The Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center is a museum that honors the legacy and tells the story of Richard I. Bong, America’s “Ace of Aces.” Major Bong rose to fame during the peak of the fighting in the South Pacific during World War II by emerging as the leading aerial ace eventually breaking the American record of 26 set by Captain Eddie Rickenbacker in WWI. Upon breaking the record Bong honored his sweetheart and eventual wife, Marge Vattendahl by having here portrait embossed on the nose of his P-38 Lightning fighter plane. Bong went on to score 40 victories being the only American Ace in history to reach that number that kicked in his automatic “retirement” from combat air warfare. Just a few months later, after a wedding that captivated the nation, Bong tragically died in a test piloting accident piling the Army Air Corp’s first Jet fighter. Ironically his death came on August 6th, 1945, the same day we dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Our museum tells his story and that of all veterans.