POPLAR, Wisc. (Northern News Now) - It’s a long way from the bitter cold of Poplar Wisconsin to the steamy heat of Papua New Guinea but that gap is being narrowed thanks to a sister city relationship inspired by Major Richard Ira Bong.

This P38 painstakingly restored by technicians from the 148th Fighter Wing for the Richard Bong Museum is not really the ace of aces’ plane. It’s a war surplus Lightning the government gave to Poplar Wisconsin in 1948 to honor America’s greatest top gun. Major Bong flew two different P38s named after his fiancé, Marge Vattendahl of Superior. He did his fighting over Papua New Guinea, a remote Pacific island whose jungles are still littered with World War Two wreckage today.

“And because of that, they are full of history, crash sites, airfields, battlefield

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