A graduate of the United States Naval Academy class of 1939, he served on the aircraft carrier before being sent to the Naval Air Station Pensacola for flight training. He rejoined "Enterprise" in 1943, and became executive officer, and later commanding officer of Bombing Squadron Ten (VB-10), flying the SBD Dauntless dive bomber. He saw his first combat in the Battle of Kwajalein in January 1944, and participated in the attack on Truk in February and landings at Hollandia in April. During the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, he led 12 Dauntlesses and 17 other aircraft from "Enterprise" in a maximum-range twilight attack against the Japanese fleet, and was personally credited with crippling a Japanese aircraft carrier, probably . He later commanded Bombing Squadron Ninety-Eight (VB-98), a California-based training unit.