Chapter two is almost complete, all that is left is to do a final edit after my adviser sends it back. The focus of my thesis has shifted, and I admit I was hesitant at first to consider making the change, but once I decided to move forward with them it has allowed me to better see how incompatible Doolittle truly was with Chennault and Boyington.

So, now the focus is more of a “did the student surpass the teacher” exploration. The reason for this is simple, Gregory Boyington was a member of Chennault’s AVG Flying Tigers who went back to the Marine’s and led the infamous Black Sheep Squadron. While I do not anticipate actually answering the question because, in the scope of things, Chennault did some pretty fascinating things that were years ahead of his time, I do hope that it will at least shed some perspective of how Boyington took what he was taught and implemented it within his unit.

This shift also means that chapter two took a different path than I imagined. For chapter two I choose to examine Chennault and Boyington’s lives from birth until they formed/joined the AVG Flying Tigers. While there are some similarities in their independence and a sense of adventure, the two men could not have been more different. I probably should have examined their differences a little more, and hopefully, that can be worked into this chapter in the final draft. It was not until after it was submitted for review that I realized it needs to be included.

Chapter Three Preview

The Flying Tigers are legendary, a group of men who willingly resigned their commissions to “train” Chinese Air Forces to defend their nation against Japan. Only, that is half of the story, in reality, these men flew many missions, took out many enemy fighters and sadly lost a few brave men. Some came home to go on to command positions within the military, others retired, one infamously was the judge that presided over the trial of Charles Manson.

The Black Sheep Squadron, infamously portrayed on tv as a bunch of misfits and drunks, were anything but misfits. Some were veteran pilots, while some were barely out of flight school. Yet, somehow they hold an impressive record, eight “Aces”, over 4000 combat flying hours, and approximately 197 enemy fighters destroyed or damaged.

This chapter will explore the units, the tactics and strategies implemented first by Chennault and then eventually by Boyington. It will also explore some of their more important missions and the dissolutions of the units in their original incarnation. Now you may be wondering what I mean by original incarnation. Well, the AVG would go from being a private air force into the United States Air Force, while the members of the Black Sheep would eventually see themselves scattered into different units after an exhaustive search for their fearless leader.

The chapter will utilize research including oral histories, after action reports, official documents tracing the units histories, and diaries left behind.