After schooling in his home town of Superior, Wisconsin, Dick Bong enlisted as a flying cadet at nearby Wausau on May 29, 1941. He took flying training at Tulare and Gardner Fields, California and Luke Field, Arizona, receiving his wings and commission on January 9, 1942. He instructed other pilots at Luke until May when he went to Hamilton Field, California for combat training in P-38s.

Bong then went to the Pacific as a fighter pilot with the 9th Fighter Squadron of the 49th Fighter Group in Australia. In November 1942 he was reassigned to the 39th Squadron of the 35th Group and he destroyed five Japanese fighter planes before returning to the 9th Squadron in January 1943. He flew with the 9th until November being promoted to first lieutenant in April and to captain in August. On November 11, 1943 he was given a 60 day leave and reassigned to HQ V Fighter Command, New Guinea, as assistant operations officer in charge of replacement airplanes. In this assignment Bong continued to fly combat missions in P-38s and increased his enemy aircraft kills to 28.

In April 1944 Bong was promoted to major and sent home to instruct others in the art of aerial superiority, with assignment to Foster Field, Texas. In September 19944 he returned to the Pacific with the Fifth Fighter Command as gunnery training officer. Though not required to perform further combat flying, he voluntarily put in 30 more combat missions over Borneo and the Philippine Islands., destroying 12 more planes to bring his total to 40.

General George C. Kenney, his overall Commanding Officer who late wrote Major Bong's biography in a very readable book, decided over 200 missions for a total of over 500 combat hours were enough for any individual and ordered him returned to the U.S. in December 1944, with recommendation for the Medal of Honor for his second overseas tour.

Bong then became a test pilot at Wright Field, Ohio. In June 1945 he went to Burbank, California as Chief of Flight Operations and AF Plant Representative to Lockheed Aircraft Company, then engaged in developing and manufacturing P-80 jet aircraft. Bong received a full training course for P-80s at Muroc Lake Flight Test Base, California but died that August when his plane's engine failed during a flight over Burbank.

In combat, Major Bong had earned the Distinguished Service Cross, 2 Silver Stars, 7 Distinguished Flying Crosses, and 15 Air Medals, in addition to the Medal of Honor. This citation reads:

"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action above and beyond the call of duty in the Southwest Pacific area from 10 October to 15 November 1944. Though assigned to duty as gunnery instructor and neither required nor expected to perform combat duty, Major 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."

The Medal of Honor was personally awarded to him by General MacArthur in the Pacific, who praised him as the greatest fighter ace of all Americans.