Baa Baa Black Sheep, by Gregory Pappy Boyington

• Title: Baa Baa Black Sheep
• Author: Gregory Pappy Boyington
• Purchased from: Lot of paperback books won at Weschler's Auction in Downtown DC.
• Started: 8/9/2009
• Finished: 8/22/2009

Continuing my WW2 reading I just finished Baa Baa Black Sheep. My only knowledge of this story before was the TV show of the same name (later changed to Black Sheep Squadron) with Robert Conrad. I never really liked that show, and I didn't love the book either.

It's a strange book, it doesn't read like a book, more like Boyington was just talking into a tape recorder and someone transcribed it. It certainly could have used more editing. In fact there isn't very much in the book about aerial combat or the Black Sheep, instead it's the story of how Boyington ended up where he did in life: highly decorated, a fighter ace, a drunk, and a POW survivor.

For all the faults of this book (and they were numerous) it did keep me reading. The guy had a hell of a life, I bet hearing him tell these stories would have been much more entertaining then reading his words about them.