Zero combat missions. Zero kills. And 177 Japanese aircraft heading straight for him.
On April 7, 1943, a 22-year-old Marine pilot strapped into his F4F Wildcat at Henderson Field, Guadalcanal. He had never fired his guns at anything other than a towed target sleeve. The Japanese had sent their largest strike force since the fall of Guadalcanal — and his division of four fighters was already in the air when the warning came through.
What happened over Tulagi Harbor in the next fifteen minutes turned a textbook rookie into something the Marine Corps had never seen before. But the fight was only half the story. What came after — the friendly fire, the shattered windscreen, the sinking cockpit — nearly erased everything he'd just done.
This is the story of James Swett. And it's one of the most extraordinary first days in the history of aerial combat.
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