Pappy Boyington

Pappy Boyington had three children with Helen, two daughters Janet and Gloria, and a son, Gregory Jr. He divorced her in 1941 when he returned from his tenure with the Tigers, accusing her of neglecting the children.

His second wife was Los Angeles-native Frances Baker, whom he married on January 8, 1946. After their divorce, he married Delores Tatum on October 28, 1959. They adopted a child together. His fourth marriage, to Josephine Wilson Moseman of Fresno, took place in 1978.

A lifelong smoker, Boyington had been suffering from cancer since the 1960s. On January 11, 1988, he died in his sleep in Fresno, California. He was 75 years old. Boyington was buried in Arlington National Cemetery on January 15 with all the honors accorded to a Medal of Honor recipient.

Pappy Boyington was born on December 4, 1912 in Coeur d'Alene, a city in northwest Idaho, US, to Charles and Grace Boyington. When he was three years old, their family relocated to a logging town named St. Maries, where he would spend the next 12 years before moving to Tacoma, Washington. He attended Lincoln High School, Washington, where he excelled in sports, especially wrestling.

As a six-years-old boy in St. Maries, he got the opportunity to fly with Clyde “Upside-Down” Pangborn. This was his first time on a plane. He graduated from high school in 1930 and enrolled at the University of Washington in Seattle. While there, he became a member of the Army ROTC and Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. He also joined the swimming team as well as continued wrestling in the university, even holding the Pacific Northwest Intercollegiate middleweight wrestling title for a while.

During the summer holidays, he worked part-time at a mining camp and a logging camp in Washington. He was also employed briefly by the Coeur d'Alene Fire Protective Association for road construction. In 1934, he received a B.S. degree in aeronautical engineering.

He met his first wife, Helen Clark, at the university. They married soon after his graduation. The couple moved to Seattle where Boyington found work as a draftsman and engineer. He actively pursued a career in aviation in spring 1935 and sought flight training under the Aviation Cadet Act.

He soon found out that that the course would exclude all married men. He had grown up as “Gregory Hallenbeck,” believing that his stepfather Ellsworth J. Hallenbeck was his real father. It turned out that his parents had divorced shortly after his birth. He then realized that there was no record of a “Gregory Boyington” ever getting married. So he seized the opportunity and changed his name to “Gregory Boyington” and joined the military.

While he was still in college, Boyington had joined the military as part of Army ROTC, later rising to the rank of cadet captain. After completing his training, he began serving as a second lieutenant in the US Army Coast Artillery Reserve in June 1934. He was then designated to perform two months of active duty with the 630th Coast Artillery at Fort Worden, Washington.

Boyington was commissioned in the US Marine Corps on June 13, 1935. He was rendered inactive a month later. However, on February 18, 1936, he was made an aviation cadet in the Marine Corps Reserve and was sent to Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida, for flight training. On March 11, 1937, he received the official designation of a Naval Aviator.

His first transfer as Naval Aviator was to Quantico, Virginia, for duty with Aircraft One, Fleet Marine Force. He received discharge paper from the Marine Corps Reserve on July 1, 1937, and was appointed as a second lieutenant in the regular Marine Corps a day later. Subsequently, he studied at The Basic School in Philadelphia between July 1938 and January 1939.

After the course ended, he served with the 2nd Marine Aircraft Group at the San Diego Naval Air Station as well as took part in naval exercises off the aircraft carriers USS Lexington and USS Yorktown. Boyington was also appointed as an instructor at Pensacola in December 1940 before resigning from the Marine Corps on August 26, 1941.

In mid-1941, Boyington was employed by the Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company (CAMCO), a company hired to form an air unit to defend China and the Burma Road. This came to be known as the American Volunteer Group (AVG) or the Flying Tigers (in Burma). This was the first time that Boyington was assigned as a flight leader. While he shared an almost antagonistic relationship with the commander of the outfit, Claire Chennault., he nonetheless officially destroyed two Japanese aircraft in the air and 1.5 on the ground (six, according to his autobiography).

Pappy Boyington was originally awarded America’s highest military honor — the Medal of Honor — by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in March 1944 and it was kept in the capital until Boyington could receive it. However, Roosevelt passed away in April 1945. He eventually received the Medal of Honor on 5 October, Nimitz Day, at the White House from President Harry S. Truman.

On 4 October 1945, he was awarded the Navy Cross by the Commandant of the Marine Corps for the Rabaul raid.

He also received a Purple Heart, Prisoner of War Medal, Presidential Unit Citation w/ 3⁄16" bronze star, American Defense Service Medal w/ 3⁄16" bronze star, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal w/ 3⁄16" silver star, American Campaign Medal, and World War II Victory Medal.

In 1994, he was posthumously inducted into the Naval Aviation Hall of Honor.