During World War II, Major Richard "Dick" Ira Bong's legendary exploits at the helm of his P-38 Lightning made him a household name. Bong received the Medal of Honor for his exploits of downing 40 enemy Japanese planes in the Southwestern Pacific. His tally of 40 victories made him the highest-scoring American ace of all time, a record that is unlikely to ever be broken. Bong died at the tender age of 24 on the 6th of August 1945 in a flight accident during testing of the P-80 Shooting Star Fighter. His fame was such that news of his death vied with the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima in the US press.
During World War II, Major Richard "Dick" Ira Bong's legendary exploits at the helm of his P-38 Lightning made him a household name. Bong received the Medal of Honor for his exploits of downing 40 enemy Japanese planes in the Southwestern Pacific. His tally of 40 victories made him the highest-scoring American ace of all time, a record that is unlikely to ever be broken. Bong died at the tender age of 24 on the 6th of August 1945 in a flight accident during testing of the P-80 Shooting Star Fighter. His fame was such that news of his death vied with the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima in the US press.
