HISTORY LESSON Published Dec. 2, 2009 By Lt. Col. Elliott Stoffregen Via e-mail -- With regard to the photographs on page 22 and 23 ("The Long Blue Line," July/August 2009 issue), whomever wrote the captions is obviously unfamiliar with the Navy's method of designating aircraft prior to Sept. 18, 1962. During World War II, the basic designation for the Chance Vought-built Corsair was F4U and for the Grumman Hellcat was F6F with different models of each indicated by a hyphen and number (for example, F6F-3, F6F-5, etc.). So the designations "F-4U" and "F-6F" (note the position of the hyphens as they appeared in Torch) are not correct when referring to the Corsair and Hellcat. On another point, and with no disrespect intended to the memory of Capt. Richard Britson or his obvious courage, if his citation for the Navy Cross reads "scored a direct hit and seriously damaged a battleship," how did that transform into singlehandedly "sinking a battleship" as Maj. Brent Brockinton gives him credit for in the third paragraph, first sentence? Thank you for the insight. The hyphens were indeed an editing error, and the citation did not reference the actual sinking of the enemy ship.