Richard Ira Bong
Major, U.S. Army Air Forces
Medal of Honor Recipient
World War II

Major Richard Ira Bong is the United States' highest-scoring air ace, having shot down at least 40 Japanese aircraft during World War II. He was an officer and fighter pilot in the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) and a recipient of the Medal of Honor.

Richard Ira Bong, the son of Swedish immigrant parents, was born on 24 September 1920 and grew up on a farm in Poplar, WI, as one of nine children. He became interested in aircraft at an early age and was a keen model builder.

He began studying at Superior State Teachers College in 1938. While there, Bong enrolled in the Civilian Pilot Training Program and also took private flying lessons. In 1941 he enlisted in the Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Program. One of his flight instructors was Capt. Barry Goldwater (later a Senator from Arizona and unsuccessful 1964 presidential candidate). Bong's ability as a fighter pilot was recognized at training in Northern California. He received his wings and commission as a Second Lieutenant on 9 January 1942, and became a gunnery instructor.

Bong's first operational assignment was to the 49th Fighter Squadron (FS), 14th Fighter Group at Hamilton Field, CA, where he transitioned into the twin-engine P-38 Lightning.

On 12 June 1942, Bong flew very low over ("buzzed") a house in nearby San Anselmo, the home of a pilot who had just been married. He was cited and temporarily grounded for breaking flying rules, along with three other P-38 pilots who had looped around the Golden Gate Bridge on the same day. For looping the Golden Gate Bridge; for flying at low level down Market Street in San Francisco; and for blowing the clothes off of an Oakland woman's clothesline, Bong was reprimanded by General George C. Kenney, Commanding General of the Fourth Air Force, who told him, "If you didn't want to fly down Market Street, I wouldn't have you in my Air Force, but you are not to do it anymore and I mean what I say." Kenney later wrote: "We needed kids like this lad." In all subsequent accounts, Bong denied flying under the Golden Gate Bridge. Nevertheless, Bong was still grounded when the rest of his group was sent without him to England in July 1942. Bong then transferred to another Hamilton Field unit, 84th Fighter Squadron of the 78th Fighter Group. From there Bong was sent to the Southwest Pacific Area.

On 10 September 1942, Lt. Bong was assigned to the 9th Fighter Squadron (aka "Flying Knights"), 49th Fighter Group, based at Darwin, Australia. While the squadron waited for delivery of the scarce Lockheed P-38s, Bong and other 9th FS pilots flew missions with the 39th FS, 35th Fighter Group, based in Port Moresby, New Guinea, to gain combat experience. On 27 December 1942, Bong claimed his initial aerial victory, shooting down a Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" and an Nakajima Ki-43 "Oscar" over Buna (during the Battle of Buna-Gona). For this action Bong was awarded the Silver Star Medal.

In March 1943, Bong returned to the 49th FG, now at Schwimmer Field near Port Moresby, New Guinea. On 26 July 1943, Bong shot down four Japanese fighters over Lae, an accomplishment that earned him the Distinguished Service Cross. While on leave to the U.S. in November and December 1943, Bong met Marge Vattendahl at a Superior State Teachers' College Homecoming event and began dating her. After returning to the Southwest Pacific in January 1944, he named his P-38 "Marge" and adorned the nose with her photo. By April 1944, Captain Bong had shot down 27 Japanese aircraft, surpassing Eddie Rickenbacker's American record of 26 credited victories in World War I.

After another leave in the U.S. in May 1944, Major Bong returned to New Guinea in September. Although assigned to the V Fighter Command staff and not required to fly combat missions, Bong continued flying from Tacloban, Leyte, during the Philippines campaign, increasing his official air-to-air victory total to 40 by December. Upon the recommendation of Far East Air Force Commander General George Kenney, Bong received the Medal of Honor from General Douglas MacArthur in a special ceremony in December 1944.

Medal of Honor

Rank and organization: Major, U.S. Army Air Corps.

Place and date: Over Borneo and Leyte, 10 October to 15 November 1944.

Entered service at: Poplar, WI. Birth: Poplar, WI.

Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action above and beyond the call of duty in the Southwest Pacific area from 10 October to 15 November 1944. Though assigned to duty as gunnery instructor and neither required nor expected to perform combat duty, Maj. Bong voluntarily and at his own urgent request, engaged in repeated combat missions including unusually hazardous sorties over Balikpapan, Borneo, and in the Leyte area of the Philippines. His aggressiveness and daring resulted in his shooting down 8 enemy airplanes during this period.

Bong's Medal of Honor citation states that he flew combat missions despite his status as an "instructor," which was one of his duties as standardization officer for V Fighter Command. His rank of Major would have qualified him for a squadron command, but he always flew as a flight (four-plane) or element (two-plane) leader.

In January 1945, General Kenney sent America's ace of aces home for good. Bong married Marge and participated in numerous public relation activities, such as promoting the sale of war bonds.

Ironically, Bong considered his gunnery accuracy to be poor, so he compensated by getting as close to his targets as possible to make sure he hit them. In some cases he flew through the debris of exploding enemy aircraft, and on one occasion actually collided with his target, which he claimed as a "probable" victory.

Bong then became a test pilot assigned to Lockheed's Burbank, CA, plant where he flew P-80 Shooting Star jet fighters at the Lockheed Air Terminal. On 6 August 1945, the plane's primary fuel pump malfunctioned during takeoff on the acceptance flight of P-80A 44-85048. Bong either forgot to switch to the auxiliary fuel pump, or for some reason was unable to do so. Bong cleared away from the aircraft, but was too low for his parachute to deploy. The plane crashed into a narrow field at Oxnard Street & Satsuma Avenue in North Hollywood. His death was front-page news across the country, sharing space with the first news of the bombing of Hiroshima.

At the time of the crash, Bong had accumulated four hours and fifteen minutes of flight time (totaling 12 flights) in the P-80. The I-16 fuel pump was a later addition to the plane (after an earlier fatal crash) and Bong himself was quoted by Captain Ray Crawford (another P-80 test/acceptance flight pilot who flew the day Bong was killed) as saying that he had forgotten to turn on the I-16 pump on an earlier flight.

In his autobiography, Chuck Yeager also writes, however, that part of the ingrained culture of test flying at the time, due to the fearsome mortality rates of the pilots, was anger directed at pilots who died in test flights, to avoid being overcome by sorrow for lost comrades. Bong's brother Carl (who wrote his biography) questions the validity of the reported circumstance that Bong repeated the same mistake so soon after mentioning it to another pilot. Carl's book, Dear Mom, So We Have a War (1991), contains numerous reports and findings from the crash investigations.

Medals and Awards

Medal of Honor
Distinguished Service Cross
Silver Star Medal (2 Awards)
Distinguished Flying Cross (7 Awards)
Air Medal (15 Awards)
American Defense Service Medal
American Campaign Medal
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal

Honors

Richard Bong is the namesake of:

Richard Bong State Recreation Area on the site of what was to be Bong Air Force Base in Kenosha County, WI.

Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge in the Twin Ports of Duluth, MN, and Superior, WI.

Richard I. Bong Airport in Superior, WI.

Bong Barracks of the Aviation Challenge program.

Richard I. Bong Bridge in Townsville, Australia.

Major Richard Ira Bong Squadron of the Arnold Air Society at the University of Wisconsin

Richard Bong Theatre in Misawa, Japan and the 613th Air and Space Operations Center, Thirteenth Air Force, Hickam Air Force Base, HI.

There are Bong Avenues on the former site of the decommissioned Richards-Gebauer Air Force Base in Kansas City, MO; on Lackland AFB in San Antonio, TX; on Luke AFB in Glendale, AZ; on Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage, AK; and on Kadena AFB in Okinawa, Japan.

In Mount Holly Township, NJ, Bong Terrace is named for him. It is in the Mount View neighborhood, built 1956-1957.

On 24 September 2002 the Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center (originally the Bong 'World War II Heritage Center') opened to the public in Superior, WI. Housed in a structure intended to resemble an aircraft hangar, it contains a museum, a film screening room, and a P-38 Lightning restored to resemble Bong's plane.

Death and Burial

Major Richard Ira Bong was killed in a plane crash on 6 August 1945. He is buried at Poplar Cemetery in Poplar, WI.