Thomas McGuire

Over 3,500 aerial victories credited to P-38 pilots by the end of the conflict.

Both of America's top two aces, Bong at 40 and Tommy McGuire at 38, flew nothing else.

The airplane had its problems.

The compressibility issue in the early models cost pilots their lives until the dive flaps arrived.

America's greatest fighter pilot had come home a husband.

Then Tommy McGuire died.

Maguire was Bong's closest competition and one of his genuine friends.

38 kills, flying P-38s out of the Philippines.

A bridge carries his name, an airport, a veterans memorial.

The state kept its own account when the national memory moved on.

And one more thing worth saying, Tommy McGuire, 38 kills, gave his name to what is now Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey.

The two great aces of the Pacific, the two friends both have military installations carrying their names.

Richard Bong flew a P-38 to 40 aerial victories, the highest total of any American pilot in the war.

Tommy McGuire had 38 kills in one before he died at 38 years old, trying to help a wingman who'd gotten into trouble over the Philippines.

The Lightning's distinctive silhouette, twin booms and a central gondola nacelle, made it instantly recognizable, and the Japanese gave it a name of their own, the Fork-Tailed Devil.

Glacier Girl was not one of those late-war, refined models.