Dr. James M. Reames; Flight Surgeon for Black Sheep Squadron

Dr. James M. Reames, 80, the original flight surgeon for the famed Black Sheep Squadron of World War II. The Marine Corps fighter group led by “Pappy” Boyington scored 97 aerial combat victories against Japan and became legendary for its heroic exploits. Reames was featured in Boyington’s top-selling 1958 book “Baa Baa Black Sheep.” The surgeon and Boyington served as advisors on the 1970s film and television series titled “The Black Sheep Squadron,” starring Robert Conrad. Reames, a graduate of the University of Tennessee Medical School, was a pilot as well as a surgeon and was one of the first Marines stationed at El Toro Marine Base. After the war, he practiced medicine for more than 40 years at Beverly Hospital in Montebello. On Jan. 2 in Laguna Niguel.