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ML_rickenbacker_bkp.htm
Capt. Edward Rickenbacker
Former Race Car Driver Became America's WWI Ace of Aces
By Bethanne Kelly Patrick
Military.com Columnist
Edward Vernon Rickenbacker gave up a lucrative career as the country's premier race car driver to enlist in the American Expeditionary Forces of World War I. But that was far from the only unlikely twist in the career of the man who would become the "ace of aces," scoring 26 kills in less than seven months.
Without a college degree, Rickenbacker became a commissioned officer and pilot. Son of poor Swiss-German immigrants, his scrappy demeanor irked some of his Ivy League-educated colleagues. And this future CEO of Eastern Airlines was a fearless pilot and a dedicated commander.
At first the Army tried to keep the former Indy 500 competitor a driver, assigning him to Paris HQ as a general's chauffeur. But Col. Billy Mitchell recognized Rickenbacker's potential and granted the sergeant's long-awaited transfer to Squadron 94 of the First Pursuit Group.
Rickenbacker mastered flying through a combination of trial and error and mechanical analysis. "Captain Eddie" (his preferred lifelong moniker) knew as much about automobile engineering as any man alive, and he applied that knowledge to airplanes. And his racing past notwithstanding, Rickenbacker was no daredevil. He cared little for aerobatics and knew that the greatest aces took the fewest chances. "He decided that the great pilots had learned the limits of what an airplane could do; they had fully and intelligently plumbed its potential and never asked the impossible of it," wrote Quentin Reynolds in "They Fought for the Sky."
Rickenbacker may not have asked the impossible of his aircraft, but he continually pushed himself. He was overage, undereducated, and out of his social league as a military pilot, but his keen eyes and taut reflexes made flying a snap for him. His common sense paid dividends as well. When once he took fire because he wasn't looking behind him, he painted Maltese crosses over the bullet holes to remind himself to keep twisting his neck "in all directions every minute."
When Capt. Rickenbacker became commanding officer of the 94th, he continued to look in all directions -- he was an ace mechanic, a seasoned fighter pilot, and a quiet, thoughtful commander who continued to fly missions instead of sitting back at a desk. For Eddie Rickenbacker, esprit de corps began with him, whether he was in the driver's seat, the cockpit, or the boardroom. "No one ever won anything sitting in a billet before the fire," he said.
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