On 15 August 1943, as Flight Officer aboard one of a ferry group of 11 Consolidated B-24 Liberators, Leo Carter (who turns 23 just 3 days later) departs Fairfield-Suisun Army Airfield (now Travis AFB) in California for Henderson Air Base on (now Honiara International Airport) on Guadalcanal arriving 21 October 1943.

On 22 October 1943 beginning at about 7:05 AM Leo Carter and

crew, along with 21 other B-24 Liberators, 30 some-odd P-39 Airacobra fighters and P-40 Warhawk fighters, as well as about 160 USN fighters and dive bombers pound Kahili Airfield in the Bougainville Province of Papua New Guinea.

It was Leo Carter’s first of 48 missions. He then flew Douglas C-47 Skytrain on both transport and search/rescue missions from 24 June 1944 to 8 July 1944.