Edward Vernon Rickenbacker (
1890-
1973) was the leading US combat pilot during
World War I. Prior to his military service, he was an internationally known race car driver, winning plenty of championships and setting a world speed record.
He entered the US Army in
1917 and was assigned as a driver for the staff of General
John Pershing and drove for Colonel
Billy Mitchell, a strong advocate for military air power during a time when tanks replacing horses was a radical idea. Mitchell was instrumental in getting Rickenbacker out of the driver’s seat and into the pilot’s seat, and Rickenbacker became a fighter pilot with the 94th Aero Pursuit Squadron. During the war, Rickenbacker shot down 22 enemy planes and 4 enemy balloons, which gained him the
Distinguished Service Cross, the
French Croix de Guerre, and the
Congressional Medal of Honor. He wrote about his war experiences in
Fighting the Flying Circus (
1919).
After the war, he entered the business world, working with or heading up
Cadillac,
American Airways,
North American Aviation, and
Eastern Air Lines, the latter he was president of from
1938 to
1959.
During
World War II,
Secretary of War Henry Stimson sent Rickenbacker to inspect
Pacific Ocean airbases. Over the Pacific, Rickenbacker’s plane got lost and crashed when it ran out of fuel. The survivors spent three weeks on life rafts before they were picked up, an ordeal which he wrote about in
Seven Came Through (
1943).
He published his
autobiography in
1967.