Richard Bong Richard Ira " Dick " Bong ( September 24 , 1920 – August 6 , 1945 ) is the United States ' highest - scoring air ace , having shot down at least 40 Japanese aircraft during World War II . He was a fighter pilot in the U . S . Army Air Forces ( USAAF ) and a recipient of the Medal of Honor . All of his aerial victories were in the P - 38 Lightning fighter aircraft . Early life . Bong , the son of Swedish immigrant parents , grew up on a farm in Poplar , Wisconsin as one of nine children . He became interested in aircraft at an early age and was a keen model builder . He began studying at Superior State Teachers College in 1938 . While there , Bong enrolled in the Civilian Pilot Training Program and also took private flying lessons . In 1941 he enlisted in the Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Program . One of his flight instructors was Capt . Barry Goldwater ( later Senator from Arizona ) . Bong ' s ability as a fighter pilot was recognized at training in northern California . He received his wings and commission as a second lieutenant on January 9 , 1942 , and became a gunnery instructor . Combat . Bong ' s first operational assignment was to the 49th Fighter Squadron ( FS ) , 14th Fighter Group at Hamilton Field , California , where he transitioned into the twin - engine P - 38 Lightning . On June 12 , 1942 , Bong flew very low over ( " buzzed " ) a house in nearby San Anselmo , the home of a pilot who had just been married . He was cited and temporarily grounded for breaking flying rules , along with three other P - 38 pilots who had looped around the Golden Gate Bridge on the same day . For looping the Golden Gate Bridge , for flying at low level down Market Street in San Francisco and for blowing the clothes off of an Oakland woman ' s clothesline , Bong was reprimanded by General George C . Kenney , commanding officer of the Fourth Air Force , who told him , " If you didn ' t want to fly down Market Street , I wouldn ' t have you in my Air Force , but you are not to do it any more and I mean what I say . " Kenney later wrote : " We needed kids like this lad . " In all subsequent accounts , Bong denied flying under the Golden Gate Bridge . Nevertheless , Bong was still grounded when the rest of his group was sent without him to England in July 1942 . Bong then transferred to another Hamilton Field unit , 84th Fighter Squadron of the 78th Fighter Group . From there Bong was sent to the Southwest Pacific Area . On September 10 , 1942 , Lt . Bong was assigned to the 9th Fighter Squadron ( aka " Flying Knights " ) , 49th Fighter Group , based at Darwin , Australia . While the squadron waited for delivery of the scarce Lockheed P - 38 s , Bong and other 9th FS pilots flew missions with the 39th FS , 35th Fighter Group , based in Port Moresby , New Guinea , to gain combat experience . On December 27 , 1942 , Bong claimed his initial aerial victory , shooting down a Mitsubishi A6M " Zero " and a Nakajima Ki - 43 " Oscar " over Buna ( during the Battle of Buna - Gona ) . For this action Bong was awarded the Silver Star . In March 1943 Bong returned to the 49th FG , now at Schwimmer Field near Port Moresby , New Guinea . On July 26 , 1943 , Bong shot down four Japanese fighters over Lae , an accomplishment that earned him the Distinguished Service Cross . While on leave to the United States in November and December 1943 , Bong met Marge Vattendahl at a Superior State Teachers ' College Homecoming event and began dating her . After returning to the Southwest Pacific in January 1944 , he named his P - 38 " Marge " and adorned the nose with her photo . By April 1944 , Captain Bong had shot down 27 Japanese aircraft , surpassing Eddie Rickenbacker ' s American record of 26 credited victories in World War I . After another leave in the U . S . in May 1944 , Major Bong returned to New Guinea in September . Though assigned to the V Fighter Command staff and not required to fly combat missions , Bong continued flying from Tacloban , Leyte , during the Philippines campaign , increasing his official air - to - air victory total to 40 by December . Upon the recommendation of Far East Air Force commander General George Kenney , Bong received the Medal of Honor from General Douglas MacArthur in a special ceremony in December 1944 . Bong ' s Medal of Honor citation states that he flew combat missions despite his status as an " instructor " , which was one of his duties as standardization officer for V Fighter Command . His rank of major would have qualified him for a squadron command , but he always flew as a flight ( four - plane ) or element ( two - plane ) leader . In January 1945 , General Kenney sent America ' s ace of aces home for good . Bong married Marge and participated in numerous PR activities , such as promoting the sale of war bond s . Bong considered his gunnery accuracy to be poor , so he compensated by getting as close to his targets as possible to make sure he hit them . In some cases he flew through the debris of exploding enemy aircraft , and on one occasion actually collided with his target , which he claimed as a " probable " victory . Death . Bong then became a test pilot assigned to Lockheed ' s Burbank , California plant , where he flew P - 80 Shooting Star jet fighter s at the Lockheed Air Terminal . On August 6 , 1945 , the plane ' s primary fuel pump malfunctioned during takeoff on the acceptance flight of P - 80A 44 - 85048 . Bong either forgot to switch to the auxiliary fuel pump , or for some reason was unable to do so . Bong cleared away from the aircraft , but was too low for his parachute to deploy . The plane crashed into a narrow field at Oxnard St & Satsuma Ave , North Hollywood . His death was front - page news across the country , sharing space with the first news of the bombing of Hiroshima . At the time of the crash , Bong had accumulated four hours and fifteen minutes of flight time ( totaling 12 flights ) in the P - 80 . The I - 16 fuel pump was a later addition to the plane ( after an earlier fatal crash ) and Bong himself was quoted by Captain Ray Crawford ( another P - 80 test / acceptance flight pilot who flew the day Bong was killed ) as saying that he had forgotten to turn on the I - 16 pump on an earlier flight . In his autobiography , Chuck Yeager also writes , however , that part of the ingrained culture of test flying at the time , due to the fearsome mortality rates of the pilots , was anger directed at pilots who died in test flights , to avoid being overcome by sorrow for lost comrades . Bong ' s brother Carl ( who wrote his biography ) questions the validity of reported circumstance that Bong repeated the same mistake so soon after mentioning it to another pilot . Carl ' s book — " Dear Mom , So We Have a War " ( 1991 ) — contains numerous reports and findings from the crash investigations . Major Richard Ira Bong is buried in a Poplar , Wisconsin cemetery . Awards and decorations . Medal of Honor citation . Citation : " For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action above and beyond the call of duty in the Southwest Pacific area from October 10 , to November 15 , 1944 . Though assigned to duty as gunnery instructor and neither required nor expected to perform combat duty , Maj . Bong voluntarily and at his own urgent request engaged in repeated combat missions , including unusually hazardous sorties over Balikpapan , Borneo , and in the Leyte area of the Philippines . His aggressiveness and daring resulted in his shooting down 8 enemy airplanes during this period . "