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Show IN THESE UNITED STATES New Bong Stories Related On Anniversary of Death By VVNU Features. On the first anniversary of the untimely death of laj. Richard I. Bong of Poplar, Wis., America's ace of aces, many interesting facts concerning the modest farm youth who skyrocketed to fame in the armed service of his country coun-try are revealed for the first time by the memorial foundation founda-tion bearing his name. of his tramps Into the woods, gun in hand and a faithful dog at his heels. The Bong family still retains re-tains Dick's favorite hunters. Establishes Record. On July 28, 1943, he became America's leading ace of World War II when he added four victims to his string. His total was 15 and he rapidly was approaching the mark set in World War I by Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker. He had engaged in his 25th operational flight. In August, 1943, he was promoted to the rank of captain and in October Octo-ber he received the Distinguished Service Cross from General Mac-Arthur Mac-Arthur for heroism over New Guinea's Markham valley on a mission flown July 26. Bong passed Captain Rickenback-er's Rickenback-er's record of 26 planes on April 13, 1944, when he shot down his 26th and 27th enemy planes. In April, 1944, Bong was promoted to major and a short time later he was presented pre-sented with the Congressional Medal f 1 f ! f ; ,jf ' v . J The admiration and respect for! the air hero who shot down 40 Japanese Jap-anese planes, held by his friends and neighbors in the tiny village of Poplar Pop-lar in northwestern Wisconsin, is indicative of the personality and character traits of Bong, the man. Shunned Limelight -Bong never considered himself a famous personage. He never thought he was a hero and he consistently con-sistently refused to accept the plaudits of the crowd. Inherently shy and overly modest, he shunned attempts of friends to place him in the limelight. It Is a matter of record that he usually tried to pass the glory on to others to his ground crew, his flightmates and even to parents of all servicemen. serv-icemen. It was his statement that "the real heroes of this war are the parents who sit and wait at home and suffer the real tortures." Although Bong in early childhood showed keen interest in aeronautics aeronau-tics and flying, it is doubtful that he ever thought he would realize an ambition to pilot a plane. He would gaze longingly at planes that passed over his father's farm, dreaming in awe at the miracle of flight. Planned to Teach. Of modest circumstances, he looked forward to a teaching career in his native state. To this end he was enrolled at Superior State Teachers college in Superior, Wis., during the days that fate was sweeping America towards war. By May of 1941 Dick had entered the army. In November he was accepted ac-cepted as an air cadet That Bong was an apt pupil and skillful In the handling of airplanes was indicated soon after his training started. In January, 1942, he was made an Instructor In-structor at Luke Field. In September Septem-ber of that same year he was on his way to the Pacific theater, where he accomplished the deeds now so well-known to the world. 'Probables' Unrecorded. Other airmen, hailing his record of "kills," have stated that Bong shot down at least 9 or 10 more planes than he was credited with, but that because of his rather unorthodox un-orthodox methods of air-fighting, these never were recorded officially. official-ly. He had a habit of trailing his enemy to doom and consequently no witnesses were on hand to verify these probables. Of further interest is the observation obser-vation that the majority of Bong's missions were accomplished at long range; he flew hundreds of miles most of the time before encountering actual combat. Even so, he managed man-aged to outscore all pilots, not only in the Pacific area but also on the European front His success and skill no doubt were accounted for by his accurate ac-curate "eye." It was an accepted ac-cepted fact that Dick's eyesight was most unusual, for he could sight an enemy plane quicker than anyone else in his squadron. squad-ron. Once he got on the trail of a Zero, it was almost certain death for his foe, for he rarely missed. Around his home town of Poplar friends will tell you even today that Bong had a real hunter's instinct. in-stinct. His mother has said that Dick observed things in the dark that others 'would miss. She tells WAR HERO'S ANNIVERSARY . . . Maj. Richard I. Bong, Wisconsin Wiscon-sin farm youth, was America's ace war pilot, being credited with 40 Jap planes before he was killed in a test flight. of Honor by General MacArthur on Leyte island. Test Flight Fatal. Major Bong scored his 40th Jap plane in December, 1944, and not long afterwards he was ordered back to the United States for special spe-cial duty. He was made a test pilot and it was while flying an army jet-propelled jet-propelled fighter that the accident occurred which cost his life on August Au-gust 6, 1945. Two days later he was buried in the quiet little country cemetery at Poplar. The foundation bearing Dick Bong's name was organized by men and women from all walks of life. Its objective is to perpetuate the memory ol deeds of all American airmen of World War II, as symbolized sym-bolized in the valor of Major Bong. This it proposes to do through awarding engineering scholarships to high school graduates and through erection of a shrine at Poplar. ."F V i S- - s .w1to,v,..1....m... x HARDY ANIMALS ... In an attempt to fill the need felt by cattlemen cattle-men in cold regions of North America for a breed of beef cattle which would weather sub-zero conditions, A. S. MacLellan, dominion herdsman herds-man at Wainwright, Alta., Canada, started crossing male beef cattle with buffalo cows 25 years ago. The result was "Cattalo." Today the Cattalo looks more like a domestic animal than a buffalo, al- " though it has inherited the latter's robust qualities and size. In weather which would freeze cattle, the Cattalo survives. After the third generation the buffalo hump has been bred out, reproduction bred in, so crossbreeding was dropped. Quality of the beef is equal to that of the Aberdeen Angus, Shorthorn and Hereford. |