MacArthur's Airmen - Richard Ira “Dick” Bong
 Richard Ira “Dick” Bong is the highest-scoring “Ace” in American history, being credited with 40 enemy kills. He received the Medal of Honor for his exploits in the Pacific during World War II.
Bong was one of nine children born to Swedish parents in Poplar, WI. While at college in the late 1930s, Bong enrolled in the Civilian Pilot Training Program, and joined the U.S. Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Program in 1941. He received a commission as a Second Lieutenant in January 1942, assigned to the 49th fighter Squadron at Hamilton Field, CA. He distinguished himself as a pilot of the Army’s new P-38 Lightning fighter, although running afoul of his boss, George Kenney, for “buzzing” homes and the Golden Gate Bridge. However, Kenney found Bong to be a very promising aviator and thus had the young pilot transferred to the Pacific when Kenney was tapped to command the air wing in the Southwest Pacific.
Bong was assigned to the 9th Fighter Squadron, 49th Fighter Group, based at Darwin, Australia. Because of a shortage of P-38s in the theater, Bong and other pilots temporarily flew missions with the 39th Fighter Squadron out of New Guinea to gain combat experience. Bong shot down his first two enemy aircraft on December 27, 1942. In March 1943, he was returned to the 9th FS, now operating out of New Guinea as well. He shot down four Japanese planes during one mission on July 26, 1943, for which he received the Distinguished Service Cross.
During the early winter of 1943-4, Bong returned home to Wisconsin on leave where he met Marge Vattendahl. When he returned from leave in January 1944, he named his P-38 “Marge” after his new girlfriend and had her portrait painted on the nose of the aircraft. By April of that year, Bong had amassed 27 kills – surpassing the previous American record of 26 kills set by Eddie Rickenbacker in World War I. Bong was sent home during the summer of 1944 but returned to the Pacific that September, ostensibly as an instructor, but he continued to fly combat missions, increasing his victory tally to 40. In December 1944, at the recommendation of General Kenney, Bong – now a Major – received the Medal of Honor from theater commander General Douglas MacArthur. The next month, Bong was sent home for good, engaging in war bond promotions and also marrying Marge Vattendahl.
He then became an Army Air Force test pilot, flying the new Lockhead F-80 Shooting Star jet. On August 6, 1945 – the date of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima – Bong’s jet experienced a mechanical failure soon after take-off, resulting in Bong’s death. He remains America’s “Ace of Aces.”
Bong’s Medal of Honor citation reads:
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 eight enemy airplanes during this period.
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