A WPR Series: Richard Bong -- America's Ace of Aces

Although he was killed when he was just 24-years-old at the end of World War II, and is no longer a national hero or household name, ace pilot Richard Bong of Wisconsin has left a legacy for generations to come. 

On September 24th, 2002, on what would have been his 82nd birthday, the Richard Bong World War II Heritage Center opened on Superior's waterfront to the voices of the University of Wisconsin Barbershop Quartet. 

Wisconsin’s Major Richard Bong was pinned with the Medal of Honor by General Douglas MacArthur.  He had 40 enemy planes shot down, making him America's leading ace fighter pilot in World War Two or any war before or since.  For his own safety, Bong was ordered home from the Pacific at the beginning of 1945. 
 
Bong's sisters Gerry and Joyce say for the first time since 1941, their parents could breathe a sigh of relief.  He was safe, back home on the family farm in Poplar.

America's leading fighter pilot in World War II may have a nice Wisconsin farm boy, but Richard Bong was a deadly combat pilot fighting in primitive conditions in the South Pacific.

Bong was assigned to a jungle airstrip at Dobodura, New Guinea. Ralph Wandrey of Iowa was Bong’s wingman.  He remembers a grass strip 10,000 feet long between a 13,000 foot high mountain range and the jungle.

Being a national hero wasn't Richard Bong’s goal.  He grew up on a farm in the northern Wisconsin town of Poplar.  And he went on to shoot down more enemy planes in any war in U.S. history as a World War Two fighter pilot in the Pacific, becoming known as America's Ace of Aces.

Richard Ira Bong was a good guy. That’s the way Marvin Peterson sees it. He was Bong’s best friend growing up in Poplar. But he says no one figured he’d be a war hero.