Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center

Listening to War

The Listening to War digital collection brings together first-person accounts of veterans and civilians in Wisconsin during World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Persian Gulf War. These stories of everyday life during wartime come from men and women who served on the battlefront; nurses, journalists, shipbuilders, and others who contributed to wartime work at home and abroad; Holocaust survivors who immigrated from Europe to Wisconsin after World War II; and Hmong refugees from Laos who were resettled in the state following the Vietnam War.

Richard Bong Photograph Collection

Richard Bong, from the small town of Poplar, Wisconsin, became a flying cadet in the US Army Air Corps, in time for America’s entry into World War II. Flying in a P-38 fighter plane, he shot down 40 confirmed enemy planes, more than any other American pilot, and became America’s all-time Ace of Aces. His many decorations for outstanding skills and extraordinary courage included the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Walter Butler Shipbuilders

Photographs from the Walter Butler shipyards of Superior, Wisconsin and Duluth, Minnesota during World War II, covering the years 1940-1945.