Black Sheep Ace is the exciting life story of Sammy Alpheus Pierce, a country boy from rural North Carolina who enlisted in the Army as a private first class and was accepted to pilot training as a young, enlisted man. Upon graduation, he was promoted to the newly created rank of flying sergeant and assigned to fly fighter airplanes. During World War II, over 2,500 enlisted Army men graduated from pilot training and became flying sergeants. Sammy was one of only eighteen who shot down five or more enemy airplanes and achieved the status of ace. His memoirs recount his highs and lows during pilot training and his experiences in the 8th Fighter Squadron, one of three fighter squadrons in the 49th Fighter Group in the Pacific Theater. Sammy was forced to bail out of a P-40 Warhawk behind Japanese lines in October 1943. He was seriously injured and had to evade two thousand Japanese soldiers as well as native cannibals and headhunters to reach an Australian beachhead on the northeast coast of New Guinea. Following surgery in Sydney, Australia, Sammy returned to the United States for rehabilitation. When he returned to flying status, he became an instructor and test pilot in P-51 Mustangs, where he came closer to dying in an airplane incident than at any time in combat. Sammy was recalled to the 49th Fighter Group in October 1944 for a second tour and was again assigned to the 8th Fighter Squadron. He arrived when his squadron was converting to P-38 Lightnings in preparation for General Douglas MacArthur's return to the Philippines. Sammy recounts hell on earth at Tacloban Airfield on Leyte Island, the most difficult and dangerous days of the entire war for the pilots and personnel of the 49th Fighter Group. His memoirs take the reader through the Philippines campaign to Okinawa and, finally, the surrender of Japan.

With their renowned squadron leader Greg “Pappy” Boyington, Marine Fighting Squadron (VMF) 214 was one of the best-known and most colorful combat units of World War II. The popular television series Baa Baa Black Sheep added to their legend—while obscuring the truly remarkable combat record of the Black Sheep and Boyington. A retired naval flight officer and former historian for the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation, Bruce Gamble provides a highly readable account that serves to both correct and extend the record of this premier fighting force.

Black Sheep One is the first biography of legendary warrior and World War II hero Gregory Boyington. In 1936, Boyington became an aviation cadet and earned the “wings of gold” of a naval aviator. After only a short period on active duty, however, he was “encouraged” to resign from the Marine Corps due to his unconventional behavior. Remarkably, this inauspicious beginning was just the prologue to a heroic career as an American fighter pilot and innovative combat leader. With the onset of World War II, when skilled pilots were in demand, he became the commander of an ad hoc squadron of flying leathernecks. Led by Medal of Honor winner Boyington, the legendary Black Sheep set a blistering pace of aerial victories against the enemy. Though many have observed that when the shooting stops, combat heroes typically just fade away, nothing could be further from the truth for Boyington. Blessed with inveterate luck, the stubbornly independent Boyington lived a life that went beyond what even the most imaginative might expect. Exhaustively researched and richly detailed, here is the complete story of this American original.

Here, in his own words, is the true story of America's wildest flying hero, of his extraordinary heroism, and of his greatest battle of all—the fight to survive. The World War II air war in the Pacific needed tough men like Colonel Pappy Boyington and his Black Sheep Squadron. The legendary Marine Corps officer and his bunch of misfits, outcasts, and daredevils gave new definition to “hell-raising”—on the ground and in the skies. Pappy himself was a living legend—he personally shot down twenty-eight Japanese planes, and won the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross. He broke every rule in the book doing so, but when he fell into the hands of the vengeful Japanese his real ordeal began.

Lost Black Sheep tells two amazing stories. The first chronicles the wartime exploits of Marine Corps Ace Chris Magee, former member of the famous Black Sheep Squadron, his improbable postwar odyssey, and the surprising developments of his later years. The second describes the author's personal quest to find a man who seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth and the startling revelations that follow when he finds him.

Join Usagi Jane and her friends, the Skullbunnies, as they save a city from a cyclops monster, travel to the spirit world, ride a giant snow mole, and face off with a hungry jelly dragon in the very first volume of Usagi Jane and the Skullbunnies!