Marine air in Luzon campaign

I was recently looking through the May 2025 issue of Leatherneck magazine, an article about Marine aircraft, and saw this comment about the SBD:

"The Corps continued flying SBDs until VJ Day, notably in the Central Pacific, plus the unique record of guarding the Sixth Army's flank during the advance on Manila in 1945."

I had not heard of Marine participation in the campaign. Looking into it, I found the wikipedia article OOB included 166 Marine SBDs (7-8 squadrons?).

"guarding the flank" reminded me of Patton's advance across France in 1944. Rather than tie down troops on his southern flank, he relied on the tactical air of the 9th Air Force to spot and attack any developing threat. Apparently the situation on Luzon was similar; we wanted to advance as rapidly as possible from Lingayen Gulf to Manila, but there were significant Japanese forces including armor in the eastern part of Luzon that posed a potential threat.