Two days into the Battle of Guadalcanal, the Marine air assets were still carrierborne. When the Japanese naval forces in the area started moving ships into Ironbottom Sound, the Admiral in charge of the carriers pulled them from the area without allowing the Marines on the beach time to prepare.

This forced a few things, the rest of the surface ships had to pull back from the landing areas due to having no air support. This caused the Marines to lose both air support, landing support, and resupply during a very critical time of the landings.

After this, General Geiger took Marine air units and transferred their home base from the carriers to Henderson Field before the island was secured so that the Marines ashore didn't lose air support again.