A piece of a Lightning P-38 fighter plane flown by Richard Bong was recovered from a jungle crash site in Papua New Guinea and returned to the Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center in Superior, Wisconsin.
Richard Bong was one of America’s greatest fighter pilots during World War II. He was credited with 40 aerial victories against the Japanese military. General Douglas MacArthur presented him with the Medal of Honor in December 1944. He named his iconic P-38 after his fiancée, Marjorie Ann Vattendahl (“Marge”), and painted her face on the nose of the plane.
Bong’s P-38 Lightning, which was flown by another pilot (Thomas Malone), crashed on a mission in March 1944 on a hillside in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. Bong was not in the plane; Malone managed to parachute out safely and was rescued. The wreckage of the P-38 aircraft was located in 2024 by Justin Taylan of Pacific Wrecks.
Continue reading for more details.
Everything to know about Richard Bong as part of a plane flown by the ace gets added to the Wisconsin museum
Major Richard Bong achieved his record of 40 confirmed aerial victories exclusively while flying the Lockheed P-38 Lightning in the Pacific Theater, making him America’s top-scoring flying ace of World War II.
In 2024, it was reported that Bong’s P-38 fighter plane, assigned to America’s ace of aces of WWII, crashed in the mountain region of Papua New Guinea. In 2026, the “Mission Marge” expedition involving Bong family members (including nephews), museum staff, and local villagers retrieved a 6-by-3-foot aluminium wingtip section. The aircraft still had remnants of the red paint that Bong had applied at the wingtip.
The wingtip was displayed at EAA AirVenture Air Show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. According to a report in CBS News, John Gidley, executive director of the Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center in Superior, Wisconsin, said:
“If you look at all the exhibits, behind them is a local person, a local veteran’s story for the most part. Today they would say the story went viral. It became big news. It made Marge and Bong famous. It’s probably the best story out of World War II that they didn’t make a movie out of.”
Richard Bong was the United States’ highest-scoring fighter ace of World War II, and with 40 confirmed aerial victories, he remains America’s all-time leading ace. He flew the twin-engine Lockheed P-38 Lightning against Japanese forces in the Southwest Pacific.
Bong grew up on a family farm in Poplar, Wisconsin. Born on September 24, 1920, he was the oldest of the nine children born to Swedish immigrants and was commissioned as a U.S. Army Air Forces second lieutenant in January 1942. He flew in hundreds of missions during World War II. He married Marjorie Ann Vattendahl (later Marjorie Bong Drucker) on February 10, 1945, at Concordia Lutheran Church in Superior, Wisconsin.
Bong died on August 6, 1945, at age 24, when his P-80 crashed near Burbank, California, during a test flight. He is buried in Poplar, Wisconsin.
