Corsairs Above The Coral

When Fred Avey joined "Pappy" Boyington's flock, he found
himself among a pack of wolves in Black Sheep's clothing.

By John F. Wukovits

Forty-five years have passed since retired Marine pilot Fred Avey of Riverview, Michigan, flew his Chance-Vought F4U Corsair fighter plane into combat against the Japanese, yet those World War II experiences so burned themselves into his memory that they still occupy his thoughts today.

Avey flew with the famed Black Sheep Squadron, a group of daring fliers led by ace pilot Gregory "Pappy" Boyington who harassed the Japanese in a series of bold forays from September 1943 to January 1944. The group gained such notoriety that its members were later portrayed in the 1970s television series Baa, Baa, Black Sheep, starring Robert Conrad.

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The 23-year-old Avey quickly became fascinated with aviation after his initial flight in 1935. The haunting knowledge that his older brother perished in an airplane crash his first time in the sky failed to deter Avey from logging more than 300 hours "flying by the seat of my pants." Nor did it prevent him from volunteering in the Royal Canadian Air Force in February 1941, before the United States entered World War II. "I wanted to do my share to win the war and keep [America] out of it," he says.

Nine uneventful months north of the border, during which Avey saw "a lot of the middle of Canada," were spiced up only once, when low oil pressure forced him to land a British bomber on a farm. He avoided injury, and later devoured a hearty chicken dinner with the startled but courteous farmer.

Avey quickly transferred to the U.S. Marines after the surprise Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor officially brought the United States into the war. "I wanted to get into a fighting outfit," he explained. "The Marines sent me to Quantico, Va., as a second lieutenant, and one month later I was sent to Corpus Christi, Texas, to learn how to fly American planes."

Avey headed for the Pacific in mid-1942, and by the following spring he had joined a fighter squadron operating out of Espiritu Santo, an island northeast of Australia in the Coral Sea. In six weeks of combat, mainly over the Solomon Islands, Avey was credited with 2 1/2 kills. That half kill still rankles him.

"I shot down the plane, but one young pilot also claimed it," Avey said. "He was shooting from about five miles away, and I could see his tracers falling off target. The kid even later admitted he was lying, but authorities awarded each of us credit for half a kill. That eventually kept me from being an ace."

Because Avey had only flown in one combat tour, he remained behind when the bulk of the squadron was ordered home. Rather than take his chances with an unknown outfit, Avey transferred to Boyington's squadron, VMF-214, which had already made its mark in six short weeks of combat flying.

The Black Sheep first gathered in September 1943 when Admiral William "Bull" Halsey asked that an additional Marine squadron be immediately dispatched to assist his hotly contested Solomon Islands operation. Normally, squadrons were formed in the United States and trained together extensively before heading overseas, but in the urgency of the situation a squadron was hastily assembled from replacement pilots and remnants from other units. Its commander would be Major Boyington, known simultaneously for his skill as a pilot (he was already an ace) and his talent for getting into trouble (he was without a unit because he broke one of his ankles while wrestling during a drinking spree).

After three weeks of hurried training, the original unit of 28 pilots (only three had combat experience), one intelligence officer and one surgeon moved to its forward base at Munda in the Russell Islands on September 12. During two six-week combat tours, 51 different men eventually served with the Black Sheep; 11 died in action.

The nickname Black Sheep Squadron originated at a unit party during the first days at Munda. Since they had been thrown together so hastily from replacements, the pilots decided to call themselves "Boyington's Bastards." Frank Walton, the squadron's intelligence officer, was told the next day by a Marine public relations officer that the nickname would be unacceptable for newspaper accounts, so the fliers called themselves the "Black Sheep." As Avey explains, the name was not chosen to imply rebellious nature. "We were not raucous or anything. We were just looking for a name." Because the 31-year-old Boyington was at least 10 years older than most of his pilots, they started calling him "Pappy" or "Gramps."

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