Robert Conrad stars as Gregory “Pappy” Boyington who led a squadron of fighter pilots from a Pacific island. The cast includes Simon Oakland as Brig.Gen.Thomas Moore, Dana Elcar as Col.Thomas A.Lard, Dirk Blocker (son of Dan “Hoss” Blocker) as 1st Lt.Jerome “Jerry” Bragg, John Larroquette as Lt.Bob Anderson and James Whitmore,Jr. as Captain James “Jim” Gutterman.
December 28,1977 episode: “The Hawk Flies On Sunday” – The squad always has their sleep interrupted by a Japanese pilot they nicknamed Washing Machine Charlie. It’s not the bombs he drops it’s the noise of his engines. Now they’re ordered to fly to the rear by Colonel Lard.
Also at the post are a group of Army pilots led by Major Layton (Sean Garrison). There’s a lot of the usual inter service rivalry as an excuse for the kind of comedy found in ninety percent of war films and TV shows. On the serious side, T.J. gets involved with Yvonne (Victoria Racimo). She’s half French and half Japanese.
One of the Army pilots had experienced her before. She sold a lot of his gear on the black market and rumor has it that she doesn’t care who she deals with. Pappy orders T.J. to stay away from her and that causes a rift between them.
T.J. storms out and spots Yvonne. She drives off in his Jeep and he steals a motorcycle and follows her. Meanwhile Pappy finds out they’re going on a mission to get The Hawk aka/Admiral Yamamoto. Now he wants to find T.J. He tracks him down to a hut where Yvonne is hiding her wounded uncle, a Japanese Major.
T.J. is ready to desert to help her out until Pappy shows him the light. T.J. thought she felt about him the way he feels about her. Now it’s time for the mission.
This is not one of the better war shows. “Combat!”, “12 O’Clock High” and “The Rat Patrol” were far better.
The real Greg “Pappy” Boyington
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