A piece of a World War II fighter plane that crashed 80 years ago and belonged to the country’s top ace has been found and returned to his home state of Wisconsin. The P-38 Lockheed Lighting was flown by United States Army Air Corps Maj. Richard Bong, who holds the record for the most shoot-downs with 40 confirmed combat victories in the air.

Maj. Bong’s Legacy

Maj. Bong was a notable figure in World War II, with a unique history. He was originally from Poplar, Wisconsin, and was a “typical farm kid,” with an interest in flying. He joined the Army Air Forces before the war and learned how to fly. He was eventually sent to the Pacific Theater with the Fifth Air Force.

The plane, named after his future wife, Marjorie “Marge” Vattendahl, was used for dozens of missions. However, another pilot flying it was forced to bail out in March 1944, sending it crashing into the rainforest. Eighty years later, the search for the plane, dubbed “Mission Marge,” began.

The Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center worked with the organization, Pacific Wrecks, to find what was left of the plane scattered on a remote hill. The Historical Center worked with the government of Papua New Guinea to secure all the permissions to legally recover parts of the plane.

The Wisconsin Air National Guard helped fly the wingtip to the US. The relic was loaded into a KC-135 Stratotanker that happened to be in the area on an unrelated mission and on July 15 it arrived back in Bong’s home state. The wingtip is now part of the collection at the Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center in Superior, Wisconsin.

Original reporting: El Paso News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.