https://www.militarytimes.com/story/veterans/2015/05/21/fighter-aces-awarded-congressional-gold-medal/27702791/
I went to DC for this, and ended up flying two Navy Aces to the event. It was an incredible 3 days. The stories were fantastic. And a few of them stayed in the bar late with me. Every penny of my bar tab was well spent.
A-10s didn't work a lot with AWACs and we were routinely left out of the big picture, getting very little warning regarding threats. So, I would send my wingman over to the frequency being used by blue air to give us a better picture. Sending him to the red air freq was even better.