Wingtip of Top WWII Ace Richard Bong's P-38 'Marge' Comes Home to Wisconsin

A wingtip from Major Richard Bong's Lockheed P-38 Lightning 'Marge' arrived in Wisconsin in early August 2026, more than 80 years after the fighter crashed in the jungles of Papua New Guinea's Madang Province. Bong, America's top WWII flying ace with 40 confirmed aerial victories, was not flying 'Marge' when it crashed on March 24, 1944 — another pilot bailed out after an electrical malfunction during a weather-reconnaissance mission. Prompted by a September 2023 inquiry from Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center curator Briana Fiandt, Pacific Wrecks founder Justin Taylan located the wreckage within days in 2024, and a joint team including the Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery and the Wisconsin Air National Guard confirmed the find via matching serial numbers. In July 2026, Bong's nephews Jim Bong and Mitchell Erickson traveled to the crash site as 'Mission Marge' extracted a wingtip, which the Wisconsin Air National Guard flew home via Guam and Hawaii. The wingtip was displayed at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh (July 20–26) and in Poplar, Wisconsin, before joining the permanent collection of the Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center in Superior. 'To be the first family members to actually be at the crash site of that airplane, and touching it, was kind of surreal,' Jim Bong said.