Guadalcanal Campaign

respective stateside airbases for the next several months in order to prepare for the fight to come in the Pacific. The VMF-124 would leave California, bound for the South Pacific in January 1943. (Musciano, 1979) The Corsair first saw combat at Guadalcanal, an island in the Solomon Island chain just of the coast of New Guinea, on 12 February 1943. Up until the arrival of the F4U, the Marine fighter squadrons of the South Pacific had been using the F4F Hellcat, which the Japanese Zero…

other successful Commanders specifically Edson, a Commander on Guadalcanal, who stated “you’ve got to take a chance on getting hurt. Somebody has to get hurt in these things.”¹⁷ COL Puller understood that success in combat was attained through aggressive actions that put his Marines in harm’s way. Though he took no joy in casualties he accepted the prudent risk that in order to achieve the overall objective of the Peleliu campaign, he needed to risk the lives of his Marines. Another example…