Army & Navy – HEROES: Bell Ringer

Sandy-haired, retiring Lieut. Richard R. Bong last week became the No. 1 American fighter pilot of the Southwest Pacific. Flying a twin-engined Lightning over Lae, he blasted down two Zeros and two Messerschmitts to boost his confirmed kills to 15.

Though he hates suggestions that he is a killer, twenty-two-year-old Dicks Bong has a simple but bloody explanation for his record. “I just get on their tails and blow them out of the sky.” A magnificent shot and always eager for action, he has a fighting style all his own — tearing into combat regardless of all risks, spitting more lead than any other pilot stationed at his forward base in New Guinea. Fel low fighters say his probables are more definite than most pilots’ certains.

Before he joined the air corps two years ago, Dicks Bong helped his father with oat and potato crops at Poplar, Wis. (pop. 462). His first combat was in the Buna battle of Dec. 27, when he twice rang the bell with a Zero and a dive-bomber. During the smashing of the Lae convoy in early January he nailed three Zeros. He got another in the Bismarck Sea battle.

In eleven fights, only once has he been scared. When the Japs raided Oro Bay last March, Dicks Bong made a pass at a dive-bomber and then realized a Zero had tagged on to him. He headed out to sea to get clear and flip around and meet the Jap head on. “Imagine my surprise when there were nine Zeros instead of one. But it was too late for anything else, so I tore right into them.” Bong got two.