Black Sheep One: The Life of Gregory "Pappy" Boyington [Hardcover]

Bruce Gamble (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 14, 2000

Black Sheep One is the first biography of legendary warrior and World War II hero Gregory Boyington. In 1936, Boyington became an aviation cadet and earned the “wings of gold” of a naval aviator. After only a short period on active duty, however, he was “encouraged” to resign from the Marine Corps due to his unconventional behavior. Remarkably, this inauspicious beginning was just the prologue to a heroic career as an American fighter pilot and innovative combat leader. With the onset of World War II, when skilled pilots were in demand, he became the commander of an ad hoc squadron of flying leathernecks. Led by Medal of Honor winner Boyington, the legendary Black Sheep set a blistering pace of aerial victories against the enemy.

Though many have observed that when the shooting stops, combat heroes typically just fade away, nothing could be further from the truth for Boyington. Blessed with inveterate luck, the stubbornly independent Boyington lived a life that went beyond what even the most imaginative might expect. Exhaustively researched and richly detailed, here is the complete story of this American original.


From the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Anyone over 50 should recognize the name: leading the WWII Marine Fighting Squadron 214Athe air and ground fighting Black SheepABoyington ("Black Sheep One") racked up the most hits in the Marines, earning the Medal of Honor before being shot down over Japanese territory in 1944. Presumed dead, he spent 20 months in a prisoner-of-war camp, and was released at war's end to the surprise of the nation. Twelve years later, his memoir Baa Baa Black Sheep hit bestseller lists, and six years after that, the book became a hit TV series starring Robert Conrad. Retired naval flight officer Gamble, who has already penned an account of the squad's exploits, here narrows his focus to its most famous exponent. The results are less than heroic. Black Sheep's appeal was in its raciness for its time (in one scene quoted here, Boyington is on his knees "in front of two very gorgeous gams"); one purpose of this book seems to be to fill in the blanks and innuendo, and to detail some years better lost. It's unclear that anyone still cares about these matters, though, and the same is true of the numbing familial detail of the first chapters. But Boyington's military exploits are still of interest to buffs, and here Gamble's expertise comes to the fore. If Boyington, who died in 1988 at 76, had a tendency to fudge or exaggerate, Gamble carefully sets the matter of his actual achievements straight, and they remain impressive. Veterans of the war and fans of the show may want the full story here, but since Gamble assumes Boyington's status rather than rehabilitates it, few others will tune in. (Dec.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gamble's Black Sheep (1998) made it clear that the men of Marine Fighting Squadron 214 were misfits only according to bureaucratic regulations. Their legendary commanding officer, Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, however, was about as unorthodox as one could be and still accomplish anything useful. The product of a catastrophically dysfunctional family, he spent his life fighting a ferocious drinking problem, a string of wives and lovers, and, somewhat more successfully--he won the Medal of Honor for 20-odd air-to-air victories--the Japanese. As World War II loomed, he was about to be thrown out of marine aviation for his drinking and debts. He volunteered for the Flying Tigers and compiled a combat record that made him invaluable. He ended the war a prisoner of the Japanese, and until he died in 1988, he was often a prisoner of alcoholism. Nowadays a reader has to understand Boyington's time and place to tolerate him. Gamble gives us such an understanding, and even so, you may feel slightly hungover at the end of this fine biography. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Presidio Press; 1 edition (November 14, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891417168
• ISBN-13: 978-0891417163
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,335,159 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A native of central Pennsylvania, Bruce Gamble is an award-winning author and historian specializing in highly readable narratives about World War II in the Pacific.

During his career as a Naval Flight Officer in the closing years of the Cold War, Bruce logged nearly 1,000 hours as a navigator in EA-3B Skywarriors, including deployments aboard aircraft carriers in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. While serving as a flight instructor in 1988, he was diagnosed with a malignant spinal cord tumor. He underwent a complicated surgery and was medically retired from the Navy the following year.

Starting over as a wheelchair user, Bruce began volunteering at the National Naval Aviation Museum and eventually worked part-time as the staff historian for the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. Over the next several years he collected oral history interviews and wrote numerous articles for Foundation magazine. Bruce then made the leap to freelance writing and published his first book, The Black Sheep, in 1998.

With a total of four titles now in print, Bruce is gaining recognition as one of the top authors on the air war in the Pacific. His narrative style and use of human-interest vignettes have earned critical acclaim in publications such as Publishers Weekly and Booklist. In addition to writing, Bruce does a substantial amount of public speaking. He is also the featured historian in documentaries produced by the History Channel, Fox News Channel, PBS, and the Pritzker Military Library.

Bruce earned two literary awards in 2010: the Admiral Arthur W. Radford award for excellence in naval aviation history and literature, presented by the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation, and a Gold Medal in the history category from the Military Writers Society of America.

Bruce is a member of the Authors Guild and holds life memberships in the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation and Paralyzed Veterans of America. Cancer-free for more than twenty years, he lives near Panama City, Florida.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars magnificent biography of a troublesome hero, November 30, 2000

By 

Daniel Ford (at danford dot net) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black Sheep One: The Life of Gregory "Pappy" Boyington (Hardcover)

Pappy Boyington is one of the most memorable pilots of World War II. But as he famously said: "Show me a hero, and I'll show you a bum." He did the best to prove his own maxim.

As a member of the Flying Tigers of Burma and China, he was credited with two Japanese aircraft shot down, but left early and in such disfavor that he got a "dishonorable discharge" from its commander, Claire Chennault. He then re-joined the Marines and proceeded to build an unorthodox fighter squadron--the Black Sheep--with many similarities to the Tigers, with himself playing the role of Chennault. Shot down, he was awarded the Medal of Honor while serving time in two of Japan's most notorious prisons. He emerged alive at the end of the war, claiming to have accounted for enough Japanese planes on his final day to make him the leading USMC ace of World War II.

It's a fascinating story, but Bruce Gamble goes beyond the war record to show us the boy growing up in a troubled family and following his seemingly doomed path to alcoholism and brawling and a troubled marriage of his own. Boyington's checkered career postwar is equally compelling. You feel sorry for him, angry at him, and in awe of him as one of the great shooters of all time.

This is a brilliant book and an important one, and it belongs on the shelf of anyone with an interest in World War II aviation.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Before, during and after the fall., September 10, 2001

By 

George G. Kiefer (Sevierville, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black Sheep One: The Life of Gregory "Pappy" Boyington (Hardcover)

Gamble's biography of Boyington begins with his dysfunctional upbringing in the Pacific Northwest. Raised by a troubled mother and a ...stepfather, the deck was stacked early against this man of great potential. This good time Charlie, devil-may-care college boy became one of the leading Aces of WWII, with twenty-nine kills, if he is to be believed. And Gamble apparently does not believe all that Boyington has to say on this subject. Never drinking until his twenties, Boyington became the cliched drunk. Often he flew loaded or badly hung over.

In this frank look at the life of the Black Sheep Squadrons leader, Gamble strips away much of the lies, myths and Hollywood trappings to present the man as he was; the tragic hero.

From his brief time spent with Claire Chennaults Flying Tigers to his rejoining the Maine Aviators to his being awarded the Medal of Honor, the bottle was never far from arms reach. After spending almost two years as a POW and upon his triumphant return to the states at wars end, he is told by his intelligence officer, Frank Walton, he could be anything he chose but he had to leave booze alone or it would kill him. Needless to say, his life spiraled out of control until it was much too late. From a series of failed relationships and marriages, to repeated job changes and financial ruin he became a mere curiosity hustling his former valor for a few dollars. In Waltons own book, "Once They Were Eagles", he compares him unkindly to a dancing circus bear pushing his autographs at air shows and conventions.

Throughout the book there are more than a few glimmers of the man beneath the booze and the greatness that awaited Boyington were it not for his illness. A college wrestling champion, a fine college student, a natural leader and above all, a bold and fearless fighter pilot. If Gamble destroys some myths, he also lets Boyingtons greatness stand without the tinsel. And in 1943 he was a giant.

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This may be the only biography I have ever finished., April 19, 2002

By 

Cynthia A F Ferguson - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Sheep One: The Life of Gregory "Pappy" Boyington (Hardcover)

I hate biographies with their authoritarian tones, time lines, dates and obscure facts, and get bored before finishing them. I do, however, prefer to be historically accurate rather than politically correct, so when my children started watching Black Sheep Squadron on the History Channel, I figured I had better learn more about Greg Boyington.

Having seen Mr. Gamble's commentaries during breaks from the show, I expected the typical pompous biography with a military cadence to match the author and subject. When I began to read it, I was floored: I couldn't put it down and I finished it. Mr. Gamble's prose was lyrical, and his treatment of Boyington was fair and meticulously researched.

Heroes aren't necessarily bums, and biographies aren't necessarily dull, boring and omnipresent.