to tow her out to sea, but lost control where she now lies on her side with stern out of the water & bow at about 140ft on the bottom of the lagoon. Below is the Able/Baker day tests. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ADD8_2KO5Bk.html
@@nerblebun That is an amazing job and adventure in a beautiful part of the world. Just the ships you mentioned brought memories of many different news reel presentations I remember growing up, watching "Victory At Sea" and other shows on Saturday afternoons. Thank you for sharing in detail your memories of that part of the world.
They don't make very many men like these guys that fought and died for our country today. Had it not been for these men and women of the Navy and USMC in the Pacific. And the Army and USAF in Europe, we likely would be speaking German or Japanese today.
I would suggest to anyone not to have any solid opinion of Pappy Boyington until you research and read Fred Turnbull’s recounting of being a POW with Boyington. Some very interesting information. Turnbull was an F-6 Hellcat pilot and retired as a captain in the Navy.
Yeah, the recounted story paints Boyington as damn near a traitor. Turnbull allegedly drinking a toast to Boyington's death. It does explain the relatively healthy features he exhibits in that video as well.
Pappy Boyington - Great American of the Greatest Generation, a man who valued liberty and answered the call to armed combat to defend our Nation. This is a part of American history and identity.
They were no doubt in a hospital for a while before they even got to go home. There was a lot going on at that time and getting them home wasn't first on the list.
Met him at an Air show in 1986 when he signed my book. Unintentionally insulted him by spelling out my name and saw in his face he was ready to kick my ass, despite him not being in the best of health, but he stayed cordial, but cool. Sorry Pappy I was a nervous dork. Book was really different than expected but I appreciated his honesty about alcohol.
Imagine trying to explain how the marine flyers today are being issued maternity flight suits? He'd just laugh and ask you if you knew the marine responsible for the pregnant lady pilots? Him!! 😂😂😂
A flight suit does not automatically mean "Fighter Pilot" or "Pilot-in-the-air". Some ground crew wear these suits too... And Drone Pilots too...So in your eyes, a pregnant person cannot fly a drone and kick some butt?
It took you until nearly half way through the video to show a fighter type that he actually flew operationally (Corsair) while you showed just about every type that he DIDN'T fly! Not even a clip of the P-40 which he did fly with the AVG. Tougher than nails and a prime example of what the Marines could accomplish capable of holding the line like the Wildcat but demonstrably superior to the enemy types.
Talk about classic screw ups . Who ever made this Back Then sure didn't know what they were doing . Showing P 36 Airacobras and F 4 F Wildcats and misleading the viewers in the early part of the movie and calling them the US Army . Deck EM !!! Pappy
I think it was Pappy who made a make-shift sundial while in prison to tell the time of day. A rather dumb guard, who the prisoner's like to f-with, laughed and said, " You dumb Yankee, how do you read it at night!?" Pappy said, "well than you use a flashlight...." and walked off. The guard thought about it a long while and walked away feeling stupid haveing just lost "face". Same guard ended up beating Greg pretty severely for an unrelated matter as a way to get back at him.
I didn't know about this episode. I can surmise that those Japanese guards were a rather small brained frustrated lot! Thanks for sharing this knowledge...
most people don't people know Greg Boyington have Native American blood (from Sioux tribe), which making him non-European American highest-scoring ace.
The Japanese left bodies everywhere just killing and torturing. I knew from the TV show that the actual man must have been very special. Now I had no idea.
It's a minor miracle the Japanese took him to a POW camp. So many were "rescued," beaten to gain any intelligence out of them, beheaded by kırana (so esteemed by sword fans nowadays,) then dumped back into the ocean in pieces.
rescued POWs also spent weeks getting rehabbed before making it all the way home, if I remember right an uncle said it was 5 or 6 weeks before making it back to CA
@@briant6333 Most POW's spend weeks in hospitals before returning home back then. Non-vets don't have a clue, they think it's like watching John Wayne movies. Most don't realise there's a war going on today and vets returning from real combat. I know i served 12yrs. USN.
Winning....I didn't know that...I take back what I said....not so odd now. In the video, it shows him being carried, perched on the shoulder of the soldiers, as soon as he gets out of the plane that brought him home. It didn't tell us that he had been in a hospital. Thanks for clearing this up.
If you read his book "Baa Baa Black Sheep" , he says that he did gain weight as a POW. He also states that he was well treated in prison. He and his fellow prisoners wrote letters to the war crimes commission stating how well they were treated, but they hung the POW camp commander anyway. The war crimes judge said " We were having too much fun with the prostitutes to read any letters. We just hung them all."
Am I correct that you have muted out the one word that would seem a bit racist these days? I don't see an issue with it. It just wasnt seen that way in '45 when it would be now.
Boyington as a "volunteer" in the Flying Tigers. Boyington was given the choice of "volunteering" for the Flying Tigers or be court martialed. He was an alcoholic and a gambler and,of course, heavily in debt. The Army Air Force would bail him out of his debt and not court martial him if he went to China, so he said ok. Apparently several others were also threatened, in order to force them to join the Flying Tigers. When the USA entered the war, and took over operations in China, the Flying Tiger pilots were treated like scum. They were forced to find their own way out of China and back to the USA.
David Lee "Tex" Hill was a Flying Tiger, he joined the USAAF when they took over operations in the theater. He was previously a Naval Aviator, but obviously had to resign his commission in order to join the Flying Tigers, so what you mentioned there at the end can't be entirely accurate.
@@Nghilifa Read Boyington's book. Very interesting about the China war, Pacific war and POW life. Boyington spent 3 years in a Japanese POW camp and gained weight!
Yeah, but Greg Boyington was a commissioned officer, a Naval Aviator, a1Lt in the regular US Marine Corps [Air Wing] not the Army Air Forces. When the USAAF 14AF was about to take over the AVG, and Gen Chenault wanted to make him an Army pilot as a 2nd Lt -- Boyington resigned and made his way back to the States, hoping to get reinstated in the Marine Air Wing. He was in financial distress when he left Pensacola, true. I don't know if he gambled. He sure could drink, and had a big bar tab from the O Club. In his book, he said what cost a lot of money, was uniforms. All custom tailored. Marine officers were required to buy their own uniforms. Dress Blues, Dress Whites, Class A Greens, Trops, Khakis and untilities. Also he was supporting his family in off-base housing. He had to hide them because junior officiers were not supposed to be married. Nobody bailed him out of his debt, Not the Army. He met a woman named Lucile on the ship back from India. He appointed her as power of attorney before he left for the South Pacific. She was supposed to see his children were cared for, his ex-wife got alimony, that his air-kill bounties from CNAC were received and banked, and his Marine Major's pay was well managed while he was overseas again. Liquidate his prior debts... She didn't.
@@HootOwl513 Right, it has been a long time since I read his very interesting book. He credits being a a POW in Japan for showing him he could live without alcohol. I saw him at an airshow in Calif about 1985. He was giving people hell while signing his book, but he apparently was dying of cancer at the time.
@@ziggy2shus624 On another forum, I read an account of a guy -- kid at the time -- who wanted an autograph from Boyington at an airshow. In his tent were some ''official'' pictures for $100 for him to sign. Being a kid, with a 0$ budget he bought a 4 dollar Corsair picture from another vender, and got in line. When he got up to Pappy, tthe grizzled remnant of a man -- in a wheelchair and on O2 -- cussed the kid out, saying he wasn't ''signing any cheap crap.'' I've read ''Baa Baa, Black Sheep,'' by G. Boyington, 'and 'Black Sheep One''. and ''The Black Sheep'' by Bruce Gamble. In BS1, Gamble did mention he played cards, Poker and Bridge, but I don't recall a gambling obsession.
I never saw his picture before. When I saw the thumbnail I thought he was a black man. Even in the film he looks like a black man but I recognized his name from *The Black Sheep* TV show
If you thought any of the black sheep were nice people, you are mistaken. They were put together and called black sheep because their personalities made them not wanted anywhere else. He was a hero because of his skills, not his personality.
I met him at Falcon field in Mesa,Az.I was 10 just got his book and he wanted 20 bucks. He was a asshole. He gained weight in pow kitchen. Only him he didn't share food with other pows!
Strange(!) He doesn't look like any '20 month' prisoner of Japan that I've ever seen before; & I've seen, & known, a few! Not least one that 'claims' to have been starved & beaten the whole time there. :-/
