Col. Greg ‘Pappy’ Boyington USMC (matted)

Boyington began his military training in college as a member of Army ROTC and became a cadet captain. In the spring of 1935, he applied for flight training under the Aviation Cadet Act, but he discovered that it excluded married men. Boyington had grown up as Gregory Hallenbeck, and assumed his stepfather, Ellsworth J. Hallenbeck, was his father. When he obtained a copy of his birth certificate, he learned that his father was actually Charles Boyington, and that his parents had divorced when he was an infant. As there was no record of any Gregory Boyington had ever been married, he enrolled as a U.S. Marine Corps aviation cadet using that name.

In February 1936 Boyington was assigned to 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.

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, the famed Flying Tigers. 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 he may have been owed an additional ground "kill". In April 1942, he broke his contract with the AVG and returned to the United States.
On September 29, 1942, he rejoined the Marine Corps and took a major's commission. 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. From July to August 1943, he commanded Marine Fighter Squadron 112.

In September 1943, he became commanding officer of Marine Fighter Squadron 214, better known by its nickname, the "Black Sheep Squadron." 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 later changed to "Pappy".
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 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. 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. He spent the rest of the war, some 20 months, in Japanese prison camps. On August 29, 1945, after the atomic bombs and the Japanese capitulation, Boyington was liberated from Japanese custody at Omori Prison Camp. 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 in its issue Oct. 1, 1945. 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.