26. An American Ace Who Took on the Japanese Even Before Pearl Harbor
Promotions were slow in the pre-war years, and Boyington needed more than his first lieutenant’s salary to take care of his growing family. So he resigned his commission in 1941, and signed up as a mercenary with the American Volunteer Group. Better known as “The Flying Tigers”, they fought for China and protect the vital Burma Road from the Japanese. Per Boyington: “The AVG was paying $675 per month with a bonus of $500 for every confirmed scalp you knocked down. In 1941 that was the same as making $5,000 a month [in 1988 dollars]. And with an ex-wife, three kids, debts and my lifestyle, I really needed the work“.
The future ace was a hard-charging and hard living-warrior – traits shared with some other Flying Tigers. That rubbed their commander, Claire Chennault, the wrong way. As Boyington described it: “[Chennault] was less than pleased with some of our antics, such as shooting down the telephone lines with our .45s on the train to our billets, holding water buffalo races and rodeos in the street, or shooting up the chandeliers in a bar when they quit serving us. Some of the ground crew had been caught smuggling guns for profit, and that went over like a mortar round. Our radioman had even purchased a wife from her father, and we tried like hell to keep Chennault from finding out“.