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Gregory "Pappy" Boyington (December 4, 1912 – January 11, 1988) was an American combat pilot who was a United States Marine Corps fighter ace during World War II. He received both the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross. Boyington was initially a P-40 Warhawk fighter pilot with the legendary "Flying Tigers" (1st American Volunteer Group) in the Republic of China Air Force in Burma at the end of 1941 and part of 1942, during the military conflict between China and Japan, and the beginning of World War II. In September 1942, he rejoined the Marine Corps (had been an aviator before the war). In early 1943, he deployed to the South Pacific and began flying combat missions as a Marine F4U Corsair fighter pilot. In September 1943, he took command of U.S. Marine Corps fighter squadron VMF-214 ("Black Sheep"). In January 1944, Boyington, outnumbered by Japanese "Zero" planes, was shot down into the Pacific Ocean after downing one of the enemy planes. He was captured by a Japanese submarine crew and was held as a prisoner of war for more than a year and a half. He was released shortly after the surrender of Japan, and a few days before the official surrender documents were signed. 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. ==Early life== Born on December 4, 1912 in northern Idaho at Coeur d'Alene, Boyington is erroneously quoted as being born in 1906. He moved to the logging town of St. Maries at age three and lived there until age twelve, then lived in Tacoma, Washington, where he was a wrestler at Lincoln High School.〔 He took his first flight at St. Maries when he was six years old, with Clyde Pangborn, who later flew the Pacific non-stop.〔 After graduation from high school in 1930, Boyington attended the University of Washington in Seattle, where he was a member of the Army ROTC and joined the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.〔 He was on the Husky wrestling and swimming teams, and for a time he held the Pacific Northwest Intercollegiate middleweight wrestling title. He spent his summers working in Washington in a mining camp and at a logging camp, and with the Coeur d'Alene Fire Protective Association in road construction.〔 He graduated in 1934 with a B.S. in aeronautical engineering.〔 Boyington married shortly after graduation and worked as a draftsman and engineer for Boeing in Seattle.〔 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, however, he learned that his father was actually Charles Boyington, a dentist, and that his parents had divorced when he was an infant.〔 Since there was no record that someone named Gregory Boyington had ever been married, he enrolled as U.S. Marine Corps aviation cadet using that name. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pappy Boyington」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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