The Corsair, known as the “Whistling Death” to the Japanese and the “Bent Wing Widow Maker” to the Marines, was delivered in March 1943 in time to have eight Marine squadrons available for the New Georgia campaign. The Corsair, along with the new F6F Hellcat fighter, dominated the air-to-air battle to sweep the skies of the Japanese. This superiority was enhanced by Army Air Corps aircraft, the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, for example. Once introduced, each new aircraft version could do a little more than the basic models; it could fly higher, fly longer, and carry more armament than its predecessor. Advances in radio detection and ranging (radar) and communications continued as well to ensure the control systems kept pace with the aircraft. One Marine with Fighter Command, Major John P. Condon, recalled that ComAirSols routinely struck the airfields of southern Bougainville “with escorted bombers, night attacks by Navy and Marine Corps TBFs, and some mining at night of the harbors.” He went on to observe that the shorter-range SBDs were “invariably escorted in their routine reduction efforts against the fields in New Georgia.” Routine did not mean safe, as the Japanese just as routinely made their fighter presence known. Naval officer and novelist James A. Michener heard a pilot observe that he was “damned glad to be the guy that draws the milk runs.” But, “if you get bumped off on one of them, why you’re just as dead as if you were over Tokyo in a kite.” One incident occurred that symbolized the joint nature of the air effort, the destruction of the aircraft transporting Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who had planned the attack on Pearl Harbor. Allied intelligence agencies learned that the admiral and his staff would fly to Kahili on 18 April 1943. Admiral Mitscher ordered Fighter Command to intercept Yamamoto’s aircraft. Planning for this mission fell to the Fighter Command’s deputy, Lieutenant Colonel Luther S. Moore, who scheduled Army long-range P-38 Lightnings fitted with Navy navigational equipment for the task. The flight plan was prepared by the command operations officer, Major Condon. Yamamoto’s plane was intercepted and shot down, ending the life of one of Japan’s major combat leaders.