The "ace business" in U.S. fighter forces got out of bounds last week. The publicity-conscious Eighth Air Force made the whole business absurd by crediting a 23-year-old Mustang pilot, Captain Don Gentile (pronounced genteel) with 30 planes. Reason: seven of the planes had been shot up on the ground. Neither the R.A.F. nor any other Allied air force gives credit for grounded kills.*
In many an airman's book the Eighth's newly revealed custom was not only an injustice to an excellent pilot (squirms Gentile: "It's not good enough . . . I'll never...
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