Archive
08/24/09 - (2)
Side by Side
On this matchless August afternoon Before I leave Lake Nebagamon, I drive the eight miles, over P, to Highway 2, Then east, another mile or so, into the village of Poplar, Where America's "Ace of Aces," Richard Ira "Dick" Bong, Grew up, with eight siblings, on his parents' modest farm, Before enlisting in the Army Air Corps, during World War II, Earning forty Japanese kill-flags, Painted on the nose of his Lockheed P-38 Lightning, Beside the color portrait of his best gal back home, Marge.
Though I visited here, one week ago, Something has drawn me back, something I must have missed. The boy wonder hadn't wanted to marry his sweetheart, Marjorie Vattendahl, until the war was over, Fearing his life as a fighter pilot might make her a widow, Only to crash, testing Lockheed's P-80 Shooting Star jet, Six months after the couple's wedding, in early 1945. Now, standing before his grave, I realize what I overlooked: it's the stone beside his, That of Marjorie Bong Drucker, his remarried wife, Placed here, fifty-eight years after Dick was laid to rest.
08/24/09 - (2)
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