Boyington or Foss? Who Deserves the Title of Top USMC Air Ace?
Much respect to both of these heroic devil dog aces. May they both rest in peace, til Valhalla.
“From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli/We fight our country’s battle in the air, on land, and sea.”—The Marines Hymn
Regarding that “in the air” bit, who is the highest-scoring air ace in United States Marine Corps (USMC) history?
That’s a no-brainer, right? Everybody knows the answer to that question is Col. Gregory “Pappy” Boyington (December 4, 1912-January 11, 1988), Medal of Honor recipient and commanding officer of the legendary Black Sheep Squadron (VMF-214) that was immortalized in both Pappy’s autobiography Baa Baa Black Sheep and the highly embellished 1970s TV series was very loosely based upon the book, correct?
Well, the answer isn’t so simple. Some argue the credit for the top “Flying Leatherneck” fighter ace should actually go to Maj. Joseph Jacob “Joe” Foss (April 17, 1915-January 1, 2003)—a Medal of Honor winner in his own right—for reasons we shall discuss shortly. Let’s take a deeper dive into this debate, shall we?
The Case for Pappy Boyington
The USMC officially credits Boyington with twenty-eight air-to-air kills. However, not all of Pappy’s aerial victories were attained as an actively-serving Marine. Before becoming C.O. of the Black Sheep and flying Vought F4U Corsairs, Pappy scored his first shootdowns flying Curtiss P-40 Warhawks of the Nationalist China’s famed American Volunteer Group (AVG), better known as the Flying Tigers; this was depicted in dramatized form in the Baa Baa Black Sheep lead-in movie/pilot episode (no pun intended) Flying Misfits.
All of Boyington’s victims from his Flying Tiger stint were Nakajima Ki-27/Type 97 (Allied reporting name “Nate,” aka “Abdul”), or as he labeled them, the “I-97.” However—and this is where the debate gets complicated—the exact number of “Nates” that Boyington bagged is a matter of dispute. Boyington claimed six kills, a claim that the Marine Corps accepts as face value, but AVG records officially credit him with two kills in the air along with 1.5 Japanese warplanes destroyed on the ground, ergo the AVG only paid for 3.5 enemy aircraft destroyed. Meanwhile, the American Fighter Aces Association credits Boyington with twenty-four victories (twenty-two with the Marine Corps and two with the AVG).
Whatever the actual numbers, Col. Boyington retired from the Marine Corps on August 1, 1947.
The Case for Joe Foss
Then-Capt. Foss and Marine Fighting Squadron 121 (VMF-121; officially known nowadays as Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121, nicknamed the “Green Knights”) arrived on the island of Guadalcanal in October 1942. Over the next ninety-four days, Foss and his eight-aircraft “Flying Circus” (obviously not to be confused with the Flying Circuses of either Monty Python or Manfred von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron) downed seventy-two Imperial Japanese aircraft, of which twenty-six were credited to Foss.
And none of Foss’s twenty-six kills are in dispute. His first kill was scored on his very first combat sortie on October 13, 1942 (so much for thirteen being an unlucky number). That first kill, along with seventeen of the remaining twenty-five he would rack up, were against the Imperial Japanese Navy’s (IJN) vaunted Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter. It’s even more remarkable considering that Joe did this whilst flying an obsolescent Grumman F4F Wildcat, which was inferior to the Zero in terms of speed and maneuverability (though the Wildcat did have better survivability thanks to having armor and self-sealing fuel tanks that the highly flammable Zero lacked).
Foss’s final three kills were garnered on January 15, 1943, in the process tying U.S. Army Air Service Maj. Eddie V. Rickenbacker’s record that had stood since World War I, making him the first American and the Marine Corps’ first “ace of aces” in World War II. In addition to receiving the aforementioned Medal of Honor, he ended up gracing the cover of LIFE Magazine.
Foss finished his military career with the South Dakota Air National Guard (ANG), retiring in 1955 with the rank of brigadier general; the 114th Fighter Wing’s Joe Foss Field is named in his honor.
And the Winner Is…?
This is a tough one for me. Pappy Boyington is one of my earliest childhood heroes, as I became a fan of military aviation in the first place as a mere wee bitty four-year-old lad watching Baa Baa Black Sheep TV series with my dad (himself a WWII USMC aviation veteran, God rest his soul). My Pappy fandom was bolstered further when I was a sixth grader, rewatching the series and reading part of his book for good measure.
That said, for the sake of fairness and balance, I also became a fan of Joe Foss when I first read about his exploits at the age of ten via Thomas G. Miller Jr.’s top-notch book The Cactus Air Force. I became an even bigger admirer of Joe’s when I joined the National Rifle Association (NRA) in 1990 at the age of fifteen, as he happened to be the president of the NRA at that time.
So then, personal bias and childhood sentiment disclaimers aside, who would I consider to be the top Marine ace, speaking objectively as both a journalist and as a former military officer myself? I would respectfully have to give the nod Brig. Gen. Foss, by double-virtue of the fact that his official kill tally was both undisputed and attained entirely as a Marine.
That said, much respect to both of these heroic devil dog aces. May they both rest in peace, til Valhalla. Semper Fidelis and OORAH!
About the Author: Christian D. Orr
Christian D. Orr was previously a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ) and 19FortyFive. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch, The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). If you’d like to pick his brain further, you can ofttimes find him at the Old Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, partaking of fine stogies and good quality human camaraderie.
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