The backdrop is the expansive Ramu Valley, and the airfield is Gusap. The 49th Fighter Group shared this field with A-20s from the 312th Bombardment Group until about February 1944. Gusap actually had six fields.

The pilot here is 1/Lt George Alber on his assigned P-47D which he named RUTH after his girlfriend in the US. Other 9th Fighter Squadron P-47s of this era were named BIGASBURD, DOPEY/BESSIE J, JO, LADY KATY and PUGNOSE.

The mountains behind are the Finesterre Ranges where the wreckages of more than a dozen MIA Thunderbolts still lie, undiscovered, mainly from the 348th and 58th Fighter Groups.

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