Pine Belt Veteran turns 100 years old | Mississippi | WJTV 12
His little brother that is my Dad hit 98 the other day.
I asked my Uncle Pope just a few years ago "who was the most important person you ever had aboard one of your aircraft?"
He thought for a minute, rubbed his lip, then commenced to tell me:
I was in Guadalcanal. The plane and crew were ready. All I knew was it was going to be a top secret mission. Didn't know who, what, where, anything. So up pulls a jeep. I see this fellow and all the stars on his uniform. I order my crew to salute.
It's Fleet Admiral "Bull" Halsey.
We board the airplane and I ask him where we are going. He says he'll tell me once we are in the air. A few minutes later he tells me to steer to New Georgia Island. Now New Georgia Island was formerly the Japanese airbase known as Munda that we had just taken. So we fly to New Georgia Island and land. The field is in rough shape, they are using bulldozers to bury the Japanese dead in mass graves right next to it. We taxi up and once out of the plane meet with this rough fellow and his rough looking bunch of Airmen.
Greg "Pappy" Boyington and the Black Sheep Squadron.
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I damn near fell out of my chair! Man! Am I glad I asked that question! Thinking about his story a little while later, I actually found an online article where an aviation magazine interviewed Boyington. Sure enough, Boyington said he had met Halsey at Munda/New Georgia Island and thought he was an alright fellow.