Pappy Boyington Honored

Gattman wrote:
"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
...

I noted the way I had expressed this paragraph in the post but decided
that the end sentence saying that Greg "WAS" a regular guy was enough to
clarify! I should have realized that this is Usenet, and I'm dealing with
people here whom I don't know and who don't know me.

Well, Col. Boyington may have considered himself a regular guy and may have
acted as such, but the American people have spoken and there's no shortage
of people including WWII vets and at least one humble ex-POW I knew who
considered him to be a national hero maybe BECAUSE he was such a regular guy
(except in the cockpit) who came up and rallied other ordinary guys in a
time of deadly and critical necessity.

Ie, he wasn't a West Point glory-seeker like many officers, and he certainly
didn't fly a desk and take credit for everybody else's successes. In fact I
think his blue-collar mentality is part of the reason -why- he deserves the
status as a national hero.

-c



Actually Greg graduated from the University of Washington and was no
slouch in the "brains department".
Boyington realized all too well that the American people like to honor
their "heroes" as well they should honor these people.
He also had great personal feelings about those who didn't survive the
war and were still out there. To him, and he told me this more than
once, THEY were HIS heroes.

It was for this reason he generally didn't take too well to being
referred to as a hero in any shape or form and usually shied away from
any and all situations created by civilians that singled him out for
special attention.
Greg Boyington deserves any honor his country decides to give to him.
Just remember that there are those who seek these honors and those who
don't seek them. Greg was definately a non-seeker of this type of
notoriety. This simple fact in no way infers that Greg Boyington doesn't
deserve this honor.
I believe he deserves it. I just wouldn't walk up to the Greg Boyington
I knew and tell him he deserved it without being ready to duck :-)

Dudley Henriques