Foss vs. Bong

In answer to Dick Fry’s question in the Nov. 24 Lewiston Tribune letters: Joe Foss shot down 26 Japanese planes in World War II flying a Grumman Wildcat (top speed 318 miles per hour).

Richard Bong shot down 40, all with a Lockheed P-38 (top speed 443 mph).

The fastest U.S. propeller driven fighter of the war was the Vought Corsair at 446 mph.

This information came from Wikipedia.

Lucky Brandt

Kooskia

Fry’s friend is correct

In response to Dick Fry’s Nov. 24 letter: Your friend is correct. Richard Ira Bong flew the P-38 and had 40 confirmed kills before he was returned to the United States in 1945. Most of his kills were in aerial combat, and he was able to achieve those kills by using tactics that would have torn the wings off of the Japanese aircraft he faced, such as high-speed dives.

The P-38 was very much a fighter, and achieved one of the highest kill-to-loss ratios of any American fighter in the war.

Maj. Thomas McGuire had 38 kills in the Pacific Theater before he was killed in combat.

P-38s were also the aircraft that were flown on the mission that ambushed the plane carrying Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto over Bouganville Island in 1943.

For more information, check out “Fork-tailed Devil: The P-38” by Martin Caidin. It’s a good read and full of information about one of the most remarkable American fighters of World War.

Graham Driskell

Moscow

Lewiston can do better

Did you know our city is at a critical level of people needing the recreation center open for shelter now and a low-barrier shelter opened in Lewiston so that no one dies or suffers serious injury?

Our fair city has at least one family living in a bathroom without getting any assistance except from the Intermountain Fair Housing Council trying to get her resources.

More than 100 emergency rental assistance applications to governmental agencies are from Lewiston alone, and a third of those are needing hotels/motels simply to stay warm.

The wait for assistance from IHFA is four to six weeks because of the volume of cases of people needing help. Most are families with children and people with disabilities.

With it getting cold, there is an increased risk of these people literally freezing to death outside.

This is unacceptable. We as a community are better than this.

Tell our mayor and city council we need a low-barrier shelter for families and individuals today until affordable homes in Lewiston are available.

Gabriel Iacoboni

Lewiston