{"id":76534,"date":"2024-05-24T21:10:03","date_gmt":"2024-05-24T21:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2024\/05\/24\/world-war-ii-ace-richard-bongs-plane-found-explorers-believe\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T20:58:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T20:58:18","slug":"world-war-ii-ace-richard-bongs-plane-found-explorers-believe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2024\/05\/24\/world-war-ii-ace-richard-bongs-plane-found-explorers-believe\/","title":{"rendered":"World War II ace Richard Bong\u2019s plane found, explorers believe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Searchers announced Thursday they\u2019ve discovered what they believe is the wreckage of World War II ace Richard Bong\u2019s plane in the South Pacific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center in Superior, Wisconsin, and the nonprofit World War II historical preservation group Pacific Wrecks announced in March they were launching <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/richard-bong-marge-plane-new-guinea-expedition-b9bfcbf584d7e6987f65d0cc6d571bde\" target=\"_blank\">a joint search<\/a> for Bong\u2019s Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter. Bong nicknamed the plane \u201cMarge\u201d after his girlfriend, Marge Vattendahl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another pilot, Thomas Malone, was flying the plane in March 1944 over what is now known as Papua New Guinea when engine failure sent it into a spin. Malone bailed out before the plane crashed in the jungle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The expedition\u2019s leader, Pacific Wrecks Director Justin Taylan, said that the search team discovered the wreckage in the jungles of Papua New Guinea\u2019s Madang Province on May 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He released photos of himself in the jungle with chunks of metal on the ground. In one photo he points to what the caption calls a wing tip from the plane stamped with \u201c993,\u201d the last three numbers of the plane\u2019s serial number. Enlarging the photo shows markings that could be two \u201c9s\u201d but they\u2019re obscured by what might be dirt or rust and difficult to make out. Another photo shows a piece of metal stamped with \u201cModel P-38 JK.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Taylan said during a video news conference from Papua New Guinea on Thursday afternoon that the serial number and model identification prove the plane is Marge \u201cdefinitely, beyond a doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think it\u2019s safe to say mission accomplished,\u201d Taylan said. \u201cMarge has been identified. It\u2019s a great day for the center, a great day for Pacific Wrecks, a great day for history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Taylan has been researching the location of the crash site for years. He said that historical records suggested it went down on the grounds of a 150-year old plantation. Local residents initially showed the expedition the wreck of a Japanese fighter plane before telling the searchers about wreckage deeper in the jungle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The explorers hiked through the jungle until they discovered wreckage in a ravine, Taylan said. At the top of the ravine they found two aircraft engines sticking out of the ground, indicating the plane went in nose-first and buried itself in the ground. Taylan said Bong painted the wing tips red and the paint was still on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bong, who grew up in Poplar, Wisconsin, is credited with shooting down 40 Japanese aircraft during World War II. He plastered a blow-up of Vattendahl\u2019s portrait on the nose of his plane, according to a Pacific Wrecks summary of the plane\u2019s service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bong shot down more planes than any other American pilot. Gen. Douglas MacArthur awarded him the Medal of Honor, the U.S. military\u2019s highest decoration, in 1944. Taylan said that Bong shot down three planes while flying Marge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bong and Vattendahl eventually married in 1945. Bong was assigned to duty as a test pilot in Burbank, California, after three combat tours in the South Pacific. He was killed on Aug. 6, 1945, when a P-80 jet fighter he was testing crashed. He died on the same day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vattendahl was 21 at the time of Bong\u2019s death. She went on to become a model and a magazine publisher in Los Angeles. She died in September 2003 in Superior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A bridge connecting Superior and Duluth, Minnesota, is named for Bong. A state recreation area in southeastern Wisconsin also is named for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Bong family is very excited about this discovery,\u201d James Bong, Richard Bong\u2019s nephew, said in the news release. \u201cIt is amazing and incredible that \u2018Marge\u2019 has been found and identified.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Searchers announced Thursday they\u2019ve discovered what they believe is the wreckage of World War II ace Richard Bong\u2019s 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By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>World War II ace Richard Bong\u2019s plane found, explorers believe - Navy Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Searchers announced Thursday they\u2019ve discovered what they believe is the wreckage of World War II ace Richard Bong\u2019s plane.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"World War II ace Richard Bong\u2019s plane found, explorers believe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Searchers announced Thursday they\u2019ve discovered what they believe is the wreckage of World War II ace Richard Bong\u2019s plane.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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