EddieRickebacker
by Jack Purdum
Eddie Rickenbacker was an amazing fighter pilot of World War 1 and World War 2 he had 26 confirmed kills and many more only 2 months. He was a race car driver, and a mechanic. He was very nice. He didn’t want to kill people in war he just protected his people.
Eddie Rickenbacker was an amazing fighter pilot. He was an amazing race car driver and mechanic. Eddie competed in the Indianapolis 500 and set a speed record of 134 mph. Eddie was one of the most successful race car drivers of his time. He made 40,000 dollars per year which was a great sum at that time. After his race car driving career, he became a mechanic in the war.
Eddie Rickenbacker loved speed and machines. He made go-carts and rode them very fast when he was a kid. Because of that love of speed he became a race car driver. When Eddie went to war, he was a great mechanic. But Eddie wanted to fly. Eddie got to fly on his free time but never in battle. One day Eddie became the engineering officer at the Issoudun aerodrome and flew whenever he wanted.
Eddie soon after got assigned to the newly formed 94th aerosquadron. He and his roommates James Hall, Hamilton Coolidge, James Meissner, Reed Chambers, and Harley Cook unpacked in the 94th aerodrome. April 29th was Lieutenant Eddie Rickenbackers first battle. He and Captain James Hall had the afternoon alert. At five o’clock they received a call from the French headquarters at Beaumont.
Their French allies stated that there was an enemy plane that crossed the lines. Eddie and James were ready so they took off. Once they caught up to the enemy, the fight started. They flew around awhile in standstill until Eddie drove the enemy into James’ line of fire but they didn’t hit him. Eddie was on his tail and drove him into a mountain. Eddie brought down his first plane without taking any shots.
Eddie scored his second victory flying with Reed Chambers. On the morning of May 17th, Eddie and Reed were flying when Eddie lost Reed, he flew away. Eddie then spotted three enemies about to take off. Eddie took a dive and shot at them. He hit them and then pulled out of his dive but his wing cracked. Eddie managed to glide and land safely and his kill was confirmed.
Eddie and his crew were flying over the pacific ocean in a B-17. A B-17 was not a fast plane but it could fly very high and was well defended. It had a lot of guns to protect itself. In World War 2, a Japanese fighter pilot caught them by surprise. It started shooting at them and hit the fuel tank. The fuel tank started leaking gas. The Japanese planes flew away so they did not get hit but the shot at the fuel tank made them run out of fuel and they crashed into the ocean. They got safely onto a life raft and out of the plane. They were on the life raft for twenty-two days. On the eighth day they were all hungry and dehydrated. Luckily, they found a seagull on Eddies head and caught it. They killed the seagull and used it to catch fish and that saved their lives.
Eddie thanked the seagulls every sunday by feeding them bread for saving his life. For these reasons through the amazing stories he had, his great flying and race car driving, and his great kindness, I think Eddie Rickenbacker is one of the most inspiring American Hero!
