Richard I. Bong
First Leave in the United States

On December 6, 1943 Bong returns to the United States. Immediately, he travels home to Polar, Wisconsin to visit his family. At home, he is followed by the press, even while deer hunting with his family and friends. Even with family and friends, Bong rarely spoke about being a fighter pilot or his exploits overseas.

As a local celebrity, Bong was invited to crown the homecoming king and queen at Superior State Teachers College (today University of Wisconsin–Superior). At the ceremony, Bong arrived 30 minutes late and after performing his duties met the previous year's queen, Marjorie "Marge" Ann Vattendahl and later that evening he asked her out on a date. Soon, the couple were meeting every evening. On November 23, 1943 he rented a Cub Cruiser and performed acrobatics as she and a crowd watched from the ground.

While home, Bong met the widow of 2nd Lt. Stanley W. Johnson was visiting Superior and Bong met with her to console her about the loss of her husband. Later, Bong confided to Marge how difficult the meeting was and how bravely Mrs. Johnson was coping with the loss. The meeting so influenced him that Bong even commented to his girlfriend that "he didn't think anyone should rush into marriage until the war was over. The future is too uncertain and there is too much misery in store for those left behind."

In the middle of December 1943 Bong was ordered to Washington D.C. for public relations duty and conducted press conferences and interviews. He traveled to New York City where a newsreel was made about him by Fox Studios and a radio interview. While in New York, he traveled to upstate New York to visit John G. O'Neill and his family. On December 21, 1943 the two pilots visited Ithaca Airport to visit Ithaca Flying Service where O'Neill learned to fly in 1940. Afterwards, the pair participated in a War Bond tour. Bong later returned home until the end of his leave. Before he left Poplar, Marge gave Bong her yearbook portrait as a wallet sized print. On January 29, 1944 he left Poplar with family, friends and admirers seeing him off. On February 2, 1944 departs Hamilton Field as a passenger on a plane across the Pacific to New Guinea.

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