Lanc, the guys who were debating it were flying these aircraft since before our parents were little babies or even before they were born.
Sometimes their memory has faded a bit.
Plus they pointed out that sometimes the planes were modified on the airfield for one reason or another and it was never documented "officially". I would not put it past some marine to say "if the AAF had droop snoot P38's, why cant we have droop snoot Tigercats".