This story was written by Herbert Brooks Hatch, Jr., one of America's living Fighter Pilot Aces from World War II. Hatch flew a P-38 with the 71st Fighter Squadron, 1st Fighter Group, out of Salsola, Italy. Except for a brief deployment to Corsice to cover the invasion of Southern France, he flew his 59 missions out of Foggia #3. He earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with 11 Oak Leaf Clusters. In his first book, An Ace and His Angel: Memoirs of a WWII Fighter Pilot, Hatch writes of the heroes and hardships endured by veterans of the Army Air Force.