Cheli advanced to captain in June 1942 and was transferred to the 38th Bomb Group at Barksdale Field, Louisiana, where he was assigned as Operations Officer of the 405th Bomb Squadron "Green Dragons".
On March 3, 1943, during the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, Cheli led the 405th Bomb Squadron in the first daylight "masthead" (low level) attack against a Japanese shipping convoy, one of the first skip bombing raids.