WHEREAS, 1934 University of Washington graduate and United States Marine Corps Colonel Gregory "Pappy" Boyington served our country valiantly during World War II; and
     WHEREAS, Colonel "Pappy" Boyington shot down twenty-eight enemy planes with the Corps' Black Sheep Squadron, making him one of the war's highest-ranking aces; and
     WHEREAS, Colonel "Pappy" Boyington was himself shot down on January 3, 1944, and presumed dead; and
     WHEREAS, Colonel "Pappy" Boyington was in fact alive and taken as a POW for twenty months until the war's end in 1945; and
     WHEREAS, Colonel "Pappy" Boyington was awarded the American Defense Service Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, American Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, the Navy Cross, and the Medal of Honor, the highest award bestowed by the United States Armed Forces; and
     WHEREAS, Colonel "Pappy" Boyington authored a bestselling book about his experiences as a World War II fighter pilot; and
     WHEREAS, Universal Studios created a television series for NBC in 1976 that lasted two years based on Colonel "Pappy" Boyington and his Black Sheep Squadron called "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" and starring TV veteran Robert Conrad in the role of squadron leader and named Boyington its "technical adviser"; and
     WHEREAS, Colonel "Pappy" Boyington died in 1988 in Fresno, California, and was buried with full honors in Arlington National Cemetery;
     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, That Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, a Pacific Northwest native and graduate of Lincoln High School in Tacoma, engineering graduate of the University of Washington, Marine Corps Colonel and ace fighter pilot, be honored by the Washington State Senate for his courage and valor as a member of the United States Marine Corps and as a member of what has been dubbed "The Greatest Generation."