Legendary Fighter Plane Found

Searchers have found the wreckage of WWII fighter Ace Richard Bong’s P-38 Lightning in the South Pacific, its red paint giving it away. Here’s the fascinating tale of the legendary fighter plane found:

WWII Fighter Ace’s Lost Plane

Richard Bong is credited with shooting 40 Japanese planes. However, his famed P-38 Lighting, which he named Marge after his girlfriend, has never been found. Earlier this year, the Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center partnered with the WWII historical preservation group Pacific Wrecks to search for the missing Lockheed P-38 Lightning.

The Crash

The plane went down in March 1944 over what’s now known as Papua New Guinea. The cause was engine failure, the pilot bailed out and survived, but the P-38 later crashed into the jungle. Historical records initially suggested the crash to be on the 150-year-old plantation, however, it turned out to be the wreck of a Japanese fighter plane.

The expedition hiked deep into the jungle until they found wreckage in a ravine. At the top of the ravine, they found two plane engines sticking out of the ground. One photo showed a piece of metal stamped as “Model P38 JK,” the exact model of the P-38 Lightning Bong flew. The plane’s wingtip was stamped as 993—the last three digits of the plane’s serial number.

The Red Paint

Red paint is also visible on the wingtip. Red pain is relatively uncommon in the Pacific. Still, as word of Bong’s aerial victories started spreading, the Army found a fabulous PR opportunity to boost the morale of the folks back home. Bong’s fiancé, Marge, had a photo taken, blown up, and flown to Bong, which was famously plastered on the nose of his plane.

A gallon of red paint was also sent along for the famous script, ‘Marge’ painted next to the photo. Nobody could have known that this red paint could become a vital clue. Bong decided to paint the plane on the nose, the wing tips and the rudder tips all red. That red paint found on the wing tip of the jungle in Papua New Guinea is still visible today and was key to identifying this iconic piece of history.

What Happened to Dick Bong?

Bong shot down more planes than any other American pilot and Gen. Douglas McArthur awarded him the Medal of Honor. After three more combat tours in the Pacific, Bong and his fiancé Marge eventually married in 1945.

However, just a few months later, on August 6, 1945, he was killed when a P-80 fighter jet he was testing crashed. Marge Vattendahl was only 21 at the time of Bong’s death. She became a model and magazine publisher in LA and died in September 2003.