Wingtip of WWII Ace Maj. Richard Bong's Plane Recovered and Returned to Wisconsin
A significant piece of World War II history has been recovered and returned to the United States. The wingtip of a P-38 Lockheed Lightning fighter plane, flown by Maj. Richard Bong, the top ace of the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, has been found and brought back to his home state of Wisconsin. Maj. Bong, who holds the record for the most confirmed combat victories in U.S. history with 40 shoot-downs, flew this aircraft, named after his future wife Marjorie 'Marge' Vattendahl, during the war. The plane crashed in March 1944 in a rainforest after another pilot was forced to bail out. The search for the plane, known as 'Mission Marge,' was conducted by the Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center in collaboration with Pacific Wrecks, a nonprofit organization. The wingtip was located on a remote hill in Papua New Guinea and has now been added to the collection at the Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center in Superior, Wisconsin. 
