Letter to the Editor - Hendricks: Prayer during wartime
The U.S. Marines’ legendary Black Sheep (VMF 214) squadron ruled the skies over the Solomon Islands during World War II. This highly decorated unit “spearheaded the drive that broke the back of Japanese aerial opposition in the Solomons.” The VMF 214, under the leadership of Maj. Greg “Pappy” Boyington, shot down 97 enemy aircraft (confirmed air-to-air kills), recorded over 200 enemy planes destroyed-damaged, strafed 125 Japanese land positions, and destroyed 28 Japanese vessels in 84 days of combat.
Lt. Frank Walton, who knew the “inner workings” of the VMF 214 through the records he maintained, summarized the unit’s gallant achievements in the Pacific theater: “Boyington had welded a conglomeration of casuals and replacements into one of the deadliest aerial combat squadrons in history. He was not only a savage past master of individual aerial combat; he was also an inspiring leader.”
“As a squadron commander Boyington put his men first. ... Whenever the squadron received a new Corsair, for example, Boyington refused to requisition it for himself as a replacement for the well-worn Corsairs they had all been using, but instead let someone else take it. If the officer of the day assigned a new aircraft to Boyington, he would walk over to the board, erase the aircraft number after his name, and give the newer plane to one of his pilots, telling the OD: ‘Give me one of those old klunkers.’”
The Black Sheep squadron earned a unit’s highest honor, the Presidential Unit Citation, for their heroic exploits. Boyington himself shot down 26 enemy aircraft (confirmed).
While racing to the aid of a fellow flyer, he was shot down and presumed dead. He survived the watery crash, however, and was captured – spending the balance of the war in the notorious Japanese Omori prison camp. Source: “Black Sheep: The Life of Pappy Boyington” - John F. Wukovits.
“For extraordinary heroism above and beyond the call of duty as Commanding Officer of Marine Fighting Squadron TWO FOURTEEN in action against enemy Japanese forces in Central Solomons Area from Sept. 12, 1943 to Jan. 3, 1944,” Maj. Gregory Boyington was awarded our nation’s two highest individual military honors, the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross. “Consistently outnumbered throughout successive hazardous flights over heavily defended hostile territory, Major Boyington struck at the enemy with daring and courageous persistence, leading his squadron into combat with devastating results to Japanese shipping, shore installations and aerial forces.’
Maj. Boyington once quietly confided to Chaplain M. Paetznick about his regular prayers for his fliers, “I never taxi out to take off on any mission that I don’t pray; not for myself but for their return and safety. It may not be an elegant prayer, but it always stated what needed to be said.”
A hundred sixty-five years earlier during another critical period in our nation’s history, another field commander also prayed for the Hand of the Lord to move expeditiously on behalf of his army and the nation.
Valley Forge, Pa., winter 1777-78: “I was riding with Mr. Potts near to the Valley Forge where the army lay during the war of ye Revolution, when Mr. Potts said, ‘Do you see that woods and that plain? There laid the army of Washington. It was a most distressing time of ye war, and all were for giving up the Ship but that great and good man. In that woods (pointing to a close in view) I heard a plaintive sound as of a man at prayer. I tied my horse to a sapling and went quietly into the woods.
“To my astonishment I saw the great George Washington on his knees alone, with his sword on one side and his cocked hat on the other. He was at Prayer to the God of the Armies, beseeching to interpose with his Divine aid, as it was ye Crisis and the cause of the country, of humanity and of the world. Such a prayer I never heard from the lips of man. I left him alone praying. I went home and told my wife. We never thought a man could be a soldier and a Christian, but if there is one in the world, it is Washington. We thought it was the cause of God and America could prevail.”
Source: Eyewitness testimony of Isaac Potts, a Valley Forge resident who shared the following story with the Rev. Nathaniel Randolph Snowden (1770-1851), who then recorded it in his “Diary and Remembrances.”
Bernie Hendricks
Brookings
