Check Six: Major Gregory Boyington – 75 years ago
From the This Day in Aviation website
3 January 1944: Major Gregory Boyington, United States Marine Corps, commanding VMF-214 at Bouganville, Solomon Islands, led 48 fighters in an attack against the Japanese naval base at Rabaul on the island of New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago.
Flying a Vought-Sikorsky F4U-1 Corsair, Bu. No. 17915, Boyington shot down four enemy airplanes, bringing his total score to 28. He was then himself shot down. Wounded by bullets and shrapnel and with his Corsair on fire, Boyington parachuted to the ocean only 100 feet (30 meters) below. He was rescued by a Japanese submarine a few hours later. He was eventually taken to Japan and imprisoned for the next 20 months under the harshest conditions.
Webmaster Comments: The television series Baa Baa Black Sheep was inspired by Boyington and his men in the “Black Sheep” squadron. It ran for two seasons in the late 1970s.
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