Warm Reception

by James Dietz - January 25, 1943, Joe Foss returns to Guadalcanal after a mission in which he led eight Wildcats and four P-38s in a series of manuevers around an inbound Japanese aerial attack force of 100 aircraft, faking them into believing that they were outnumbered, so that they abandoned their attack. Having saved the island once again, Foss returned to a deservedly warm welcome. (Though this happened after 1942, it captures the flavor of the Guadalcanal airfield very well.)

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