Aircraft History
Accepted into the US Army Air Force in June 1942 and was part of the first batch of P-38s sent to Australia. Nose Number 34.

Wartime History
Flown by 1/Lt Ralph C Bills. Allocated squadron call number "34" painted on the tail. 1/Lt Bills while flying this aircraft shot down his second Zero on December 31, 1942.  It was also flown by many other 39th Fighter Squadron pilots, including Lt. Richard E. Smith and Lt. Stanley Andrews. Others have said that this aircraft was also assigned to the 80FS, and assigned to Lt. Cornelius "Corky" Smith as "Dottie From Brookland" (named after Smith's wife, Dot).

Assigned to Lt Wayne Rothgeb for an interception mission from Dobodura on May 14, 1943, the right turbocharger exploded in flight while at an altitude of 27,000', necessitating Rothgeb to return to Schwimmer (14 Mile Drome) on one engine where a safe landing was made. The aircraft was written off. Although US Air Force records indicate the aircraft to have been written off on May 14, 1943, it was repaired and reassigned to unknown unit, likely a service unit.

According to the reports of Australian soldiers on the ground, the pilot cut both engines, and was unable to restart them, and force landed on salt flats near Lea Lea outside Port Moresby in January 1944. The pilot who crashed the plane, or exact date of this force landing is unknown. Thanks to Phil Bradley for this reference.

Wreckage
Remained where the war left it until 1978.

Robert Stitt adds:
"When I visited the P-38 in 1977/78 I could just make out the serial 12647 on the rear right boom in what looked like yellow characters. Bruce Hoy confirmed that he had seen and photographed this around 1970 and that by the time they recovered the aircraft in 1980 it had all but faded away. You could also see that the code '34' had been painted at least twice on the tail fins."

Recovery & Display
Salvage was first attempted by Bill Chapman, but the swampy area prevented recovery.  On  November 14, 1978 the aircraft's booms were recovered, and two days later, the rest of the aircraft was salvaged by the fledgling PNG Museum The recovery team consisted of Bruce Hoy, curator and team members Maj. Doug Crossdale (PNGD) and David Thollar engineer for Air Niugini. It is displayed as the main outdoor exhibit at the museum, from 1978 - to the present.

Restoration
Portions of the aircraft (outer wing panels and tail booms) were removed in 2001 by Robert Greinert and exported to Australia, supposedly for restoration.

In 2003, the pieces were in storage at Bankstown Airfield.   The aircraft is slated for a full restoration and return to the PNG Museum along with Ki-61 640 as part of the Minister for Culture and Tourism, Andrew Baign's plan to undertake a restoration program for the museum. But, no restoration work was performed on this P-38 by Greinert.

Robert Greinert adds April 19, 2005:
"The mortal remains of various P-38 parts have been dispatched to Precision Aerospace at Wangarratta for the purposes of remanufacturing various components e.g. new centre section wing spars which will be applied to the [PNG] National Museums P-38 restoration. You will be able to garner further information throughout the year from reputable media sources such as Classic Wings."

In 2006, the booms and outer wings of this P-38 were in storage outdoors at Precision Aerospace.

Relatives
Linda Goffinet (niece of Wayne Rothgeb)
"Wayne Rothgeb passed away in 1993."

References
New Guinea Skies: A Fighter Pilot's View of WWII by Wayne Rothgeb
Flightpath Magazine, Vol 4 No 2 by Bruce Hoy
Thanks to Phil Bradley for researching the Australian eyewitness. 

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