High command had us split at 2 bases.....F 28 and F 37, so I had the 3 penalty pilots(vangrd,dazed and bwild) launch with
Horseback(pappyb, light. kelly and bombr) from F 28. The 335th and 336th cae out of F 37.
Horseback escorted the gooneys to F 19 along the valleys of Choseiul island where they dropped thr reinforcements with no problem
and turned for home. About 3-4miles SE 0f 19 light and kelly(up high) spotted trailers.....about 6-8 zekes, so we sent the C-47s
further east to land and re-plane in wildcats at F 37, while we turned south to draw the trailers away.
We figured they were scouting, since they really didn't come down to play and we landed at F 28 to refuel.
Meanwhile, the 335th and 336th under the direction of stonie were covering the shipping in the"slot". They came back our way to cover our recovery at 28 and returned to 37 for refueling.
Once all were on the ground at our two bases, I launched the group towards the "slot" once again and we climbed to 24-26k
with a section low at 12k. We never got there, as we spotted a group of Zeros above us and they were into the bay off 37. The fight was from 26k down to about 8k before they ran for home. 4th scored 4 kills and 2 assists while losing 3 to them plus two a/c with safe bail near our territory.