[Condor 63]

A lot of crazy stuff gets claimed during war that won't pass the smell test under close scrutiny esp. when you have chaotic situations, eye witness reports that contradict one another and War Department press releases more intended to stir up or maintain support for the effort back home and less intended to be historical accounts.

My father was an ex-Marine that worshiped at the shrine of Pappy Boyington and even he would admit that a lot of the claims regarding Ole Pap were dubious at best including his kills. There was considerable controversy regarding how many kills Pappy had with the Flying Tigers. First the official Tigers account and Pappy's account never added up, and second regarding if AVG kills should have been added to his Marine kills.

Regardless, Boyington was obviously one of the best Americans in the air during WWII.

[BluH2o]

Boyington was obviously one of the best Americans in the air during WWII.

That's true ... but many that knew him thaught he was a first class assh***.

[Tallguy]

Boyingtons AVG claims are no longer officially credited to his overall totals. I noticed this when checking the overall 'rankings' of our air aces.