Pappy Boyington

World War II was fought and won on the American side largely by volunteers, young American patriots, hard fighters and anything but organization men. selection of a fighter pilot in the vicious frolicsome fighting that occurred in Guadalcanal depended on professional flying skill, an consciousness for the jugular and a fair amount of luck. Boyington says "these were times that demanded 'bad boys'--men ordain to assert their individuality, bend rules" (Author's Note). His foils are senior officers who insist on going by the books and are sticklers for following the rules. Boyington is able to tolerate away with his highjinks and numerous acts of insubordination because his conflict skills are excellent, his leading skills were exceptional and because he had a couple of(prenominal) well placed array officers which overlooked his drinking and supported him behind the scenes because of his appearstanding combat record.

Boyington seems to fit only in a wartime scenario, failing by his own admission in most aspects of life onward and after the War. He displays amazing ingenuity in surviving the intolerable and barbaric cruelties of Japanese POW camps yet has herculean staying sober or holding a steady gambol as a civilian.

Boyington is an unusual mixture during the period cover by the book. As Time's reviewere put it in 1958, "Pappy Boyington was more than a drunk. He was a skilled a

The story is, however, a tragic one in that Boyington is overlots more acute as an observer of others than in domineering his own life. Toward the end of the book, thanks to a steadfast wife and the support of Alcoholics Anonymous, he learns to abstain drinking and develops some branch of religious faith.

He, however, appears at that point in early tenderness age to be pretty well played out because of his youthful excesses. Able to expose and to mock the pretentiousness of much of the world around him, Boyington remains ambivalent to what he and others complete(a) when he says "just name a hero and I'll turn up you a bum" (350).

Boyington served his country well and took risks in its behalf that few others could get away with. At the same time, his low self-assertion and chronic alcolohism detracts from his tale of accomplishment. He is a man who could be a drunken referee of wresting bouts, display amazing courage in a POW camp, develop and implement a new and successful form of aerial warfare. He is a flawed, tragic hero, who nevertheless tells great tales of war.

nd confident sea wolf (71). As he acknowledes, he was before and during the war A"an emotionally immature person of the first order" (86). He is never in control of his drinkin
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