BongHeritageCenter.org
Title
Richard I. Bong WWII Heritage Center
Description
Swedish immigrant father and American-born mother, Dick Bong's upbringing epitomized the values and expectations of that era - loyalty to his family and a deep sense of patriotism. Like all farm children, he had chores to perform and was expected to drive farm machinery at an early age. He hunted and fished in the surrounding woods and streams, played on his school athletic teams and sang in his church choir; as his 4H project he planted the extensive evergreen windbreak on the family farm, still in the family. At that time he modeled the ideal all-American boy.
Dick became enamored of flying as a small boy, watching planes fly over the farm carrying mail for President Calvin Coolidge's summer White House in Superior. As a college student he learned to fly in the Civilian Pilot Training program; at the age of 20 he became a flying cadet in the US Army Air Corps, in time for the entry of America into World War II. Dick became America's all-time Ace of Aces, downing 40 enemy planes in the Pacific theater of the war while flying P-38 fighter planes. His many decorations for outstanding skills and extraordinary courage included the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Dick was ordered home for his safety and married his sweetheart, Marge, in Superior. Six months later he was killed test piloting the first Lockheed jet fighter plane. His death at the age of 24 occured the same day that the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, yet he received banner headlines in the national newspapers.
