Warbird Information Exchange

Check your facts, Cannell had nothing to do with the innane Knight Rider. That was produced/created by Glen Larson.
Yes, Cannell did do the "A-Team"...a much more stupid show than Cannell's great "Rockford Files"...but unlike Knight Rider, the A-team never took itself too seriously...and didn't expect anyone over the age of 12 to either.


Everyone repeat after me..."It's only a TV show..." By their very nature, TV shows are unreal...how many cops or detectives shoot people every week? How many doctors go out of their way to find a sick patient? How many novelists or antique dealers solve mysteries in their spare time?
The fact they made the TV Boyington handsome, likable, single, sober..and irresistable to sexy nurses, shouldn't come as a huge surprise to anyone that ever watched more than 45 minutes of TV...

_________________
Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.

ew, the Rockford Files. That is a very 70's show!

Does anyone know if this is going to be released in europe with subtitle options?

Regards,

J.V.

_________________
www.urselavia.be

Has a kid I enjoyed the show alot and was glued to the set every week. Everything said about the series helping the warbird movement and preserving these great aircraft is correct. The part that gets me so is the sad fact that so many good men had to have their reputations trashed in the process. And lastly it made Pappy Boyington out to be a great man and hero which he really wasn't. Maybe having a cousin who was a Marine Corsair pilot KIA is partly to blame for my opinions, but it just doesn't seem right.

This is from a current ebay auction

Marine Colonel "Pappy" Boyington is the greatest living ace in the Vought F4U Corsair and winner of the Medal of Honor. In August 1943, he formed Fighter Squadron VMF-214 to fly Corsairs in the Pacific Theater. He manned his unit with misfits, leftouts, replacements, and "green" pilots, all of which contributed to the now famous name "Black Sheep

After all this time people still think these poor guys were a bunch of bums when in fact only Boyington really fit that catagory.

_________________
Don't touch my junk!!

Jack,
I share your views to a degree, he was no role model outside the combat zone but his men loved him and would follow him to the end(vmf-214). It was his eagerness to strap on a fighter and risk death, as so many did that earns him admission to the brotherhood of combat aviators. We do not have to cannonize him but recognize what he and all the others did for all of us, no matter their overall motivation.
gary
(and yes there are many other pilots that deserve to be remembered by having aircraft painted in markings similar to the ones they bravely flew with)

I thought he died some years back????

Jan 1988, If I recall correctly

_________________
www.tailhookstudio.com

Yes, you recall correctly, and my newspaper clipping shows so.......

_________________
Roger Cain
www.sfahistory.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Stearman/


We must limit politicians to two terms:
one in office and one in jail.

Pappy Boyington was a great hero, because he fearlessly faced off with the enemy. He obviously was a good leader too, because his squadron didn't fall apart under his leadership.

He did have problems with alcohol, but he also had an alcoholic guardian growning up. He also had an abused mother. I'd say he made a good showing of himself in spite of such things working against him, and indeed was of good character.

He also was responsible for the creation of the TV show! Hence, he made himself famous. The other aces could've tried to start a TV show before he did, but they didn't. So Pappy get his own recognition.


At 28 kills he's also the 4 highest US ace in WW2.

So, he has 4-5 kills in question. That bring him to 23-24 kills. That seems pretty good to me.


Yes, the man's life was a train wreck. I found his life a sad story. But when I watch is Wing man and other talk about him, you see a light in their eye's. That makes me think there was more to the story that we will never know.

_________________
www.tailhookstudio.com

Chris,
Boyington's stepfather was pure evil (an alcholic pedophile). Saying Boyington had a problem with alcohol is the understatement of the year. Whether he made a good showing of himself is questionable (in some circumstances yes he did), was he of good character-no not at all. He wasn't responcible for the creation of the TV series by any stretch. No one now a days credits him with 28 kills (pure fantasy). Olynyk says 24.5. If you go over them one by one and substract the extra AVG claims and the USMC claims that he approved himself then his total is more like 12-16 at best. Many don't realize that his 5 kill mission had no witnesses. It was all based on his statements and he confirmed the kills himself. One mission he flew he was so drunk that he could barely fly the plane. He followed a Zero down and almost flew into the sea. But he still claimed a kill and confirmed it not realized one of his pilots saw the whole thing. He'd forgoted to charge his guns and never even fired at it! John Lane knows more about these issues than I do because of his (and his fathers) involvement with the fighter aces assoc. I sugjest you read Gamble's book "Black Sheep One". It's a real eye opener!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=378&item=4503575286&rd=1&ssPageName=WD1V

_________________
Don't touch my junk!!

Ok Jack:

Chris

There's probably a good deal that nobody will ever really know about Boyington and what went on where and why, but as far as the tv show coming out on DVD, I pre-ordered mine yesterday. I used to be just glued to the television at night to watch that show, and I can't remember how many Monogram Corsair models I built between 1976 and 1980, but it was LOTS! I'm just gonna put my feet up and be entertained - by the airplanes, by the sounds of the airplanes, by the hoakey plots, the technical gaffs (remember Robert Conrad shutting the engine down by turning off the battery switch, or the Grumman Duck that could carry 40 drums of fuel?!) and by the cheesey dialogue.

It's too bad that alot of good people's reputations got smeared and that Boyington alienated himself from so many of his men, but (remember this was almost thirty years ago) at the time it was just a hoakey 1970's tv show based on this "hero's hero", a bunch of old airplanes, half a dozen casting-couch cuties in short little nurses outfits, and a bunch of young, good looking actors in tight flying suits.

It was the 'seventies, remember? Disco didn't make much sense either!

Come on man,

I think reputation is based on true facts, and that's why a person with true integrity shouldn't be concerned about what others think. It was just a TV show that was, again partially fiction.

The pilots themselves were on the discovery channel, and none of them really complained about it.

I was a teenager when the show 1st aired, and I watched
it for the Corsairs (+ other airplane) footage and the nurses
(Nurse Ellie was "the kind"....).

Even as a teenager back then, I knew the show had precious
little to do with reality (what TV shows outside of documentaries
do?)

I also built a whole bunch of Corsair models because of
that show.

I know this thread is mostly about the "original" Pappy but
one other good thing that came about from the show is Robert
Conrad became a pilot as a result of working on that series.
Someone must have checked him out to taxi a Corsair, as
I've seen at least one episode where it's really him coming to a
stop and shutting it down.

Bela P. Havasreti