Initially designed to be an aircraft carrier-based fighter bomber, the Chance-Vought F4U Corsair is, in the minds of most Americans, the hero of the Pacific Theater during World War Two. The United States Navy (USN) received its first F4U Corsair on July 31, 1942, seven months after the United States entered the war following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service on December 7, 1941.