WI: Major Dick Bong Lives!

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
On August 6th, 1945, Air Force Ace and Medel of Honor winner Major Richard 'Dick' Bomb was killed during a test flight of a Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star when it crashed in North Hollywood due to a fuel pump malfunction, aged only 24. So famous was he, Bong's death could not overshadowed, even by the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima, which shared the headlines with Bong's death when the story was initially broken.

The question is, my dear Alternate historians, is what would have happened had Major Bong lived? What role could he have played in the Space Program and beyond?
 
Would he have gone the route of Chuck Yeager, Neil Armstrong, et al as a post-war test pilot and then potentially into the space program?

It's certainly a possibility, but he may have had different ideas.

Perhaps he'd have returned to civilian life and become a commercial pilot? (The MoH would certainly have helped him stand out from the crowd and helped him get a job with a top airline if he'd wanted one). If he does that, then he'd probably find himself recalled to service in Korea, although whether he'd be on active duty is another matter. If he did though, he'd probably have added to his 40 kills, and may have joined the select group of US pilots who were aces twice over in two different wars (not to mention being aces in both prop and jet aircraft).

After that, he'd certainly have the profile for both major parties to court him for elected office of some kind, if that was his desire. Maybe a seat in Congress to start with, followed by a run for President some time from the mid 1960s onwards (perhaps 1968, when LBJ declines to run again, he's presented as a unity candidate for the Democrats). If he were elected in either 1968 or 1972 (or both), then he's going to be in charge during some pretty major world events.
 
he likely would end up in the post-war experiment aircraft program (x-1 to x-15), maybe the early space program, although maybe too old for apollo (bong is 3 years older than Shepard), mercury and gemini are a possibility.
 
To become an astronaut I think he would have needed to have a science/engineering degree. That is one of the reasons why Chuck Yeager never got a call from NASA.

Given the precariousness of test flying high performance aircraft, particularly when a lot of the things they were testing used barely understood engineering principals the chances of long term survival were fairly low.
 
Bong would probably be a group leader in Korea. He might add to his score and still remain America's ace of aces.
 
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