UW Students Honor Pappy Boyington After All...

[Jay Honeck]

After last month's debacle, with anti-war-indoctrinated college kids
refusing to honor Medal of Honor winner (and UW alumnus) Pappy
Boyington, it's nice to see that reason has prevailed in Washington
State:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Student Senate Approves Memorial for Medal of Honor Alumni
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The UW Student Senate passed a resolution April 4 that endorses a
campus memorial to UW alumni/attendees who have received the Medal of
Honor while in the military. The resolution passed on a vote of 61 to
14 with 13 abstentions. The action came after a Feb. 7 vote that tabled

a motion favoring a memorial to UW alumnus Gregory "Pappy" Boyington,
'34, a Marine fighter pilot who received the Medal of Honor during
World War II. That vote led to a wave of protests across the nation,
including more than 300 e-mails to the UW.
Full Story:
http://www.UWalum.com/uwnewslinks/200604/article_medal.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Peter Duniho]

"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
ps.com...
> After last month's debacle, with anti-war-indoctrinated college kids
> refusing to honor Medal of Honor winner (and UW alumnus) Pappy
> Boyington, it's nice to see that reason has prevailed in Washington
> State:

Well, yes and no.

In some respects, this memorial is more inclusive than the proposed one,
since it honors ALL Medal of Honor recipients. So I think that's a good
thing. On the other hand, it doesn't address the (presumably valid) reason
that Boyington had been singled out for the memorial in the first place.

Of course, the whole thing is just silly. I heard ridiculous comments like
"we shouldn't be praising people who kill other people". Or the complaint
that as part of the recognition, Boyington was noted as having shot down 30
(I think that was the number...might be wrong) enemy planes. Give me a
break...what do those people think we pay our armed services to do?

I hate war. I abhor killing. But we have to be prepared to do just that,
and for those people whose job it is to actually DO the killing, recognizing
them for a job well done necessarily means that they will be recognized for
the numbers of people that they kill. And they certainly SHOULD be
recognized for a job well done.

Of course, I do remember what it was like to be a college student, and
things seemed a lot more black & white back then. So I do understand where
these kids are coming from. But I'm concerned that at no point during this
debate did they really have their eyes opened to the reality of the
situation, and to the underlying inconsistency of their stance.

Oh well...at least we have the memorial now. :)

Pete

[Cub Driver]

On Sat, 8 Apr 2006 23:12:05 -0700, "Peter Duniho"
> wrote:

>In some respects, this memorial is more inclusive than the proposed one,
>since it honors ALL Medal of Honor recipients. So I think that's a good
>thing.

Well, it honors all MOH recipients from the University, men and women,
young and old, dead and alive.... So how many MOH recipients d'you
suppose there are among University of Washington alumni?

Sounds to me like a way of dodging the incoming fire, still without
singling out for honor a man who (horrors!) *shot down enemy
aircraft*.

Possibly the students believe deep down in their hearts that it's
possible to win the MOH for digging wells in Africa.



-- all the best, Dan Ford

email: usenet AT danford DOT net

Warbird's Forum: www.warbirdforum.com
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[Jay Honeck]

> Sounds to me like a way of dodging the incoming fire, still without
> singling out for honor a man who (horrors!) *shot down enemy
> aircraft*.

Agreed. They slithered around the issue in a way that satisfies
everyone...and no one.

> Possibly the students believe deep down in their hearts that it's
> possible to win the MOH for digging wells in Africa.

If only that were true. Alas, our world isn't the way the Peace Corps
recruiters promise.

BTW: I saw you were quoted in the current Flight Journal article about
America's plan to preemptively attack Japan in WWII. I'm curious: What
did you think of that article?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Peter Duniho]

"Cub Driver" <usenet AT danford DOT net> wrote in message
...
> Well, it honors all MOH recipients from the University, men and women,
> young and old, dead and alive.... So how many MOH recipients d'you
> suppose there are among University of Washington alumni?

I don't know. I should, because I believe the number was mentioned in the
press. I think it's on the order of a dozen or two, but I could be
misremembering.

And yes, when I wrote "ALL" I simply meant all of those from UW.

> Sounds to me like a way of dodging the incoming fire, still without
> singling out for honor a man who (horrors!) *shot down enemy
> aircraft*.

Yes, it's a cop-out IMHO. Presumably, there was a reason to single out
Boyington in the first place. One of the other silly objections was "aren't
there enough memorials honoring old, dead white guys already?" By making
the memorial more inclusive, they dodged that one too ("look, we're honoring
the medal, not the race").

> Possibly the students believe deep down in their hearts that it's
> possible to win the MOH for digging wells in Africa.

Hard to say what they believe. They obviously have the usual idealistic
view of the world that people that age usually have. Personally, I don't
worry about it too much...that idealistic view comes in handy in a variety
of other ways. If it means that occasionally there's a silly dust-up like
this, c'est la vie. :)

Pete

[Al Gilson]

Now's your chance! Renounce your affiliation with the University of
Washington and come on over to the Washington State University side!

Al Gilson
1964 Skyhawk
Felts Field
Spokane, WA

cjcampbell wrote:

>
> Reason does not prevail in Washington State.
>
> To be honest, I am just about ready to burn my UW diploma.
>

[Al Gilson]

Keep those dinners coming!

cjcampbell wrote:
> Al Gilson wrote:
>
>>Now's your chance! Renounce your affiliation with the University of
>>Washington and come on over to the Washington State University side!
>>
>
>
> My wife is a Cougar already. If I came over to the WSU side, what would
> we talk about during the Apple Cup? Loser buys dinner now. OTOH, I have
> been buying altogether too many dinners in recent years. :-(
>
>
>
>>Al Gilson
>>1964 Skyhawk
>>Felts Field
>>Spokane, WA
>>
>>cjcampbell wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Reason does not prevail in Washington State.
>>>
>>>To be honest, I am just about ready to burn my UW diploma.
>>>
>
>

[gatt]

"cjcampbell" > wrote in message

> To be honest, I am just about ready to burn my UW diploma.


Huck the Fuskies!!!

-chris
(Beaver '92)

[B A R R Y]

cjcampbell wrote:
>
> To be honest, I am just about ready to burn my UW diploma.
>

Sell it to someone in Florida. <G>

[W P Dixon]

One of my heroes,
Greg "Pappy" Boyington was one hell-raising marine. Alot of folks
don't realize that he also flew with the "Flying Tigers" . He claimed 6
kills with the Tigers , though some say it was actually 2 in air to air
combat. As the Commanding Officer of "The Black Sheep Suadron" his
official kill number is 22. If I remember correctly he was in a
Japanese POW for around a year and a half. And yes he did win the
Congressional Medal of Honor.
And we can't forget the other aces of VMF-214. Chris Magee (9), Bob
McClurg (7), Bill Case (8), Jack Bolt (6), Don Fisher (6), Paul Mullen
(6.5) , Ed Olander (5), Hank McCartney (5). A brave bunch of men
following one of the most famous Marines in history. To think a bunch
of college punks would not want to honor someone who kept them from
speaking Japanese as a national language is beyond me. Glad I never
thought that way when I was 18-22 years old !!! And so very glad all
those young men that served my beloved corps did not think that way as
well. Some young folks actually have some sense!!! Thank God for
them!!!!
We had a Capt Boyington in my squadron, HML-167. Though he flew a
AH-1T Cobra his call sign of course just had to be "Pappy" . Great
officer and one of those guys I served with that I would love to know
where he is today. Hopefully he is retired and taking it easy now! Alot
of marines don't ever get that chance,..they die so the punks at UW can
degrade them and sleep in their nice cozy beds ,still sucking mom's
teet !!! Makes you wonder what kind of history they actually teach
these kids in school? Those WW II boys and girls were a class act , a
great generation and all should be honored at every chance. No matter
their branch of service they all towed the line.

Semper Fi Pappy !!!!!
This marine salutes you and your MOH with all the marine snap and pop I
can muster!!!!

WP Dixon
student SP
aircraft structural mech - thanks to the USMC ;)

[Cub Driver]

On 12 Apr 2006 00:18:49 -0700, "W P Dixon" > wrote:

>He claimed 6
>kills with the Tigers , though some say it was actually 2 in air to air

Boyington was paid for and credited with 3.5 kills with the AVG Flying
Tigers, of which 1 was air-to-air over Rangoon and 2.5 were burned up
on the ground at Chiang Mai, Thailand (15 planes supposedly destroyed
by 6 participating pilots).

However, it is unarguable that Boyington was actually credited with 2
air-to-air vics over Rangoon. There's a letter from Chennault to that
effect. So his AVG score should have been 4.5.

Boyington felt that there were only four pilots in the Chiang Mai
strafe, and that the credit there should have been 3.75, giving him a
theoretical total of 5.75.

While awarding yourself theoretical victories, why stop with a
decimal? So he rounded it up to 6.

To explain why he was cheated of what was owed him, Boyington came up
with another good theory: he'd been biffing one of Chennault's
secretaries (climbing the outside wall of Hostel Number One with a
bottle of whisky under his arm). After he left China (he was given a
"dishonorable discharge" from the AVG), this woman claimed that he
owed her money, which was duly deducted from his combat bonus. All
this was neatly laid out in a letter to the Marine Corps historian,
Robert Sherrod, who was gentleman enough not to use it in his book,
History of Marine Corps Aviation in WWII.

To give him credit, Boyington himself was enough of a gentleman that
he didn't name the woman in the case, though perhaps that was only
because he feared she was still alive and the story could have been
checked out.




-- all the best, Dan Ford

email: usenet AT danford DOT net

Warbird's Forum: www.warbirdforum.com
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