In this gripping episode of America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Monson, we delve into the remarkable life of Eddie Rickenbacker, a pioneering figure of American aviation. From his humble beginnings in Columbus, Ohio, to becoming the ace of aces during World War I, Rickenbacker’s journey is one of courage, inventiveness, and relentless ambition. Hear firsthand how his mechanical genius and strategic mind carved a path from race car driver to esteemed combat pilot. With vivid storytelling from Colonel Bill Rutledge, this episode highlights the extraordinary exploits of Rickenbacker, including his near-fatal airplane crash and survival against incredible odds.
SPEAKER 05 :
World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan, and her other wars and conflicts. America’s fighting men and women strapped on their boots and picked up their guns to fight tyranny and stand for liberty. We must never forget them. Welcome to America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Monson. These stories will touch your heart, inspire you, and give you courage. We stand on the shoulders of giants. Here’s Kim Monson.
SPEAKER 09 :
And welcome to the Kim Monson Show. Thank you so much for joining us. You’re each treasured. You’re valued. You have purpose. Today, strive for excellence. Take care of your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body. My friends, we were made for this moment in history. And thank you to the team that I get to work with. That’s Producer Joe, Luke, Rachel, Zach, Echo, Charlie, Mike, Teresa, Amanda, and all the people here at Crawford Broadcasting. Check out the website. That is kimmonson.com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter while you’re there. That goes out on Sundays. My email is Kim at Kim Monson. That’s M-O-N-S-O-N dot com. I appreciate all of you who support us. We are an independent voice on an independent station searching for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something’s a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. And the show comes to you 6 to 8 a.m. Monday through Friday. First hour is rebroadcast 1 to 2 in the afternoon. Second hour, 10 to 11 at night. And that is on all KLZ 560 platforms. That’s KLZ 560 AM, 100.7 FM, the KLZ website, the KLZ app. You can say Alexa, play KLZ. And then everything is on Spotify and iTunes as well. It is Memorial Day. It’s a day to stop and reflect about those that gave all or at least some. There are those that came home that have been injured. And so it’s a time to stop and reflect about the sacrifices that have been made for our liberty. And so it’s a day sometime today. Sit down. with your family, your kids, your grandkids, and just talk about the significance of Memorial Day. And so we are pre-recording the show, and very pleased to have on the line with me Colonel Bill Rutledge, 96 years young. He is a retired Air Force colonel, and he’s traveled the world. He reads extensively. has a great curiosity about people and places and things. And he said for Memorial Day weekend, both for the America’s Veterans Story Show and for the Kim Monson Show, let’s talk about Medal of Honor recipient Eddie Rickenbacker. And so, Colonel Rutledge, welcome to the show. Well, good morning, Kim. It’s good to have you, and it’s a really remarkable story. So let’s start with Eddie Rickenbacker’s story. Where was he born?
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay, well, Eddie was—first of all, Eddie’s mother and father came from the German-speaking part of Switzerland, and they immigrated in the— 1880s. And Eddie was a third of eight children, and he was born in Columbus, Ohio, October the 8th, 1890. And his parents really wanted to be a part of the American society. So they gave all of their eight children English first names. And not only that, when they were in Switzerland, Rickenbacker was spelled slightly different. So when they came to America, by coincidence, people put it down like it sounded to them, B-A-C-K-E-R, and it would have been B-A-C-H-E-R had they stayed in Germany.
SPEAKER 09 :
OK. And so he was born in Columbus. And even at a young age, he was really an entrepreneur.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, he was. He felt an obligation to, first of all, to help his family. And so he took a job when he was 10, where he was delivering newspapers and he got one dollar a week for all of his work. And then shortly thereafter, actually when he was 13, he was in the seventh grade, his father was in a working accident and was killed. So Eddie dropped out of school. Now, it’s not unique, his experience, because I compare him very often in the aviation field and also especially commercial aviation. And I relate him to people like Edison and Bell and Ford and Chrysler, all of these great, great people. Most of them never had a high school education, and certainly they never went to college. And so he had an education until he was 13, and then he became an apprentice teacher. as a machinist working with people with a company that was designing and building race cars.
SPEAKER 09 :
And he became really an expert, ultimately, as a mechanic, yes?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, he became so good as a mechanic that they started having him ride in the race car. Now, in the early days… The race cars were designed specifically for that, so they weren’t the flat traditional one that Ford was building and others. But they always had two people in the cab. So there was a driver, and they always had a mechanic with them because sometimes they did cross-country competition as well as a fixed track. And there were occasions when they’d have to get out and just stop, and the mechanic would have to get out and work on the engine. And he became an absolute expert in his field.
SPEAKER 09 :
So ultimately, though, he wanted to also learn to drive, right?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes. Right. He was so good at his job. People wanted to keep him as a mechanic, but he wanted to move up and become a driver. So he did. And he moved up. And in his late teens, he was then he was a driver. And since he also was so good at mechanics, he was in a position to sort of make that transition where you didn’t have to have two people in the cab of the car. So he was, again, a pioneer in early race driving. And he competed throughout the Midwest. And in those days, normally you’d pay some money to enter the competition. And the winner got the money. It wasn’t like it is today where they scale it down and the winner gets the largest piece of the cash. In those days, if you came in second, that’s too bad. No money.
SPEAKER 09 :
Interesting. And so he did end up racing at the Indianapolis 500, which that race is always over Memorial Day weekend.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, he did, and he became very interested in doing it. And he was really ready in 1917. By this time, he was… 27 years old. He’d had a lot of driving experience. And in May of that year, he was in Indianapolis preparing his car to go into the Memorial Day race competition. When he got a call from an old friend who was on the staff of General Pershing, And the friend said that General Pershing wanted to have a particular driving pool of experienced drivers to help move him around and other members of his general officer staff. So Eddie talked to him and he said, well, you know, I’m going to be racing next week. So if you would just let me do that, then I’d be ready to go. And the man who was a major on Pershing’s staff, he said, Eddie, we’re leaving tomorrow from New York, and if you’re not ready to be on the ship, you’re not going with the First Division. So Eddie said, I will be there. He hung up, and he went straight down and got on the trains and moved as fast as he could to New York and got there in time enough to get aboard ship.
SPEAKER 09 :
Wow. So it’s such a fascinating story and really a story of American exceptionalism as well. And we get to have these great shows and these great stories because of wonderful sponsors. And a sponsor that I greatly appreciate for America’s Veterans Stories is Hooters Restaurants. They have locations in Loveland, Westminster, and in Aurora on Parker Road. And great specials Monday through Friday for lunch and for happy hour. Great place to get together with your friends to watch the sporting events and just have some great food. In particular, their fish and chips and their nachos are delicious. I hear that their fish tacos are quite good as well. So again, thank you to Hooters Restaurants for their sponsorship of the show. The official Marine Memorial is located right here in Colorado in Golden at 6th and Colfax. It was dedicated in 1977, and it is time for a facelift. And the USMC Memorial Foundation is working diligently to raise the funds to make that happen. And a great way that you can honor our military, to say thank you to those people who have put their lives on the line or have given their lives for our freedom, is to support the USMC Memorial Foundation. And you can do that by going to usmcmemorialfoundation.org.
SPEAKER 08 :
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SPEAKER 01 :
All Kim’s sponsors are in inclusive partnership with Kim and are not affiliated with or in partnership with KLZ or Crawford Broadcasting. If you would like to support the work of The Kim Monson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, kimmonson.com. That’s Kim Monson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 09 :
Thank you so much for listening to America’s Veterans Stories. We are rebroadcasting some of the shows that we have recorded in the past because we have these amazing guests and these amazing stories, and we need to hear them. And so we thought that it would be a great idea to rebroadcast some of these so that you can hear our history and know our history because it is so important. So again, this is something that was recorded earlier, and thank you for listening. And welcome back to The Kim Monson Show. Thank you so much for joining us. Be sure and check out our website. That is kimmonson.com. And we actually are pre-recording this show for Memorial Day weekend and for Memorial Day. And also because Eddie Rickenbacker was a Medal of Honor recipient. So a military career as well. We thought it appropriate that we would broadcast this interview both for America’s Veterans Stories on Sunday and then for the Kim Monson Show on Monday. And so pleased to have on the line with me, Colonel Bill Rutledge, retired United States Air Force, 96 years young. Amazing curiosity about people and places and things and reads extensively. And we’re talking about Eddie Rickenbacker and really quite a career there. So as we mentioned in the previous segment, Eddie Rickenbacker volunteered in late May 1917 to become a part of General Pershing’s American Expeditionary Force, and he was selected because of his automobile driving skills and his exceptional mechanical ability. And so he gets to New York, and they get on this ship. So then what happened, Colonel Rutledge?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, when he got to New York and he was about to go aboard the ship, one of the senior officers, and I think it was a full colonel, had the authority to designate the military rank or grade that they would have. So they designated him as a sergeant. And, of course, we know we have privates and corporals and then sergeants. So he was a sergeant, and as he got aboard ship, They looked at the stripes on his uniform and checked their records, and they said, okay, you’re a sergeant, so you’re going to be down in the hold with all of the other enlisted men. So he went down there, and it was crowded. It was smoky. There was oil fumes around. The food was terrible. And he didn’t like it. So he went up on the deck and he came across another old friend who he had known in the automobile business. And he said, where are you staying? You’re not with us. He said, oh, I’ve got my private cabin. And he said, well, why? He said, I’m a sergeant, you’re a sergeant. He said, yeah, Eddie, but I’m a sergeant first class in service. Eddie said, well, I ought to be also. And he said, well, you aren’t. And he said, well, Eddie said, well, how can I do that? And he said, you’ll have to talk to the colonel. So he did. He went to the colonel and he said, so and so, he has a private quarters and he’s up on the main deck. And it’s very nice and it’s terrible down the hold. So I want you to promote me. So he did. And he promoted him. And by that second night, Eddie had his own stateroom. And this was sort of the respect he had with his seniors because he was very good, but he was also very direct. And he made him know very clear that he was not happy down in the hold area.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and I love the initiative of him finding out how to change things and to change it. So then he gets over to Europe. What happens then?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, then the First Division went over, and they were there for several months while they were preparing to – get involved actually in the combat. And Pershing refused to let the Americans be integrated into the French force or into the English. Both of those wanted to be having american units coming in to replace their units that were decimated by the war and he said no we will fight as a unit and we will be the american expeditionary force and we will not be ready for a few months so they went through a formative period and eddie then was working with other drivers and of course he was the best mechanic in the whole bunch So he did not actually drive for General Pershing. Many people often thought he was. It was Pershing’s motor pool drivers. But he was so good that he was selected by Billy Mitchell, who was a brigadier, and he was in charge of the Army Air Corps to be his driver so that whenever he went out, he wanted Eddie. And one of the interesting stories was that they were up near the front, and it was muddy and bad roads, and it was night and dangerous to be out. So Eddie was driving, and they got into this area with a lot of mud, and their car stopped. And he got out, and General Mitchell was very concerned. And Eddie said, well, I’ll check it out. So he was so good, he found out what the problem was. He actually developed a replacement part that he put back in there, and he got the engine started, and they got out, and they moved. So this was the caliber of an individual he was. He… was creative and he always took initiative so he got the reputation of being extremely good with engines and because of this and because of his affiliation with general mitchell then he was actually assigned to one of the air airplane squadrons it was being formed the 94th and um He then became the principal mechanic for the aircraft engines. And when he did this, they just sort of centralized their maintenance because of his skill and ability. Eddie then approached the major, who later would become one of the chief of staff of the Air Force 20 years later. And he talked to the major and said, well, if I’m going to be working on these engines. I ought to know how to fly. And he said, but you’re too valuable. And Eddie insisted, and he kept insisting. So finally, because of his persuasiveness, the major agreed to let him go to a French flying school. Now, Eddie didn’t speak French, but Eddie was a fast learner. And so he went to this school. He learned how to be a pilot. And he had promised he would come back, which he did. So after he’d gone, he came back. Then he learned to fly, and he would fly around a little bit in non-combat areas. And then the class of Americans that he had been in were sent away to go to gunnery school, and Eddie didn’t go. But the reason he didn’t go, because the major said he was too valuable as a mechanic. So Eddie again started his persuasiveness and kept telling him, look, i’m going to be working with these people yes i’m working on the mechanical part but i want to be able to qualify as a combat pilot so if the opportunity or the need is there i can i can help our mission So he did. He went down to a French school, which is down in the southern part of the country, and it was designed specifically to teach people how to use machine guns on aircraft. So he learned that and then he came back. And so when he got back, it was now the winter of 1917, 1918. So he had to have some more opportunities to fly before he ever was exposed to combat.
SPEAKER 09 :
So in the year 1918, though, he did do combat missions, and he ultimately was awarded the Medal of Honor for those, yes?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, but that was years later. What happened was he had to have enough training to be confident, so he didn’t go out. A lot of the pilots, the new pilots, were shot down in their first missions. Eddie flew enough with an experienced person, and actually he was the best American pilot. He’d been born in France, and he took Eddie sort of under his wing, so to speak, and worked with him one-on-one, where he would take his plane, Eddie would take his plane. They were flying French-made Newports, and so they trained. And then Eddie had a first chance for combat the last week in April 1918. So he did his flying. He was up and around, and he got his first aircraft shot down that time. But it was a harrowing experience, and he was learning a lot because that’s— a situation where you either learn fast or you’re shot down and you’re gone. So shortly after he had had some combat experience, he had some sort of a respiratory problem. So Eddie was actually in and out of the hospital for almost two months. So May and June are basically gone. So then he came back, and now he’s got about four months to work with, July, August, September, October. Within four months, Eddie had become the squadron commander and had shot down 26 German aircraft.
SPEAKER 09 :
Wow, that is amazing. And again, this would be like the old-time dogfights, right?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, absolutely. Yes, for sure. And he learned, he really learned a lot from the Germans, because the Germans were the ones that developed the attack program. And he was very observant of their procedures, and he used a lot of the tactics that the Luftwaffe was using then. Of course, then it wasn’t called the Luftwaffe. It was only named that later. But nevertheless, he was flying during the period after most of the German aces had actually been shot down because of constant exposure. but nevertheless there were still the german pilots still were more experienced than these young americans well one thing was interesting about that they had to make a waiver on and this is a flashback eddie when he wanted to be a pilot the age requirements was 27. um You could not fly if you were that old, I mean, if you’re over that age. I thought it was 25. I’m sorry, 25, correct. And, of course, he was born in 1890, so he was already 27. But what happened was the doctor who did the physical exam was a good friend of Eddie’s. So he just changed the record to show that Eddie was born really in 1892. So… It shows, again, a little of his initiative and how his good friends helped get him into combat.
SPEAKER 09 :
Boy, remarkable stories about Eddie Rickenbacker. And we get to have these discussions because of our sponsors.
SPEAKER 03 :
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SPEAKER 09 :
Thank you so much for listening to America’s Veterans Stories. We are rebroadcasting some of the shows that we have recorded in the past because we have these amazing guests and these amazing stories, and we need to hear them. And so we thought that it would be a great idea to rebroadcast some of these so that you can hear our history and know our history because it is so important. So again, this is something that was recorded earlier, and thank you for listening.
SPEAKER 05 :
God bless.
SPEAKER 09 :
land that I love and welcome back to the Kim Monson show be sure and check out our website that is Kim Monson M-O-N S-O-N dot com sign up for our weekly email newsletter you can email me at Kim at Kim Monson dot com as well and thank you to all of you who support us we’re an independent voice on an independent station searching for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force force versus freedom something’s a good idea you shouldn’t have to force people to do it And I’m talking with Colonel Bill Rutledge, retired United States Air Force, 96 years young. And we’re talking about Eddie Rickenbacker. And just really an amazing, amazing man. And both military and an entrepreneur. And we are pre-recording this for both Memorial Day and for America’s Veterans Stories for the day before. So Colonel Rutledge, it’s 1918, April. Eddie Rickenbacker in combat flight, he gets his first kill on that. And then he was in and out of the hospital because he had some respiratory stuff going on. And so then he ended up having four months left. Because then the war came to an end. And a rather remarkable record that he had 26 additional, a total of 26, I guess, Germans that he shot down, right?
SPEAKER 07 :
Correct. And also, he had moved up where he was a squadron commander. And so when the war ended and he came back home, he was certainly the aviation hero. And also because of his close affiliation with General Billy Mitchell, he maintained contact with those people who were still flyers in the military. But he was also recognizing that in order to have good military a good pilot and a number of pilots for any kind of future combat that we need to develop commercial aviation for many reasons. But one of the reasons, of course, was to gain experience as pilots. So he was doing that. Then he also went back and he bought the indianapolis speedway it was on the market it was going to be sold and it looked like it was going to be converted into homes and businesses and he was very good working with financial people so he got backers and put it put together enough money to buy the property And he always claimed it because of the importance of the facility, that it was one of the greatest test places for the automobile industry. This is long before they had big outdoor tracks like they do in Arizona now. The racetracks were great, and the people, of course, in the tire business really promoted and encouraged racing there because they had to change their tires a lot when they were doing the Indianapolis 500. So he bought that so they could continue the procedure, which is still today. On Memorial Day weekend, it is… the elite race in America. And so he saved it. And then At the same time, he decided because of his mechanical skills that he wanted to go into the auto production field. So he actually did. And he set up factories. He got people that were going to be dealers for him around the country because he’d had some experience like that before the war. And they actually produced cars. rickenbacker automobiles many thousands during the 1920s but what happened was because of the great crash and depression as it started in 29 they just didn’t have enough cash to survive so He had to go out of business, and then he started directing his attention more to commercial aviation, especially he affiliated with the very small airport and airplane operations in Florida. And then he eventually switched the name to Eastern Airlines, and he became the executive and eventually the owner of Eastern Airlines. Now, when he was going through this transition, Roosevelt was elected in 1932. He took office on March 4, 1933. And he was trying to figure out how to save money. And there had been some movement of airmail. by commercial carriers. And that seemed to be fairly safe because they would only do it during the daytime and where they could see and follow. They used to follow railroad routes or paved roads. They did all sorts of things because aviation was in its infancy on the commercial aspect. So he worked a lot with that. Roosevelt decided in spring of 34 that instead of paying commercial contractors to fly the mail, he was going to have the Army Air Corps do that. Well, the Army Air Corps didn’t have nearly as good of planes as the commercials. They were still using training planes left over from World War I. Plus the fact they didn’t know enough about flying at night. They didn’t know the routes well, and they didn’t have enough flying time. So consequently, when Roosevelt directed that happen, he canceled all the contracts with the commercial carriers and gave the assignment to the Army. And Lindbergh, along with Rickenbacker, both made public announcements to the effect that this was terribly dangerous, that it shouldn’t be done, and for some of the reasons I’ve already mentioned. And so what happened in the spring of 34, within about a month or so, They had enough crashes. They lost 12 new young pilots in crashes. And I can remember, because I was very young, I was in the first grade, but I was in Georgia, and one of the pilots was from a town down there. It was from Albany, Georgia. And they used to have articles in the paper every day about this man who’d been in a crash in Florida. He was an Army Reserve. But what his health condition was, how he was recovering, his name was Mason Reed. And I just kept hearing people talk about, how is Mason Reed doing today? How is Mason Reed? Well, after a few weeks, Roosevelt realized that he had made a terrible mistake. So he backed off and took the Army out of the mail business and went back for commercial contracting. And that happened. continued on till today. It’s done by commercial purposes, not by military aviation.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and Roosevelt kind of held a grudge, didn’t he?
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, he held a real grudge. He held a grudge against Rickenbacker and also, of course, against Lindbergh. Both of them, Lindbergh had been designated a colonel in the U.S. Army Air Corps Reserve. And Rickenbacker had been, he served on active duty as a captain during World War I. But after the war, through the reserve, he was promoted also to full colonel in the Army Air Corps. And he was presented, of course, with his Medal of Honor, many years after the war. But these were the two most important pilots recognized by the American public. And when they both came out in opposition to Roosevelt, it had an impact. So when we got to World War II, both of them wanted to come back and be on active duty, and Roosevelt refused. He wouldn’t let him do it. It was just a chip on his shoulder.
SPEAKER 09 :
So how did—we’d done that show on Lindbergh. How did Rickenbacker end up serving in World War II then?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, what happened was he had gotten to know— a number of the general officers, of course, from the First World War who had become generals then. And Hap Arnold now was the Chief of Staff for the Army Air Corps. And Hap Arnold knew how good Rickenbacker was. So when they started the military draft in 1940 and started building new fields all around the country, He approached Rickenbacker and said, I would like for you to go and inspect each one of these new bases. And what he did, he took him into the Secretary of War because there was no Air Force that’s separate at that time. And Stimson was the Secretary of War. So he told him what he wanted to do. So Simpson gave him a letter that he could use and show to the base commanders at all of the new Air Force bases being built that he was speaking on behalf of the Secretary of the Army and had the authority to direct any changes necessary to make the bases and the training staff more efficient. So that’s what he did. And he went all over America, did a marvelous job. And he was so successful there. that they even sent him to some of the other areas. And then even when Russia got into the war in 1941, in June of 1941 when they were invaded, we started sending aircraft over to assist them and all. Eddie went to Russia, representing the U.S., to help the Russians understand how to fly the American fighter aircraft. And he also had the opportunity to see what the Russians were doing as far as their aircraft construction. So he was… what we used to call a tech rep, technical representative, and to monitor and to come back and to share what he had learned in the field with the Army Air Corps. And it was very important. Now, it was so important, and now we get a situation where Japan has invaded, I mean, Japan has attacked Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941. In 1942, when Corregidor fell in the Philippines, MacArthur was sent by direction from Roosevelt, was sent to Australia. And he was to be the commander of that whole theater with the Army. But the Secretary of the Army wanted to relay some confidential information to MacArthur. So he elected to have Eddie go directly to talk to the general. Okay.
SPEAKER 09 :
Colonel Rutledge, let’s keep that as a cliffhanger. And also, before we get into that remarkable story, I also wanted to ask you about 1941 when he was in that plane crash. So let’s keep those two things as cliffhangers.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, we can do that. We should do a flashback on that.
SPEAKER 09 :
absolutely and the center for american values is located in pueblo on the beautiful riverwalk and it was founded for several reasons one to honor our medal of honor recipients and they do that through over 160 portraits of valor of medal of honor recipients but additionally they are teaching these foundational principles of honor integrity and patriotism through many of their educational programs and also their On Values presentation. So for more information about the center, go to AmericanValuesCenter.org. That’s AmericanValuesCenter.org. And I also want to mention Lauren Levy for Everything Mortgages.
SPEAKER 06 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
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SPEAKER 09 :
Thank you so much for listening to America’s Veterans Stories. We are rebroadcasting some of the shows that we have recorded in the past because we have these amazing guests and these amazing stories, and we need to hear them. And so we thought that it would be a great idea to rebroadcast some of these so that you can hear our history and know our history because it is so important. So again, this is something that was recorded earlier, and thank you for listening.
SPEAKER 05 :
Welcome back to the Kim Monson Show.
SPEAKER 09 :
Be sure to check out our website. That is kimmonson.com. Happy Memorial Day to all of you. It’s a day to remember and reflect upon those that have given their lives for our liberty. And something that you might consider doing is the USMC Memorial Foundation will be sponsoring an event out at the memorial at 2 o’clock on Memorial Day. So be sure and check out their website. That is usmcmemorialfoundation.org. I’m talking with 96-year-young Colonel Bill Rutledge, retired United States Air Force, about Eddie Rickenbacker. And we’re getting ready to talk about when he was to take the message down to General MacArthur. But let’s let’s go back earlier in the year. I think it is, I guess, the year before February 1941. What happened to Eddie? Well.
SPEAKER 07 :
Eddie had become the chief executive officer for Eastern Airlines. And Eastern had become the largest commercial carrier in America before the start of our involvement in World War II. So he was a passenger aboard one of the DC-3s, which were the real advancement in commercial aviation for passengers. And he was just a passenger aboard on his way to Atlanta, coming out of New York. And so… There was no bad weather or anything going on, and nothing was unexpected. And they were approaching Atlanta, and something happened as far as the technical aspects of the aircraft and communication of the grounds, because a lot of it was experimental in those days. Anyhow, what happened was that the pilots… and the co-pilot were both killed in the crash that happened north of Atlanta. And it was finally after a flight investigation, they found that their altimeter had been wrong. They thought they were at an altitude of about 2,000 feet higher than they really were. So they flew right into the forest. And a terrible crash, and many of the people aboard were killed. And Eddie was, it was a miracle that he wasn’t killed. He was in the wreckage, and the people came out as quickly as they could get there, but it took them about an hour, an hour and a half to come to the wreck site. Then the emergency people were trying to excavate and get their survivors who could walk get them out of the way first and then they heard that Eddie was still breathing so it took him over an hour to use cutters and things to get him out but he was so enshrined with metal all around him so they got him out they put him in the ambulance they all went to the hospital when they got to the hospital The doctors who were on call that night in the emergency room, they looked at Eddie and they thought, this guy’s not going to make it. They said, put him over there to the side. So they just wanted to work on the ones that looked like they had a chance to survive. The good news for Eddie was that Eddie knew the doctor who was in charge of the hospital. And the doctor was alerted of the crash. So he came over and he arrived there within an hour or so after Eddie got to the hospital. And he asked, where’s Eddie? And they pointed out to him over there. Well, he’s over there with a group we don’t think will make it. well the doctor in charge went over and became eddie’s personal physician and he did everything he could and he saved eddie’s life and but eddie had many many broken bones and a fractured skull and things which would normally kill anyone and uh So the doctor told him, he says, you’re going to stay here and we’re going to treat you. And he said, I believe that you will need to be here for eight months. And Eddie said, I don’t think so. And in four months, Eddie got up and walked out.
SPEAKER 09 :
Amazing. Amazing. So let’s get over to he walked out and we’re now getting into World War Two. So now now what happened?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, then we’ve talked about his visits to all of our air bases and acting as a tactical consultant. But he then was asked directly by the Secretary of War to take a personal oral message to General MacArthur, who was now down in Australia. So he flew to Hawaii, and when he got to Hawaii… There was a B-17 available to fly him from there on down towards Australia. Well, they took off. There was Eddie and seven other members of the crew. And Eddie was the passenger. And they were going. They had their headings. Everything was going fine. But then their radio communications didn’t work right. And the long and the short of it was that their contact with the islands that they were supposed to be able to stop at and refuel, they got lost. And after a while, it looked like there’s no way they’d make any kind of a landing on surface. So the pilot told them we’re going to have to crash land. So they moved on. There are supplies of water and also there are supplies of emergency food. And they moved it to a particular spot on the plane. And so they had to crash into the ocean. So they came down, made a good landing. But in their panic to get out of the plane, they forgot the food and the water. So they went out and inflated their three little rafts that were done. And so they all got in those. They got off. And when they got safely away from the airplane, it went under. And suddenly they realized, hey, we don’t have any water and we don’t have any food. And yet there’s eight of us floating around out here and nobody knows where we are. And so what they were doing, they realized they were going to be dependent upon rain for water and try to try to fish. And so one of the first notable things happened. Eddie, very smartly, kept on his coat and regular suit and a big felt hat. Now, a lot of the people had thrown a lot of their personal clothing item away because they thought it would be easier for them to swim, to swim away from the plane. That was stupid because it also exposed them to terrible sun. so one day and this is shortly after they’d gotten out there floating around a bird came a seagull and landed on top of eddie’s head and nobody moved nobody said anything they didn’t want to frighten the bird so eddie real quickly wham on top of his head and he had the he killed the bird and so they took the bird and divided it up into eight parts and they ate the bird and of course there’s no way to cook the bird anything like that they probably picked some of the feathers off but nevertheless That sustained them for a while. And then they also rigged up some devices with some strings and some sort of hooks they made that they could use and try to catch a fish once in a while. And then they had rain. And the rain is what saved them. and they were floating in the drift. They were lost and the newspapers didn’t cover much about it because it was a very highly classified mission. But they did later report that Rickenbacker was missing on a combat flight to Australia. So we knew this. But 22 days before one of the aircraft, which was an amphibious plane from one of the smaller islands way out in the middle of the Pacific, flew over their area and identified them, and it took them another 24 hours to go back and get some other amphibious aircraft to come down and pick them up and take them all back to this island. And so then all the people wanted to go back to Hawaii, but Eddie said, no, I’m going on to Australia because I have a mission to perform, and it’s verbal. So he did continue on, and he went and visited with MacArthur and relayed the information from the Secretary of the Army.
SPEAKER 09 :
Remarkable. And we’ve got a couple of minutes left. What would you say would be the big takeaways regarding Eddie Rickenbacker that you want our listeners to hear?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, I think the most important thing to me was the amazing thing is that I’ve talked to many people that I’ve known during the last few weeks. And I’d say, do you know anything about Eddie Rickenbacker? They said, who’s he? I couldn’t find hardly anybody who’d ever even heard of Eddie Rickenbacker. And I told them a little bit about the story and that he was the most famous American fighter ace in World War One. But I also tried to equate him with. Other people of his era, and that’s when I mentioned that he was on a par with people who they recognized. In other words, Edison and Bell and Ford and Chrysler, all of whom had no degrees. And you could go all the way back to Benjamin Franklin. People mostly didn’t know anything about him either. But all these people did not have formal educations, but they were leaders in their field. Nobody else could have taught them because they were inventing and creating. And he was… Eddie was a person who was creative especially in business and organization for commercial aviation. In other words, he was to commercial aviation what Billy Mitchell was to the development of military aviation.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, Colonel Rutledge, I so thank you for all of the research that you’ve done on this. And thank you so much for sharing this. And our quote for the end of the show is from Eddie Rickenbacker. He said, So, my friends, today, be grateful, read great books, think good thoughts, listen to beautiful music, communicate and listen well, live honestly and authentically, strive for high ideals, and like Superman, stand for truth, justice, and the American way. My friends, you are not alone. God bless you. God bless America. And stay tuned for our number two.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you for listening to America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Monson. Be sure to tune in again next Sunday, 3 to 4 p.m. here on KLZ 560 and KLZ 100.7.
SPEAKER 04 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
