Cactus Air Force refers to the ensemble of Allied air power assigned to the island of Guadalcanal August 1942 until December 1942 during the early stages of the Guadalcanal Campaign, particularly those operating from Henderson Field. The term "Cactus" comes from the Allied code name for the island. In 1943, the Cactus Air Force was absorbed into AirSols, a joint command of Allied air units in the Solomon Islands. Background On 7 December 1941, the Japanese attacked the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack crippled much of the U.S. battleship fleet and led to a state of war between the two nations. In launching this war, Japanese leaders sought to neutralize the American fleet, seize possessions rich in natural resources, and obtain strategic military bases to defend their far-flung empire. Japanese forces also attacked and took control of Hong Kong, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaya, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, Wake Island, New Britain, and Guam. Two attempts by the Japanese to extend their defensive perimeter in the south and central Pacific were thwarted in the Battle of the Coral Sea (May 1942) and the Battle of Midway (June 1942). These two strategic victories for the Allies provided an opportunity to take the initiative and launch a counter-offensive against the Japanese somewhere in the Pacific. The Allies chose the Solomon Islands, specifically the southern Solomon Islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida. Allied strategists knew the Japanese Navy occupied Tulagi in May 1942 and constructed a seaplane base near there. During early July 1942, the Japanese Navy began constructing a significant airfield near Lunga Point on nearby Guadalcanal island. After completion, these bases would protect Japan's major base at Rabaul, threaten Allied supply and communication lines across the South Pacific to Australia and New Zealand, and establish a staging base for potential offensives against the New Hebrides, Fiji, Samoa, and New Caledonia. The Allied plan to attack the southern Solomons was conceived by U.S. Navy Admiral Ernest King, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Fleet. King proposed the counter-offensive to deny the use of the southern Solomon Islands by the Japanese as bases to threaten the supply routes between the United States and Australia, and to use them as starting points for a campaign with the goal of isolating the new and major Japanese base at Rabaul while supporting the Allied New Guinea campaign. All of this had the eventual