Pappy Boyington on "To Tell the Truth"

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Bought his book. I met him at OshKosh in '84. He looked pretty bad. Across from him was "Mike" Kawato, who claimed to have shot him down. I bought his book, too. They shouted mock insults at each other.
 
A great post.

Here are Action logs of IJN air-squadron 253-Ku of the dates of January 3 and 4, 1944 about the interception above Rabaul.

If January 3rd had been a US-date, it would have been January 4th of JP-date.
The name of Masajiro "Mike" Kawato who claimed he shot down Pappy Boyington is found on the log of January 3rd but 4th.

It is interesting for me to find out our famous ace pilot name 'Takeo Tanimizu' on both dates,
for your references...
 

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VERY COOL Shinpachi.

I noticed they claim to have intercepted 60 F4U's over two days and shot down 15. That seems pretty good. Do these flight logs list how many planes they claim to have lost? It shows they put up 66 fighters and bombers in the same two day period.
 
Hi, Thorlifter.
Thanks for your interest to the logs.

The "bombers" were actually zero fighters equipped with 30kg bombs.
Therefore, they were all fighters after all.

The 253-Ku's lost were -
January 3 : Nil but one was hit and a pilot wounded.
January 4 : Lost 2. Details are Crash 1 with a KIA, MIA 1, Heavily-damaged 1 with a wounded and 3 of hits.

Please let me add - I am a fan of Pappy Boyington!
His Poker face fascinates me
 
I read Pappy's biography. He was an Alkie. Drank like a fish. A born leader in the air, though. But suffered from a lack of discipline. When he was captured by the Japanese, they were flying him and a few others in a Betty and he wanted the rest to help him jump the two guards they had but they did not want to. Pappy was convinced they could have taken over the bomber and flown it to friendly territory and either radioed they were coming or they could have ditched along the shoreline. But....I'll let you read the book.

P.S. One of his pet peeves was people referring to his conquests in the air as "kills." He preferred that they be called "victories."
 
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One of the first WW2-based books I ever read....actually, come to think of it, it WAS the first! Excellent book!!!
 
I remember seeing Boyington hosting a travel show on TV in S. CA. in the 1950's.
Thomas M. Tomlinson flew Marine fighters into 1945. He was with the first WWII VMF 214 (on Guadalcanal) and is critical of some of "Pappy's" kills (in his book THE THREADBARE BUZZARD). He insist several were credited by the Marine Corps Public Relations people purely for publicity.
I've also read that some surviving members of the "Black Sheep" were much embarrassed by how Hollywood and TV portrayed them.
 
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His book, "Baa Baa Blacksheep" was what got me hooked on WW2 history. I must've loaned it out, or its in a box somewhere, cuz its not on my shelf anymore, dangit.
 
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