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Ken Walsh – The First Corsair Ace – Medal of Honor pilot’s combat adventures

In May 1943, Ken Walsh became the Marines’ first Corsair ace by downing four Japanese Zeros in only his second combat outing (photo courtesy of author).

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The advanced strip at Munda on New Georgia Island was brand-new and desolate. To one correspondent, it resembled “a slash of white coral in a Doré painting of hell.” Lying 175 miles north of Guadalcanal, it had been in business for only two weeks. Marines on the flightline heard the familiar whine of a Corsair in the traffic pattern and looked up; they knew that a major bombing mission was under way against Bougainville to...

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