The Black Sheep
ISBN: 0-89141-825-3 
Coming from a background of knowing more than average about World War II and the Air Forces involved, it is always interesting to run across a book concerning some facet which is perhaps, more overlooked. The Black Sheep is such a book concerning the marine aerial fighting squads of World War II. Though there was a TV show about the squadron who, as the book lets us know, had Robert Conrad star as the lead from the TV show The Wild Wild West most everyone agreed that it was inauthentic at best and “bullshit” at worst.
The book does not really offer us any additional consolation since one of the first quotes the reader is introduced to indecorously announces that “We are sociopathic liars.” in relation, one supposes, to the squadron. Indeed, the entire book could be summarized as “How much of this is an actual account, and how much of it is ego by any given side?” The author, Bruce Gamble, asks us to trust his scholarship on some level, and he does, it seems, try to straighten out fact from fiction. The continual problem, however, is confusion, drunkenness, the fog of war, and general chaos that leads to fatalities in the squadron in sometimes horrendous ways. Sure, there are those stories where this is not so, but the general rule in this book is a lot of guys go to be pilots and then with alarming frequency, die by some mistake not caused directly by the enemy. On the other hand, the people that are often the most reckless seem to escape with barely a nick.
The history of the squadron starts with a navy plane called a Wildcat and speaks about the birth of the “Black Sheep Squadron” out of its ashes. This former squadron is called the Swashbucklers, but dissolves at almost the same time it comes into any sort of solid existence. The military reorganizes the unit under a Greg Boyington who is one part inspirational to three parts alcoholic throughout the book. It is he who comes up with the name of the “Black Sheep” with him leading the squadron and he gets this opportunity after having previously gone AWOL.
Mr. Boyington, it seems, has some kind of death wish either in the air or by alcohol. This naturally makes him a great fighter pilot, and we learn through the course of the book that he breaks the record for his unit for numbers of kills. The problem with Mr. Boyington, however, is that he is a liar, and an opportunist who is also out to exaggerate in self-aggrandizing ways. If it were not for the war, Mr. Boyington would be, as the book he wrote about himself notes, nothing more than “A Bum”. One could say that even with the war he is STILL a bum, albeit one that gets unfairly promoted despite his less than reliable actions.
Mr. Boyington, is however, without a doubt, the glue that holds the unit together as he is 30 whereas the rest of his men are in their younger 20s. In the hell of the firefight that was Japan Mr. Boyington could lead and be a kind of hero to his unit, and so he did.
After the actual unit of the Black Sheep form, the type of plane switches from a Wildcat to the newer, fancier Corsair. Everyone has to re-learn their flying abilities in this plane, but for the most part these planes appear to be superior to the Wildcats. We learn of the conditions under which the pilots were stationed in their tropical locales, and that even when they were not taken in captivity which, if possible, provided worse conditions, everyone was miserable and sick often.
Eventually, the Black Sheep are dissolved as a unit, and we flash over to California where it is reborn with some new pilots that go aboard an air craft carrier called the Ben Franklin. Carrier landings are are new element and we learn that life aboard the ship is, as one might imagine, cramped. The ship is eventually targeted by a lone Japanese zero and because of all the ordinance it is carrying the ship explodes into a fiery furnace of death and concussion the likes of which break bones and in some cases simply “dissolve” those on board her. Here, three months before the end of the war, marks the end of combat for the unit known as the Black Sheep.
It is really hard to keep track of all those who died in this book, as often the writing style will mention a pilot long enough to kill him off in the next sentence. One supposes Mr. Gamble is trying to do the topic justice since the people reading it are going to be the people in that squadron. If he misses someone, it is likely some family is going to get angry or feel slighted. So, the solution, it seems, is to drop in certain names at certain times for their cameo before they are “played off the stage”. Occasionally a pilot sticks around long enough with other pilots that we have some sense of attachment to who they were. Most often, however, a leafing back must occur to remember who they were since the narrative of the unit as a whole collides with the people in it at any given point.
The book ends with some more of Boyington’s antics, and mentions what some of the men did after the war and tells us that the memory and participates are starting to fade. Since the book was written in 1987, it is probably true it is not better now and if anything is worse. The problem, of course, is, that the reader is hoping that the book has indicated some semblance of the truth, and of that there is no guarantee other than common consensus from other pilots and the military itself.
Boyington is credited, after returning from Japan as a prisoner in war in much better shape than other men who were taken prisoner, for his kills and is given a Medal of Honor and his life, predictably, self destructs. The book states that his life was better in prison since the Japanese kept him sober as a prisoner. The rest of everyone else? They go on to do things in various fields. What exactly is the lie? The War? Boyington? The kills? The squadron? The world? Apparently, whatever it was, it required a group of people in planes to go fight to try to “clear the air”. It is unfortunate that after that, the air promptly got stuffy again.
If nothing else, the book is an interesting read about how the Navy likely operated in World War II. Whether or not it is historically the final word, well, the jury is still in deliberations.
