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Re: Don, Larry Manetti (Reply to this comment)
by Don_Krider
Paul,
The "Black Sheep" TV series gave a number of its cast members a launching pad to other shows, it would seem...
Don :)
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Jul 06 '05
2:37 am PDT
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Don, Larry Manetti (Reply to this comment)
by colonialpara
also co-starred for the entire eight years MAGNUM, PI was on the air.
Paul
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Jul 05 '05
9:49 am PDT
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Re: fine review... (Reply to this comment)
by Don_Krider
Jkk,
Thanks for the comments. Boyington was certainly one fascinating individual.
Don :)
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Jun 25 '05
8:30 am PDT
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fine review... (Reply to this comment)
by jkkelley
...of a good book I've long loved regarding my fellow Washington Husky. Boyington was no saint, but he was a hell of a warrior.
jkk
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Jun 25 '05
12:52 am PDT
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Re: wow (Reply to this comment)
by Don_Krider
The salute is appreciated and returned. "Flyboys" is fascinating, too, I agree.
Don :)
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Aug 04 '04
12:25 am PDT
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wow (Reply to this comment)
by yippeskipee
i have never read any of your reviews but you read one of mine so i had to read one of yours. it was, completely and totally amazing. not many people like history and all this war stuff as much as me, an i think you do. i think you completely got it all right in your review. u read flyboys before? that was a great book as well. damn good job don, i salute you
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Jul 28 '04
11:31 am PDT
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Re: Re: yup (Reply to this comment)
by Don_Krider
George,
Always a treat to have you stop by, George. Our interest in military history is pretty similar (and we both like Errol Flynn, too!)...
Don :)
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Jun 14 '04
2:22 am PDT
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Re: yup (Reply to this comment)
by Don_Krider
Gary,
Well, keep me in mind as your biographer, buddy...
Don :)
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Jun 14 '04
2:20 am PDT
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Thank you! (Reply to this comment)
by Don_Krider
Jim,
I picked up a box of ration books and ration stamps from WWII at a yard sale the other day --- really makes me admire the sacrifice of the WWII generation all the more...
Don :)
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Jun 14 '04
2:19 am PDT
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Re: yup (Reply to this comment)
by George_Chabot,  in Books
Don, when I visited before, the browser was kaput and my comment did not get posted. Rest assured I am a BIG fan of Pappy and Bob Conrad's TV series. Glad I had a chance to read all the facts you mustered for this fine write-up! Your pal!
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Jun 10 '04
8:52 am PDT
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yup (Reply to this comment)
by garym
Don,
I´ve got to become famous one of these days so you can write a review about me.
Excellent job, as always.
Gary
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Jun 09 '04
2:24 pm PDT
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Thank you! (Reply to this comment)
by tennis_player
Don,
Why am I not surprised that the crackers are not all that good in taste???!!!
I don't want to open the tin on my survival crackers to find out.:)
re swimming in the Navy, my older brother also was in the Navy during WWII and he, too, went through the "sink or swim" program.
Jim
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Jun 08 '04
11:44 pm PDT
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Thank you! (Reply to this comment)
by Don_Krider
Jim,
I had a friend who bought some surplus bomb shelter crackers in the 1980s and we sampled them --- not stale, but not tasty either.
Food for the military always brings back memories of my father telling me that when he enlisted at the outbreak of the Korean War in the Navy, he didn't like fish at all. Being in the Navy, he learned to love fish... He also couldn't swim, but at boot camp they threw him in the Great Lakes and said, "Swim or drown" --- he learned to swim...
Don :)
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Jun 08 '04
2:14 am PDT
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Thank you! (Reply to this comment)
by tennis_player
Don,
I also had a plasma bottle with plasma in it but I had to throw it out as the plasma turned dark amber. I also have a large tin of survival crackers that doubles as a container for water storage. It was a civil defense item for shelters back in the 50's. Who knows, maybe it will be worth something as a collector's item some day.
Jim
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Jun 07 '04
11:28 pm PDT
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Re: Re: Re: Thank you! (Reply to this comment)
by Don_Krider
Jim,
Now that is a cool item to have in your collection. I know a fellow who served at the Battle Of The Bulge in WWII who still smokes filter-less cigarettes because that's what he smoked from those packs the government gave out --- my favorite comment from him is about when he arrived in Europe shortly after the D-Day invasion, a young Army, truck-driving recruit from Kentucky who suddenly saw the thousands of trucks, jeeps and tanks the Army had landed on foreign shores, and he said, "I kept looking around and asking myself, 'Where did they get all those vehicles???' "
Don :)
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Jun 02 '04
8:57 pm PDT
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Re: Great review (Reply to this comment)
by Don_Krider
Mike,
Thanks for the comments. I'd have loved to hear that Japanese pilot. One of my joys in life is talking to veterans, especially of World War II, about what they're willing to talk about regarding their service time --- they all have such special and unique memories to share.
Don :)
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Jun 02 '04
8:49 pm PDT
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Re: Re: Thank you! (Reply to this comment)
by tennis_player
Don,
You're absolutely right about cigarettes being a part of the GI issue. When I was growing up, there was a lot of war surplus stuff available. I had steel helmets, liners, canteens, web belts, holsters, gas masks, etc.
Among them was a flat, retangular, plastic flask that had a bail wire that kept the top on. The top had a screw cap spout and a rubber gasket around the skirt that made the whole thing water tight.
Inside were matches, water purification tablets, cigarettes, chewing gum, bullion cubes and some other minor items. Once the contents were removed or consumed, the flask could be used to hold water or other fluids. On the outside, it was imprinted with instructions on how to purify water for drinking.
I still have it.
Jim
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Jun 02 '04
8:19 pm PDT
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Great review (Reply to this comment)
by mike.holmes
I certainly hope your wish comes true that this wonderful review will influence others to read this and other books about WWII. In my Rotary Club in the 80's, a Japanese pilot who had been shot down by Pappy was our speaker. He grew to be friends with the American pilot after the war. Can't remember his name but he also wrote a book about his experiences. I do remember he said that Pappy was the best pilot he'd ever seen.
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Jun 02 '04
6:56 pm PDT
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Re: Thank you! (Reply to this comment)
by Don_Krider
Jim,
He was an American original, for sure. In his later years he battled cancer at least twice, but he kept smoking and drinking almost until the end (the smoking was probably not his fault entirely --- the U. S. government used to put cigarettes in soldiers' ration packs, I've heard...).
Thanks for the very kind comments.
Don :)
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Jun 01 '04
11:35 pm PDT
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Re: Top Notch! (Reply to this comment)
by Don_Krider
Christian,
Thanks!
Don :)
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Jun 01 '04
11:31 pm PDT
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Re: I didn't realize... (Reply to this comment)
by Don_Krider
Dave,
I actually got in an argument with the local newspaper TV critic over the merits of the TV show (I was 19 at the time, after all). It sure beat the heck out of "Happy Days" in my book, at least at the time...
Don :)
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Jun 01 '04
11:31 pm PDT
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Re: Knock this battery off my shoulder--I DARE ya! (Reply to this comment)
by Don_Krider
Brett,
I had totally forgotten about that Robert Conrad commercial --- LOL! Boyington's comments about loving to hear the sound of American bombers while a POW were interesting; I remember some of the Marines held in the "Iranian hostage crisis" of the Carter years saying after release that they kept wishing they heard Anerican bombers overhead during their imprisonment!
Don :)
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Jun 01 '04
11:29 pm PDT
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Re: I liked this book too, but as usual, I have a nitpick to share :) (Reply to this comment)
by Don_Krider
lorendiac,
I followed your lead here and changed the wording to "a large part of the Soviet Union"...
Don :)
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Jun 01 '04
11:23 pm PDT
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Thank you! (Reply to this comment)
by tennis_player
Very interesting - in fact, fascinating review!
I've know something about Boyington over the years. He lived the last part of his life not far from our area. Near the end, he was giving interviews while he was battling a fatal medical problem and the last picture I saw of him in the newspaper was him in a wheelchair and on a portable oxygen generator.
He lived a helluva life. He was definitely a "character" and great and gifted pilot. I'm glad he was on our side.
Jim
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Jun 01 '04
6:10 pm PDT
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Top Notch! (Reply to this comment)
by christian921
Great review. Very well done! Thanks!
~Christian
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Jun 01 '04
5:54 pm PDT
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I didn't realize... (Reply to this comment)
by krus54
Hey Don,
I didn't realize there wowuld be so many comments on your review! It was a fantastic job and if had the ability I'd rate it MH. I would love to read this book.
Another person said they used to watch the TV show but didn't realize it was about a real person. I knew it was about a real person, but I never there was a book out about him!! I used to LOVE the tv show.
Great job, man!
Dave
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Jun 01 '04
3:05 pm PDT
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Knock this battery off my shoulder--I DARE ya! (Reply to this comment)
by brett_w
Wow--great review! I read this book two or three times back in the late seventies, about the time the show was on. I was already a fan of military aviation, and I developed a new appreciation for the Chance-Vought F4U Corsair (the gull-winged fighter seen in the TV show).
The book vignettes I remember most clearly are Boyington sticking tobacco in his eyes to keep them open on patrol, and his ecstatic reaction to hearing American bombing while a POW.
Nice to see you're not ALL about seventies power pop, not that there's anything wrong with that! :-D
Brett
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Jun 01 '04
12:16 pm PDT
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I liked this book too, but as usual, I have a nitpick to share :) (Reply to this comment)
by lorendiac
Some years ago I picked up a copy of this at a library sale. Later, I bought another copy and gave it to my father as a gift (Christmas or birthday, I forget which). My father remembered seeing the old TV series sometimes, and thus recognized the name of Pappy Boyington, but had not realized there was an autobiographical book.
Now for the obligatory nitpick . . .
There was one point where I think your accuracy could stand some improvement. You said: Most of Europe and two-thirds of the Soviet Union (including much of Russia) were already under the boots of German and Italian soldiers.
"Two-thirds" of the USSR is debatable. Are we talking in terms of the total square miles of land which Stalin dominated in 1940, before Hitler decided to invade in 1941? By that time, the government in the Kremlin claimed jurisdiction over a huge stretch of northern Asia, stretching all the way from Europe to the Pacific coast. As far as I know, the Germans and Italians never set foot in that huge Asian area at all. (Hitler kept hoping the Japanese would launch a major assault on the Soviet Union's Far Eastern territories, which might cause Stalin to divert a lot of his war effort to an area thousands of miles away from Hitler's Eastern Front, but that simply didn't happen.)
I admit that the northern half of the Asian continent must have been sparsely populated in those days. Perhaps you meant to say that the Axis had overrun roughly 2/3 of the European holdings of the Soviet Union? (I don't know if that's accurate, but they might have.)
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Jun 01 '04
11:57 am PDT
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Re: fasinating... (Reply to this comment)
by Don_Krider
doglover,
You'll enjoy the book. I've read it several times over the last few decades (shyly admitting to getting old here --- "Go Class Of '75!!!")...
Don :)
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Jun 01 '04
9:25 am PDT
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Re: Great Job Don (Reply to this comment)
by Don_Krider
Ron,
Robert Conrad was perfect for the TV version of the man, but Pappy Boyington must have been one heck of a guy in real life. Glad I could describe him in some small way here.
Don :)
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Jun 01 '04
9:20 am PDT
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