A ?? RE: the characters...

The original novel by James Salter (actually the nom de plume of James Horowitz) was quite autobiographical except that Salter/Horowitz survived the war while Cleve died at the end of the book. Before I further proceed with my answer to the OP's question, I must preface it with the info I posted on the Wikipedia page for this movie:

Other than the names of some characters, the fact that they were flying F-86s against MiG-15s in the Korean War in 1952, and the final dogfight between Cleve and Casey Jones, there is minimal resemblance between the film and Salter's original novel. The character of Cleve Saville (or Cleve Connell in later editions) in the novel more resembles the character of Carl Abbott in the movie, and Abbott in the novel, a less prominent character, is a seasoned ace who outranks Saville. Saville is on his first combat tour in the novel, having done his World War II service in the Panama Canal Zone. The friction between Saville and Pell continues throughout the novel and Pell is a much less likeable character.

There are no pilots' wives as characters in the novel and therefore no love triangle subplots, and no mission where Saville crash-lands, or Pell is shot down, trying to help Abbott. On the return to base after Saville shoots down Casey Jones, his wingman is killed when he runs out of fuel and crashes just short of the runway, and as a gesture to the wingman and also to spite Pell who questions whether Casey Jones was actually shot down, Saville credits his wingman for the kill. Saville actually dies at the end of the novel, with only a single kill to his own credit.

Dutch Imil is a composite of various commanders of the 4th Fighter Wing during the Korean War; Colonel Harrison Thyng was commander of the 4th during Horowitz's tour and was one of them, but Imil more closely resembles Colonel John C. Meyer and Colonel Francis S. Gabreski; Meyer was the top ace of the European Theater in WWII if you count enemy aircraft destroyed on the ground as well as those shot down, while Gabreski was the top ace of the ETO if you only count those shot down; Meyer was the commander of the 4th Wing at the start of the Korean War and was succeeded by Gabreski.

Other posters to Wikipedia contend that Moncavage was based on Colonel Walker "Bud" Mahurin, another top ace of the ETO. Mahurin had the distinction of being the only pilot to score kills in the European Theater, the Pacific Theater and the Korean War; he was shot down over France and rescued by the French Underground, but unfortunately his luck ran out in Korea when he was shot down a second time, as he was on the Chinese side of the Yalu River. As a result, he was one of the last Korean War POWs to be repatriated, over a year after the ceasefire.

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