Injun Joe flew the famed Grumman F4F Wildcat at Guadalcanal. Although the Japanese Zero could out-climb, out-maneuver, and was faster than the F4F, the F4F in the hands of skilled pilots made the difference at Guadalcanal. Under Secretary of the Navy, Forestal said, "the Grumman (F4F) saved Guadalcanal."

A pilot's life on Guadalcanal's Henderson Field was anything but glamorous. Operations of the Cactus Air Force began on Guadalcanal with 400 barrels of aviation fuel, a partially completed 2600 foot Japanese dirt air strip and a captured Japanese radio. The planes took off in thick black dust or on a quagmire of black mud. Operational losses in these conditions accounted for one or two aircraft a day. Diet consisted of dehydrated potatoes, Spam or cold hash, and sometimes Japanese rice. Sleeping on mud floored tents was constantly interrupted by Japanese Cruiser aircraft, Destroyer, Submarine and Artillery shells. If a bath could be taken in the Lunga River, it was usually without soap and Malaria and Dysentery were certain torments. The Marines held only a small portion of the island. Battles were routinely fought at the edge of Henderson Field. Making the situation more tenuous, the Japanese controlled the seas at night and nightly resupplied their troops using the "Tokyo Express". The U.S. Navy met with disaster on each challenge of this nightly operation. By mid-October of 1942, the Cactus Air Force could do no more than launch single plane strikes,

With these near impossible conditions and the Japanese continual air superiority in numbers of aircraft of at least 3 to 1 when the U.S. was at its best, the Cactus Air Force maintained a 5 to 1 kill ratio. Some individual squadrons had higher ratios.

Japanese General Hyakutake said, "to recapture Guadalcanal will truly decide the fate and control of the entire Pacific." In fact General Hyakutake had already selected the sight where he was going to accept the American surrender of Guadalcanal.

Australian jungle fighter, Commander Eric Feldt paid the following tribute to the Cactus Pilots, "it was their unabated aggressiveness, taking to the air at every alarm, that began the decline of the Japanese Air force."

The battle that began at 0124 hours on November 14, 1942, the day Injun Joe was lost in action was described by Admiral King, as "the fiercest battle ever fought."

It was with these conditions and circumstances that a three-some of Boot Furlow, Joe Foss and Injun Joe Bauer took off on that fateful day to engage the largest enemy resupply fleet to ever enter the Guadalcanal theater of operations. It was "go for broke" for both the U.S. and Japan.