• Pappy Boyington Tale

Don't know if you are interested but I met Marion Carl at Stanley Lake, in Idaho probably 30+ years ago. I was camping there with my family as he pulled in, in an Air Stream towed by a Surburban. First Class. He had a friend with him and they were going to fish the lake. I had the Navy MWR pop up tent. He noticed my jacket was Navy with wings on it and introduced himself. I of course knew him by reputation. I invited him over for drinks after he had finished fishing for the day. The interesting part of the conversation happened when I asked him about Pappy Boyington operating out of Espiritu Santo.

It seem Pappy would get a snoot full and liked to wrestle folks and was very good at it. Marion said when that started he left the so called club. Apparently, Pappy, with this specialty, threw fellow squadron members or others, out the window of the club.

He said Pappy was competing with Major Bong for kills at the time and was to head home shortly for a Bond Sale Tour. Since he was to leave soon, he asked Carl if he could take his next combat hop. Carl agreed and it was on this flight that Boyington got shot down. Carl said he never saw Pappy again and if he did he thought he might be going out the nearest window. Jerry Dempsey