McCB,
My Uncle Frank thanks your late father for his protection during that first day of the battle. I know it sounds corny now, but apparently fighter jocks/air support pilots really were referred to as "angels on our shoulders", just like Tom Hanks says in Shaving Ryan's Privates.
funny b/c, in the beginning in n africa, american soldiers were famous for shooting up their own air support, to the point where fighters basically stopped goign near them
Just going on what my uncle said, ivan. YMMV...
no, no, i wasn't disagreeing - he'd be right as rain for d-day and after - by then the krauts had virtually no air force, so there was no american fear of being strafed - in n africa in '42 however, the nazis pretty much owned the sky, so gi's figured everything w/ wings was out to get them, much to the dismay of the few american pilots who were trying to do their job