Searching for Bong's Plane

From the March 26, 2024, CBS News "WW II ace pilot Richard Bong's plane crashed in 1944.  A team has launched a search for its wreckage in the South Pacific."

The Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center in Superior, Wisconsin, (far northern part of the state) and the nonprofit World War II historical group Pacific Wrecks announced a search for the plane's remains on Friday according to Minnesota Public Radio.  

Bong grew up in Poplar, Wisconsin and is credited with shooting down 40 Japanese aircraft during World War II-- the most ever, according to the Air Force.

He flew a Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter plane nicknamed "Marge" in honor of his girlfriend, Marjorie Vattendahl.  He plastered a blowup picture of her on the nose of his plane (known as nose art).  At the time, Bong said that Vattendahl "looks swell, and a hell of a lot better than these naked women painted on most airplanes."

Bong was not in the plane when it crashed.

--GreGen

WW II Acronyms and Words-- Part 6: USO, V-12s and P-38s

USO

United Services Organization

Just prior to WW II, President Roosevelt  united several service groups into the USO to boost the morale of military men and women.   The USO provided services like snack bars, clubs, sports  activities and additional  services depending on location.

Bob Hope toured the USOs and did shows with entertainment, skits, monologues, celebrity appearances and singers.

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V-12

The V-12 Navy College Training Program was for Navy and Marine recruits.  The purpose of the program was to provide bachelor's degrees for future officers.  About 125,000 participated in the program at 131 colleges.

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P-38

In World War II, there were two P-38s.

One was a very fats and highly regarded fighter plane.

The other was a small can opener in C- and K-rations.    I always had a P-38 on my dog tags.  Many veterans still have P-38s on their key rings.

--GreGen

Death of WASP Dorothy Olsen-- Part 5: "Despite the Fact That A Woman Once Flew It"

In 1945, just weeks after the end of the war in Europe, she married Harold Olsen and after raising their children, she ran antique shops near her University Place home, where she had lived since the 1960s.  Her husband died in 2006.

There are 37 living WASPs today, according to Kimberly Johnson, the archivist and curator of the WASP archive at Texas Woman's University in Denton.

They and their late colleagues were 'vitally important" -- not only to the war effort but "also for the impact they had on the experiences of women in future aviation" and other careers in engineering and science.

Sometimes before sending a plane off to combat,, WASPs would leave a note for its next pilot, occasionally sealing the missive with a red-lipsticked kiss.  In 1945, Dorothy Olsen received a letter sent from Italy by the pilot of a P-38 she had ferried.

It read:  "I thought I'd write a few lines," the lieutenant wrote, "to  let you know that despite the fact that a woman once flew it, the ship performs perfectly and is apparently without flaws of any kind."

--GreGen

WASP Special Delivery-- Part 2: Aircraft Plants Camouflaged

The flight leader is kneeling and pointing to a specific rendezvous point on an aerial map, reinforcing the path of the WASP flight plan.

Their mission is to ferry five P-38 Lightning fighters to a port of embarkation where the planes will be shipped to bases overseas.  After the attack on Pearl Harbor, several defense plants on the U.S. west coast, including Lockheed, were heavily camouflaged with netting and artificial foliage to resemble farmland as seen from the air.

You can see the camouflage overhead in the picture.

World War II Veteran Dies One Month After Remarkable Flight: Col. Frank Royal

From the November 21, 2016, KKTV News.  Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Colonel Frank Royal, 101, died over the past weekend.  He was able, one month ago, to visit the P-38 fighter plane he flew during the war and actually went up in another plane and flew beside his old one.

This took place at the Museum of World War II Aviation in Colorado Springs.  Back then he flew the P-38 named "White 33.

It was damaged in a dogfight over Papua New Guinea.and is now at the museum.  Frank Royal's son happened to be at the museum and saw the name "White 33" and knew it was one his father had flown.

Col. Royal went up in a chase plane, but said, "Mentally I was flying it."

Glad He Got To Revisit His Past.  --GreGen