While mastering the twin-engine craft at Hamilton Field, San Francisco, he first attracted the attention of General George Kenney, his future mentor and head of the Fifth Air Force. While in the war, he was the one to beat...but nobody ever did. All rights reserved. He played on the school's baseball, basketball and hockey teams; played clarinet in the school band; sang in the church choir; and enjoyed fishing and hunting. This performance earned him the Silver Star.

Richard was the younger and only surviving son of Edward, the Black Prince, and his wife, Joan of Kent.Because his father died prematurely in 1376, Richard succeeded his grandfather Edward III as king in June 1377..

On March 3rd, the opening day of the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, Bong shot down a Zero while escorting B-17s and B-25s attacking an enemy convoy off Lae. In fact, he spent a lot of time perfecting his marksmanship with his Winchester rifle.

Between farm chores and classes, he also played on the school’s baseball, basketball and hockey teams.

The field’s location resulted in some aerial antics by Bong, such as “looping the loop” around the center span of the Golden Gate Bridge in his P-38, and waving to stenographers in office buildings as he flew along Market Street. (1:115)Richard Ira Bong, who would become He grew up on a farm near the small town of Poplar, Wisconsin.

Richard Bong would have been 24 years old at the time of death or 94 years old today. On December 27, 1942, while flying with the 35th, Bong scored his first aerial victories, a Zero and an Oscar; for this he earned a Silver Star.

He received his mail every day by airplane. He completed his senior year at the Superior Central High School in 1938 by commuting, a 44 mile round-trip.Dick was a good student and finished 18th in his high school class of 428. But the most important thing came from a P-38 check pilot who said Bong was the finest natural pilot he ever met. His gunnery instructor at Luke was Captain Barry Goldwater, who later said, “I taught him fighter gunnery. Although an introvert on the ground, he was always eager for action in the air and took his P-38 into any enemy formation he could find, regardless of the odds.After a few limited patrols, the 39th engaged the Japanese on December 27th, 1942. Still determined to be a pilot, he enrolled in the college’s government-sponsored Civilian Pilot training program.

General Kenney took him out of action again and promoted him to Major. Bong was finally grounded and sent home by General Kenney. Then after two and a half years of college, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Program in early 1941.Bong entered service at Wausau, Wisconsin on May 29th, 1941, and received orders to the Rankin Aeronautical Academy, a primary flight school near Tulare, California, where he soloed in a Stearman biplane trainer on June 25th, 1941. Then, on April 14th, the Japanese moved from their base at Rabaul, New Britain with 92 fighters, dive bombers and bombers to attack U.S. shipping at Milne Bay, New Guinea.

In the end, four destroyers and eight transports were sunk. That was the last straw for Kenney who berated him and told him, “Monday morning you check this address out in Oakland and if the woman has any washing to be hung out on the line, you do it for her.

That’s all!”Later, when General Douglas MacArthur selected Kenney to head the Fifth Air Force in the Southwest Pacific Theater, Kenney called for 50 of his P-38 pilots at Hamilton Field to be sent to Australia, and he arranged for Second Lieutenant Bong to be in that group. In the ensuing melee, the P-38s shot down 12 of the enemy planes, two of which Bong downed: a Val bomber and a Zero fighter.

On the following day he downed another over Lae harbor, for which he received the Distinguished Flying Cross. He then went to Luke Field near Phoenix, Arizona, for Advanced Training in single-engine (fighter) planes, where he learned to master the AT‑6 under Captain Barry Goldwater.

Dick did well in high school, helped on the farm, and pursued many interests as a teenager. Dick did well in high school, helped on the farm, and pursued many interests as a teenager.

However, as Riley grew older, she stopped playing with him, leaving Bing Bong out of a job and a bit lonely. He underwent his basic flight training in a BT-13 at Gardner Field near Taft, California. He was the most successful U.S. fighter pilot of WWII.In an unfortunate coincidence of historic events, on August 6, 1945, while half a world away the Enola Gay dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, Bong stepped into an airplane for the last time. Bong and Planck damaged two Oscars on their first pass, and Bong destroyed one on his second.

Copyright © 2020 NAHF.

That's an easy one...we wanted to let everyone know just how young this hero was when he did all of those amazing things.

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