He was awarded air medals for his aggressive performance of duty in the first few months of the war, especially for his strafing gun emplacements and Japanese barges during the raid on Lae and Salamaua, New Guinea, on 10 March 1942. He was also awarded the Navy Cross for his actions during the Battle of the Coral Sea. He shot down a Mitsubishi F1M floatplane over Tulagi during the "Yorktown" air group attack on shipping there on 4 May and strafed the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) destroyer "Yūzuki" as it fled Tulagi harbor. On the morning of 7 May, he flew one of the fighters that protected Torpedo Squadron 5 (VT-5) in its attack on the aircraft carrier "Shōhō". That same evening, he helped to disperse a group of Japanese dive bombers and torpedo planes in the vicinity of the "Yorktown" task force. The following morning, he flew combat air patrol over Task Force 17 and assisted in the downing of one Japanese plane during the attack on his carrier.