For decades, the war stories of ace pilot Richard Bong of Poplar, Wisconsin, have flown through America’s collective memory. This World War II hero, renowned for shooting down 40 Japanese aircraft, now finds himself at the heart of a remarkable quest – the recovery of his long-lost Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter plane. Preserving history and honoring war heroes, the Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center, based in Superior, Wisconsin, has joined hands with Pacific Wrecks, a noted nonprofit dedicated to World War II historical preservation, for a mission stretching from their home soils to the heart of the South Pacific.
According to the seekers from Pacific Wrecks, Bong’s aircraft was more than just a war machine. Affectionately named ‘Marge’ after his beloved girlfriend, Marjorie Vattendahl, the plane showcased a blown-up portrait of Vattendahl on its nose— a small, humanizing detail on this bird of steel. Bong was quoted stating that Vattendahl “looks swell, and a heck of a lot better than these naked women painted on most of the airplanes”. A rare glimpse of love amid the battlefield, Vattendahl’s portrait stood as a tribute to their relationship until the unfortunate day of the plane’s demise.
This historical aircraft, parading a dual tale of a man’s love and valor, met its fateful end in March 1944 over the airspace of what is now Papua New Guinea. Catastrophic engine failure launched the aircraft into an uncontrolled descent. The plane’s pilot at the time, Thomas Malone, managed to bail out just in time, leaving the machine to crash unattended in the dense jungle wilderness.
The search for the plane will be spearheaded by Justin Taylan, founder of Pacific Wrecks. Backed by a dedication to retrieve this piece of history, Taylan plans to commence the search in May, with an estimated timeline of nearly a month to find ‘Marge’. The operation’s budget is quoted at $63,000, funded entirely through community donations.
Confident yet cautious about the mission, Taylan believes the search will pay off, given the historical records providing an approximate crash site. But the challenge lies in the years that have swept over the crash site. It’s uncertain if identifiable fragments of the once-proud flying machine still remain embedded in the wilds of Papua New Guinea. Even so, Taylan continues to harbor hope, his sights set on a serial number that would conclusively identify the found wreckage as ‘Marge’.
The tale of Richard Bong, however, extends beyond aviation records. This champion pilot eventually married his sweetheart, Marjorie Vattendahl, in 1945. Post three combat tours in the South Pacific, Bong served as a test pilot in Burbank, California. On August 6, 1945, the same day America dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Bong’s luminous life was extinguished as a P-80 jet fighter he was testing crashed. Meanwhile, his widow Vattendahl found success as a model and magazine publisher in Los Angeles, until her passing in Superior in September 2003.
Bong’s legacy continues to straddle the shores of Wisconsin and Minnesota, with a bridge named after him. As the search for ‘Marge’ fuels the engines of history and memory, the tale of Captain Richard Bong, his beloved ‘Marge’, and a World War II era fighter plane prepares for a possible encore to its rich and storied journey.
