American Valor Quarterly Issue 3 - Summer 2008 | Page 13

Baa Baa Black Sheep
VMF-214 and the Marine Corps’ Most Famous Aviators of WWII
An Excerpt from Veterans Chronicles
Veterans Chronicles, the American Veterans Center’s weekly radio
series, features the stories of America’s greatest military heroes, in
their own words. The program is hosted by Gene Pell, former
NBC Pentagon Correspondent and Moscow Bureau Chief, as
well as Director for Voice of America and President of Radio
Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

or the “Whiffinpoof
Song,” which is the Yale
drinking song. And we
dearly loved that song.
We managed to sing it
frequently and it was
always the very last one
Each week, Gene talks to distinguished service members from in our repertoire.
World War II all the way through Operation Iraqi Freedom,
allowing them to share their insights on the great and tragic Figuring the squadron
moments in American military history. Veterans Chronicles airs should have a name, it
nationwide on the Radio America network, downloaded via was suggested that the
podcast, and heard online at www.americanveteranscenter.org. name be “Boyington’s
Bastards” because the
In this issue of American Valor Quarterly, we print the excerpt squadron was kind of
from a recent episode focusing on the legendary Black Sheep formed in a bastardly
Squadron of World War II. Led by “ace” pilot Gregory “Pappy” fashion. We had no
Boyington, the squadron was formed in 1943 and was in action ground echelon. We
Prior to commanding the Black Sheep,
over a half-dozen South Pacific islands. In less than three months, had no airplanes. The
Greg “Pappy” Boyington flew for another
the Black Sheep pilots destroyed or damaged 273 Japanese aircraft, press people at the
famed outfit of American pilots - the
sank ships, destroyed ground facilities, and perhaps most time said if you do
American Volunteer Group, best known as
remarkably produced eight “ace” fighter pilots from only a single anything noteworthy the Flying Tigers. He would earn both the
squadron. Retired Brigadier General Bruce Matheson served in we can’t hardly go back
Navy Cross and the Medal of Honor for
that squadron, and he recently sat down with Gene to talk of his and mention your
his heroism in leading the Black Sheep.
experiences and how they came to be known as the “Black Sheep.” name – in those days
when you couldn’t use four letter words – so we had to do
Brigadier General Bruce Matheson: The “Black Sheep” name better than Boyington’s Bastards. So somebody said why don’t
came from our first combat tour. We had a squadron which was we make it the “Black Sheep”? We thought that was a pretty
comprise