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By Walter J. Boyne

NYONE seeking to define“warrior” can do it with asingle word: Rickenbacker.Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker

was a warrior in two wars, becomingthe American Ace of Aces in 1918and demonstrating rare leadershipand courage in World War II. Rick,as he liked to be called, never ceasedto watch out for the interests of theUnited States.

Beloved by many, hated by not afew, Rickenbacker was the quintes-sential American leader–patriot ofthe 20th century, a man who foughtto protect his interests and to pro-mote those of the United States. Healso had his weaknesses, includingan inability to bear fools lightly, apredisposition to speak rashly, and acranky insistence that co-workersgive a 110 percent effort.

He was born in Columbus, Ohio,in 1890, the son of Swiss immigrants.His surname originally was spelledRickenbacher. The Teutonic soundof it caused Rickenbacker many prob-lems and, as a result of World War I,he changed it. In 1918, he becameEddie “Rickenbacker”—with thechange of that single letter somehowgiving him comfort.

His father, William, was a daylaborer who regularly beat him witha switch. Rickenbacker respondedby becoming a juvenile delinquent—a small-time petty thief and bullywho was so quick with his fists thathis impoverished parents feared hewould wind up in reform school. Yetwhen his father was murdered on thejob, young Edd, as he was then called,underwent a transformation.

He was not quite 14, but he as-sumed responsibility for his family,a task usually shouldered by an el-dest son. (Rickenbacker did have an

Rickenbackerolder brother.) Rickenbacker imme-diately dropped out of school to be-gin working 72-hour weeks in asweatshop glass factory. At this job,he earned a nickel per hour—$182per year. He didn’t have to spend ayear there, though, for he was at thestart of a Horatio Alger career thatwould see him swiftly take on a se-ries of ever more responsible jobsfor which he was both too young andtoo uneducated.

His swift ascendancy in part wasfueled by the courses he took fromthe International CorrespondenceSchool, an institution that helpedmany a poor lad, Walter Chrysleramong them. By age 17, he was su-pervising more than a dozen adultprofessionals in an experimentalengineering laboratory for the Co-lumbus Buggy Co., which was thenlaunching a new line of automobiles.

Racing and RichesRickenbacker was on the road to

riches. He found he was a naturalsalesman and manager. Soon he wasearning $150 a month at a time whenlawyers and doctors made less. Byage 19, he was 6 feet, 2 inches tall,weighed 165 pounds, and was sharp-ening his skills as a professional rac-ing car driver. Within a few years,he had reached the top of his newprofession, earning $60,000 the lastyear he raced. That was the equiva-lent today of $1 million.

As a driver, Rickenbacker wasshrewd and savvy, carefully pre-planning his races to maximize hisadvantages. He developed practicalleadership skills and drilled his pitcrew into teams able to change tiresand refuel faster than any competi-tor. In his prerace planning, Ricken-backer took account of the track,

Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker leansagainst a World War I aircraft with thefamous Hat in the Ring insignia of the

94th Pursuit Squadron.

A

In 1917, Eddie Rickenbacker already was a rich andfamous man. Then, he volunteered at sergeant’s payand became this nation’s “Ace of Aces.”

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weather conditions, and the way hisequipment stacked up to the compe-tition. Then, he drove with cool pre-cision, pushing the envelope of riskbut without recklessness.

He developed a smiling public per-sona. His race colleagues thought ofhim as a mean driver, one who usedany trick he could devise to win. Itwas good training for a future fighterpilot.

He did not let his celebrity go to hishead, for he was painfully aware ofhis lack of education. Rickenbackertook self-improvement courses andalways tried to expand his vocabu-lary. Now Rickenbacker, frequentlythrust into exalted company, watchedhow leaders in politics and businessbehaved and began to emulate theiractions. (In his mid-20s, he noted thatthese individuals had middle initials,which he lacked. He selected V, andthen selected “Vernon” to go with it.)

In 1916, Britain was at war, butthe Sunbeam Motor Car Co. invitedRickenbacker to England in hopeshe would build a team to race Sun-beam cars in America. English intel-ligence was convinced that Ricken-backer was a German secret agent. Itkept Rickenbacker under close watcharound the clock.

Far from being pro–German, how-ever, Rickenbacker itched to fightfor the Allied cause. He proposedcreating an air squadron composedsolely of race-driver friends. The USArmy shrugged off his idea as im-practical.

Rickenbacker entered France’s pri-mary flying school at Tours, startingon the little clipped-wing Penguinsand soloing after only two hours withan instructor pilot. He racked up 25flying hours in 17 days and gradu-ated as a first lieutenant in the SignalCorps. He was now an officer and agentleman and was headed straightfor trouble at Issoudun.

It was a kind of class war. Fromthe start, aviation attracted wealthystudents from some of America’selite colleges and universities. TheYale Units and the Lafayette Esca-drille personified this staking out ofair combat as a “gentleman’s” game.

More than 1,000 young pilot can-didates, many from top schools andAmerica’s wealthy families, foundthemselves sent to Issoudun for train-ing, only to find that construction ofthe 3rd Aviation Instruction Centerwas far from complete. They cameexpecting to go immediately intoflight training. Instead, the Armyput them to work constructing roads,buildings, latrines, railroad spurs,and hangars, often under the super-vision of the newly commissionedroughneck, Eddie Rickenbacker.

Worse, while they labored in themud, former colleagues who had re-mained in the US were arriving ascommissioned officers.

Furious with the system, the ca-dets took out their anger on Ricken-backer, openly mocking his poorgrammar and rough language. In hisautobiography, Rickenbacker writesthat he understood how these mencould resent the fact that he, a “Swiss–German engineer with a grammarschool education,” had authority overthem. In truth, their remarks deeplyangered Rickenbacker. He got evenby assigning them even rougher tasks,such as digging latrines.

Hard DriverHad the cadets been more mature,

they might have seen that Ricken-backer was driving himself harderthan any of them, trying to transformIssoudun from muddy fields into aflying school. Unknown to them, hespent all his spare time bootleggingground school and flying training.He persuaded tough Maj. Carl Spaatzto let him go to gunnery school atCazaux to prepare for assignment toan operational squadron.

The first two operational units, the94th and 95th Pursuit Squadrons, were

Shown here in a Maxwell at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with his mechanic,Rickenbacker had gained celebrity status as a race car driver even before hebecame a flying ace in World War I.

When the US entered the war inApril 1917, Rickenbacker volun-teered and became an Army staffdriver, exchanging celebrity statusand high income for a sergeant’spay. He went to France confidentthat he could worm his way into theflying service, trading his steeringwheel for a joystick.

Chauffeur to PilotIn France, Rickenbacker proved

an excellent chauffeur. (Some claimhe drove for Gen. John J. “BlackJack” Pershing, the commander ofthe American Expeditionary Forcesin France. He did not.) On one trip,he impressed Col. Billy Mitchell withhis roadside repairs of their Hudsonstaff car. Mitchell, who drove wildlyand furiously himself, liked havingthe personable and famous Ricken-backer drive for him.

An old Rickenbacker friend, Capt.James Ely Miller, was tasked to su-pervise the buildup at Issoudun of ahuge new flight training center forAmerican aviation cadets. Runninginto Rickenbacker in Paris, Millerasked him to become his engineeringofficer, a crucially important job andone for which Rickenbacker waseminently well-suited. Rickenbackerquickly agreed, on the condition thathe could take flight training. Milleragreed, and Rickenbacker persuadedMitchell to release him. It remainedonly for him to fudge his true age andfake his way through his physical (hehad vision problems). He was in.

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stationed at Villeneuve-les-Vertus, 20miles behind the front. In March 1918,as pilots and mechanics began to as-semble, their new Nieuport 28 fight-ers began to dribble in.

At $18,500 each, the Nieuport 28was one of the war’s most expensivefighters, as well as one of the mostbeautiful. It was powered by a 160-hp Gnome rotary engine, making itfast and maneuverable. France wasglad to sell the Nieuports to the US;its own military had declined to usethem. They knew that its delicatelines concealed serious design flaws.

The tremendous vibration gener-

entrance into combat. Lufbery andRickenbacker, both former mechan-ics, hit it off right away. They under-stood engines and the men whoworked on them and regarded greaseunder the fingernails as a badge ofhonor. Lufbery tutored Rickenback-er, escorting him on his first flightover the lines. Rickenbacker latersaid, “Everything I learned, I learnedfrom Lufbery.”

Rickenbacker spent much of hisspare time on the ground workingwith the mechanics to improve theperformance of the Nieuports. Inother squadrons, the Gnome enginesnormally ran 30 hours before theyrequired an overhaul. At the 94th,Rickenbacker helped the mechanicsfind ways to drill the cylinders toincrease the lubrication. In so doing,the engine’s time between overhaulsmore than doubled.

Rickenbacker’s work with the me-chanics generated contempt amongthe squadron’s more cultured mem-bers. His poor grammar and his pro-fanity were still regarded as the signsof a blue-collar worker, not an of-ficer.

Rickenbacker discovered that, whenaloft, he saw only a small percentageof what was going on in the air. Worse,he found he had a tendency to getairsick when he followed the cau-tious corkscrew evolutions that Luf-bery used to avoid being surprised. Intime he overcame both difficultiesand concentrated on two goals: to bethe first in the squadron to shoot down

Already a legend for downing 17 enemy aircraft while with Lafayette Escadrille, Maj.Raoul Lufbery taught Rickenbacker aerial combat tactics and led Rickenbacker’sfirst flight over enemy lines.

Gervais Raoul Lufbery, a kindredspirit if ever one existed. Lufberyhad distinguished himself with theLafayette Escadrille, downing 17 en-emy airplanes. The word in the Es-cadrille was that his score was muchhigher, but the taciturn Lufbery usu-ally flew alone and rarely reportedhis kills.

Fellow MechanicLufbery was assigned to the 94th

Pursuit Squadron, Rickenbacker’ssquadron. It was going into actionsoon, and the Americans wantedLufbery to help guide the squadron’s

ated by the whirling rotary engineand by machine gun fire routinelycracked the rigid fuel lines connect-ing tanks and engine. Gasoline wouldspew over the fuselage, causing manysudden, catastrophic in-flight fires.If the Nieuport did not catch fire, itcould break up in a dive, for a buildupof airspeed could cause the leadingedge of the upper wing to tear off,allowing the fabric to balloon up andleaving the wing devoid of lift.

Thus Rickenbacker and his col-leagues were going to war againstveteran, combat-hardened oppo-nents—who would be equipped withsuperior airplanes—in a Nieuport 28in which they had never trained andwhich tended to catch fire spontane-ously and lose its wing in a dive.Rickenbacker could hardly wait.

It now appears fated that Ricken-backer would connect with Maj.

Rickenbacker (center) poses next to a Spad with fellow 94th Pursuit Squadron pilots(l–r) 1st Lt. Joseph Eastman, Capt. James Meissner, 1st Lt. Reed Chambers, and1st Lt. Thorne Taylor.

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a German and to be the first to be-come an ace.

Double DisappointmentLt. Douglas Campbell was to de-

prive him of both prizes. Campbell,along with Lt. Alan Winslow, shotdown the 94th’s first two Germanaircraft—a Pfalz and an Albatros—on April 14, 1918. Campbell alsobecame the first official ace with hisfifth victory on May 31. Ricken-backer actually scored his fifth killon May 28 and his sixth on May 30,but neither was confirmed until afterCampbell’s. Campbell was acclaimedas the first ace. Though he badlywanted the honor, Rickenbackernever contested Campbell’s claim.

Rickenbacker was a serious pilot,and he flew often. His first con-firmed victory came on April 29 fly-ing with Capt. James Norman Hall.Hall and Rickenbacker both divedand fired on a Pfalz, Rickenbackerclosing within 150 yards before fir-ing. The claim was confirmed evenbefore the two pilots touched down.

The victory gave him confidence,which he sorely needed, given thehostile or patronizing treatment ofhis squadron mates. In an accountwritten in 1919, Rickenbacker con-ceded, “There is a peculiar gratifica-tion in receiving congratulations fromone’s squadron for a victory in theair. It is worth more to a pilot thanthe applause of the whole outsideworld.”

On a subsequent mission, Hall, a

a lack of oxygen, put his Nieuport ina headlong dive.

He fired at the first enemy air-plane at about 14,000 feet, killingthe pilot, and then pulled up sharply.His upper right wing failed with atremendous crack as his leading edgeripped off and the Nieuport wentinto a swiftly turning tailspin. Theother two enemy airplanes followedhim down, snap-shooting. By apply-ing full power, Rickenbacker man-aged to pull out at 4,000 feet and,controls hard over, staggered backto a hot landing at his home field.

Only two days later, Rick and the

The French–built Spad XIII was a solid gun platform, maneuverable speedster, andconsidered the finest fighter developed by the Allies. Rickenbacker, sitting here inone, personally picked up the first Spad assigned to the 94th PS.

flight leader, was shot down and cap-tured behind German lines. Ricken-backer was named to replace Hall asa flight commander. He had been atthe front for less than two months,and his total flying time was under150 hours, but he was in charge ofleading men in combat.

On May 17, Rickenbacker flewwith Reed Chambers on a voluntarypatrol. Bitterly cold in their opencockpits at 20,000 feet, the two menhad no oxygen, just as they had noheat, parachutes, or radios. Rick spot-ted three Albatros fighters, and withhis judgment possibly impaired from

Rushed into production, the Fokker D.VII was operational in April 1918 andbecame Germany’s top single-seat fighter of World War I. In his autobiography,Rickenbacker described it as “maneuverable, speedy, and tough.”

94th suffered a blow when Lufberylost his life in an attack on a high-flying Rumpler observation airplane,leaping or falling to the ground fromhis flaming Nieuport.

The desire to become an ace ob-sessed Rickenbacker, and he flewmany solo patrols, an increasinglyrisky business, for the Germans hadjust introduced what would be rec-ognized as the best fighter of thewar, the Fokker D.VII. Rickenbackernever compromised his leadershipduties. He took his responsibilitiesas a flight leader seriously, givingnewcomers lots of ground instruc-tion and always accompanying themon their first flights over the lines.

Rickenbacker had mastered histrade; he “saw the sky” as clearly asany pilot and was able to identifyenemy aircraft at great distances. Hecountered the enemy’s technology by

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making use of the Nieuport’s strongfeatures while avoiding the weak anddangerous. Rickenbacker scored vic-tories on May 28 and 30 and reachedthe coveted status of ace.

Then, serious problems began.In its first few months, the 94th

had run up 16 victories and was hold-ing its own in the battle to commandthe air. It then seemed to disinte-grate under the force of circum-stances. A new German offensivebrought with it the best in Germanairpower. During June, July, andAugust, the 94th Pursuit Squadronsuffered eight losses.

For most of that long summer,Rickenbacker was confined to bedwith a chronic fever. Grounded forweeks at a time and often hospital-ized, he nevertheless insisted on fly-ing whenever he could drag himselfto an airplane. Combat required swiftclimbs and swooping dives, not goodfor an ailing ear, and he was con-fined to a hospital, first to have anabscess lanced and then for a mas-toid operation. His doctors assumedhe would never fly again. They as-sumed wrong.

The Spad XIIIA lesser person might have de-

cided that he had done quite enough;he was an officer, an ace, and he hada ticket home. He didn’t see it thatway. On July 5, Rickenbacker wentto the huge aviation depot outside ofParis and picked up the very firstSpad XIII that would go to the 94thSquadron.

The Spad XIII was an advancedversion of the highly successful SpadVII and was powered with a 235-hpHispano-Suiza geared engine. Theengine was far more complex than aGnome engine, and it was not unusualfor 50 percent of all Spad XIIIs to beout of action with engine problems.The pilots liked it when the engineran, however, for it was strong andable to dive swiftly and pull out sharplywith no fear of structural failure.

Rickenbacker familiarized himselfwith the Spad during a lull in thefighting in July and August and wasable to take a significant role duringthe September Battle of St. Mihiel.As anxious as he was to increase hisscore, Rickenbacker spent most ofthe battle in ground attack sorties,leading his flight down to groundlevel. On Sept. 14, he scored hisseventh victory and began a streak

were going 100 hours flying timebetween overhauls, compared to 30hours in other squadrons.

In just two conversations, Ricken-backer turned the 94th around, pro-pelling it to become the war’s crackfighter unit, with more victories andmore hours over the lines than anyother American outfit.

On Sept. 25, Rickenbacker put hiswords into action. During a solomission over the lines, he spotted apair of German observation airplanesescorted by a flight of five deadlyFokker D.VIIs. Rickenbacker at-tacked, killing the pilot of one Fokker,then plunged on to down an observa-tion aircraft before diving out of thefight. For this act of daring and brav-ery, Rickenbacker years later re-ceived the Medal of Honor.

Rickenbacker scored twice morein September and another 14 timesin October. A promotion to captain,held up by his enemies in headquar-ters, came in October.

“Scientific Murder”Of much greater importance to

Rickenbacker was the success of the94th, which became the most lethalUS squadron and ended the war hav-ing downed 69 enemy aircraft andreceiving 18 losses. Rickenbacker

Rickenbacker receivedthe Medal of Honor andmany awards from both

the US and France forhis World War I service.Rickenbacker poses by

his Spad that bearsbullet hole patches—the

small circles with aGerman symbol.

that would end with his becomingthe Ace of Aces.

On Aug. 21, 1918, Maj. Harold E.Hartney was appointed commanderof the 1st Pursuit Group, which com-prised the 27th, 94th, 95th, and 147thsquadrons. Hartney inherited a pairof major problems. First, heavy lossesin the four squadrons had producedthe stench of bad morale. Second,the group was riven by a quarrelover replacing the Nieuport 28s withthe Spad.

Hartney needed help. He had beenobserving Rickenbacker’s leadershipskills both in combat and on the flightline. Despite strong opposition fromheadquarters (“not officer material”)and from some of the blue-bloods inthe squadron, Hartney appointedRickenbacker to command the 94th.

Rickenbacker was delighted andimmediately called two meetings.The first was with his pilots, wherehe set down his rules: No nonsenseon the flight line; everyone takescare of mechanics; every man to flyoften; every man to be aggressive.

The second meeting was with themechanics. He told them he knew oftheir problems with the Spads andwould give them 100 percent sup-port. They responded, and withinweeks, the 94th’s Hispano engines

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was truly the Ace of Aces—but hewas also the CO of COs. He forgedhis leadership in combat, seekingbattle himself, and insisting that hissquadron seek it as well. He alwaystook advantage of the odds, avoid-ing casualties wherever possible.Unlike most of his peers, he did notsee aerial combat as some form oflatter-day gallantry. He termed it“scientific murder.”

He was a master executioner. Hefinished the war with a total of 26victories, the most of any American.(In World War I, partial victory cred-its were counted as whole credits.By today’s count, Rickenbacker’stotal would be 24.3, still more thanany other American.)

Rickenbacker came home as a na-tional hero but wouldn’t capitalizeon it for personal gain. He refused toappear in films and avoided makingendorsements. He helped found theRickenbacker Automobile Co., whichfrom 1922 to 1927 produced 35,000cars but no profits. When it wentbankrupt, Rickenbacker took on thedebt and paid it off in the midst ofthe Great Depression.

Rickenbacker had greater successwith other ventures. One was reno-vation and improvement of the now-famed Indianapolis Speedway. Yethis greatest challenge was EasternAir Lines, whose leadership he as-sumed in 1934. Rickenbacker ranthe airline with an iron hand andmade it one of the most profitableairlines in America.

Walter J. Boyne, former director of the National Air and Space Museum inWashington, is a retired Air Force colonel and author. He has written morethan 400 articles about aviation topics and 29 books, the most recent ofwhich is Beyond the Horizons: The Lockheed Story. His most recent articlefor Air Force Magazine, “Ranch Hand,” appeared in the August 2000 issue.

During World War II, Rickenbacker carried out special government missions as acivilian. Here, he’s shown with Secretary of War Robert Patterson and Gen. CarlSpaatz (center). Below, the younger Rick in his Spad.

After Japan attacked Pearl Harboron Dec. 7, 1941, Eddie Rickenbackervolunteered his services. He refusedto take cabinet-level positions in thegovernment or accept a rank of ma-jor general in the Army Air Forces,preferring to serve the governmentin a civil capacity.

After some routine tours inspect-ing bases, Rickenbacker in October1942 was given a top secret assign-ment. The Secretary of War, HenryL. Stimson, tasked him to carry a

stern reprimand from President Roo-sevelt to Gen. Douglas MacArthur,who had been making statementscritical of the Administration. Thencame an unexpected turn of events.On Oct. 21, the B-17 in which he wasflying was forced to ditch in thePacific. Rickenbacker and his sevencompanions spent three weeks on araft. One man died of exposure, butRickenbacker brought the othersthrough.

Stimson admired Rickenbackerand used him for missions aroundthe world during the conflict.

When the war ended, Rickenbackerreturned to run Eastern Airlines.Times had changed; the competitionwas tougher, and he would makeseveral serious errors in selectingequipment. For example, he optedfor the ill-fated Lockheed Electra

turbojet aircraft at the very momentthat other airlines were beginning toacquire jet transports. Soon, Ricken-backer was forced to turn Eastern’sreins over to others.

Rickenbacker spent his latter yearstraveling, making speeches, and see-ing to the ghostwriting of his autobi-ography, Rickenbacker. He was, byhis own estimation, “the luckiest manalive.” He died in his sleep in 1973 at82, to be remembered forever as oneof American airpower’s true giants.■