L9 A
THE OMAHA SUNDAY EEE t MARCH 16, 1919.
Captain "Eddie" Rickenbacher, Former Omaha Race Driver and Ace of
U. S. Aces, Tells His Own Story, of His Experiences '
By CAPTAIN EDWARD V. RICKENBACHER, D. C. S.
Legion of Honor Croix de Guerre.
An officer who had the job of giv
ing preliminary examinations to the
young men who wanted to fly once
complained to me that two ans
wers to his well-meant questions
got to be exasperatingly common.
The first was to the effect that the
candidate didn't know anything
about aviation but had always
dreamed of doing it. The second
came when he was asked if Je
knew the names of any of the men
who were piloting fighting air
planes over in France. Usually, ac
cording to -this officer, lie said
"Eddie Rickenbacher" and stopped
there. The examiner was sure it
ved that the average American
.th read the sporting page of -the
wspaper more carefully tlTan the
ont page. A racing automobile
.(river's name caught his attention
, even in the war news, and stuck
and- I got the benefit. If it had been
a base ball player, it would have
been the same way. I mention the
matter here because, as it hapens,
when I started in I ,was rrke those
boys.' I knew nothingv about 'avi-
;iion and had only dreamed about
it. I went overs to France as a
chauffeur, after trying to get up a
flying unit which the government
refused to be interested in for rea
sons that I now see were entirely
good, though I did not see it clearly
then. Once over there, I would uot
let them rest until they gave me a
lieutenant's commission and sent
i me to Tours to see if I could learn
to fly.
Learned Pretty Fast.
I learned pretty fast: Long prac
tice in driving a racing car at a hun-
dred miles an hour or so gives first
class training in control and in
judging distances at high speed, and
helps tremendously in getting mo
tor sense, which is rather the feel
of your engine thafy the sound of it,
a thing you get through your
bones and,, nerves ratb.er than
simply your ears. All this is a part
.of the physical equipment of
j handling an airplane, and it makes
a lot of difference if the fellow with
the stick knows how to make 'a
i turn at 100 miles an hour or to
; allow for passing another fellow at
' twice that. "
; The proof of this is that after five
and a half hours dual wilh an in
structor tbey let me solo. But be
cause I was a good mechanic and
; knew about motors they sent me to
Issoudun to be engineer officer. Be
ring engineer officer, I never had any
regular advanced flying training ac
cording to rule. But I took up a
s ship whenever I could and learned
j that way.
' I remember when I thought it
was time to try a vrille or tail ipin.
I knew what I was supposed to do.
I knew you put the stick over and
crossed the controls, but I'd never
seen anybody do it. I went up about
12,000 feet, got off some distance
from the field and flew around there
for every bit of 30 minutes trying
to get up my nerva to try the trick,
but too scared to begin. At last I
said to myself, "What's the matter
with you? You've got to do' this,"
and threw the stick. She wen into
the spin all right but I had her back
to neutral after just one whirl, and
I tell you I was glad when she
righted. Next day, I went out and
I took 20 minutes to make up my
mind to try again. It was only on
the third day that I went at the job
with any confidence and let her do
a real spin.
That is still more or less the way
I feel about doing a new stunt, after
all the flying I have done at the
front since. When you try a new
thing, you are never quite certain
how the machine will behave;- and
though you may have confidence in
your, ability to get out of anything
as long as you have the altitude,
there is a sort of hesitation botVin
the machine and in you. The trouble
is, you do not know what the strains
will be on either.
The next thing was to get away
from Issoudun. The men who had
to stick over in this side as flying
instructors know how hard it is get
away from a field when they've
got you tied down to a job there.
Those fellows are the ones that have
my sympathy, becaus . they have
done the work 'and missed the credit.
They have staid home and not
really home either, but in some par
ticularly hot place down in Texas,
most likely staid "there and made
aces when they were themselves the
stuff of which aces are made, and
but for the luck of it would be, a lot
of them, coming back here now with
as many, ribbons and, decorations
and Huns to their credit as any of
us. ,
Instead, they have stuck on the
job full of dingers and responsibil
ities with little chance of promotion
and none of fighting or of fame.
And, the better they were, the more
certainly they were stuck. Because
pilots had to be trained in a hurfy,
a very large number of pilots, and
the very best. men were none too
good for the task of training them.
I "was not an instructor over there
ai Issoudun. But even an engineer
officer in France could not afford to
be too good. I do not think I was.
Still, when. I asked to go -to the
front the C. O. said I could not be
soared. '
I, conspire with the medical
r fflf
f v I
Ask Mr. Droste
Just oij. your right at the head of
v the stairs as you enter the bank is
the desk of Mr. Droste, Assistant
Cashier.
If you wish to locate a certoin de--partment,
if you wish to get in
tbch with an officer, or an em
ploye, or if you wish any informa-
tion about the bank, ask Mr.
Droste. . ' i m ' "
.We want to make your banking
with us pleasant, and we want to
save your, time. Consequently
Mr. Droste is always glad to have
you call on him for information
pertaining to the bank.
THE SERVICE OF THE FIRST'
is available to everyone requiring
the service of a bank. We invite
you to come in and learn more of
the meaning of this service, and
remember, there is always a 'wel
come for you here,
I . j l CI 1 . ,
; , 0 f o 1 I I t U I
V,,;:;;;.. .. ..-. ....... f V.. '.'
Photo CoDvriKbled by Harris &tJwlnir.
'" Major Tames A. Meissner, D. S. C. (8 Huns); Major General William L. Kenly, Director of Military
Aeronautics: Cantain Edward V. Rickenbacher. D. b. C. of Omaha. Neb.. (26 Huns) and Captain Douglas
Campbell, D. S.-C. (6 Huns), photographed in front of headquarters, Division of Military Aeronautics, Wash
ington, D. C. Meissner, Rickenbacher and Campbell were all members ot the JWh Aero squaaron wnose Daage
was tne xiai-in-me-iung. , n
officer. He does not know' it yet.
but I did. I got myself sent to the
hospital for tw weeks and at the
end of that time I went to the C. O.
and told him that it had been proved
that I .wasn't indispensable be
cause the other fellow had done the
job better than I did. He could not
deny if and he let me go.
That gave me my chance to try
my luck as a fightiivg pilot. I have
had extraordinarily good luck.
Every man who has been flying for
any length of time at the front and
is still alive has had good luck. It
is scientific murder. The men who
have learned their trade go at it that
way, and as long as they do go at it
that way they have an 'excellent
chance toaccumulate victories and
survive nevertheless. The experi
enced fighting pilot does not take
unnecessary risks. His business is
to shoot down enemy planes, not to
get shot down. His trained eyes and
hand and judgment are as much a
part of his armament as his machine
gun and a 50-50 chance is the worst
he will take or siould take, except
where the show is of the kind that
either for offense or defense justifies
the sacrifice of plane and pilot.
, Both Wise Birds.
It is not the old hand and the
expert flyer and air fighter who gets
another of the same sort. Both are
wise and shy birds. You will see a
couple of that kind meet now- and
then over the line and watch them
circling experimentally around each
other. The next thing you know,
each has sized up his antagonist as
just as good or better than himself
and both have sheered off and are
flying away to look for a more
promising victim. What each is
hunting for is an enemy who can be
pounced on suddenly unawares and
a getaway made before his comrades
are on the victor's tail. The obvious
ly inexperienced pilot is the game
the .scientific air fighter goes after,
and the majority of victories are
won that way. But on the other
hand, it, is the novice who usually
gets ttie famous ace by doing at
some moment the unexpected thing.
He rashly attempts or blunders into
a manoeuver which ii dead against
all the sane rules and that is some
thing against which the master of
the-game has not provided and- is
not forearmed. Sheer foolhardiness
or plain clumsiness has done what
skill and experience could not do.
Or else accident does it, engine trou
ble. a jammed machine gun, or an
oversight. I remember an incident
which might easily have made an
end of me.
His First Hun.
. An approved method of attack was
to dive out of the sun at the rear
most boche of a Hun formation,
shoot him down if you had the luck,
chandelle or spiral upward and dive
again at the next tailenderf I tried
the trick once and got as far as the
first act on the program, but I had
shut off my pressure and forgot
about it, and when, after crashing
my first Hun, I tried to regain my
altitude, the Spad refused to climb.
I had to go into a roll which fot
my gravity feed into action, but by
that time the boche jhre.all com
ing at me in a bunch with their guns
spirting. There was nothing lor it
but to diva with full power, which in
the case of a Spad means going
down at the rate of about 300 miles
an hour, and fortunately wa were
pretty high tip. With half a doien
Huna after me, I went down o,wu
feet that way. and though .1 had
some trouble getting her out of th$
dive, I managed it and got away in
spite of the fine target I made. .
"Dropping Out.
This narrow escaoe mav he used
to bring out a point illustrated by
the case of the doughboy who got
tired of marching and dropped by
the roadside. An officer ordered
hmi to get back to his place and
added that he had better be glad he
was in the infantry, because if he
had been in the air and dropped out
he couldn t get back. Flying is one
of the safest jobs in the armv as
long as you do not drop tmt. If you
do drop out, you are a dead man and
dropping out means, usually, that
you have made a mistake or let go
of your gip.
There have been stories about the
recklessness of the American flyers,
and no doubt they went for the Hun
wherever they could get at him and
some took very long chances, but on
the front as I saw it, the American
aviators in this regard came between
the French and the British. The
French were inclined to be cautious
as a settled military policy of get
ting the best results with the least
expenditure of valuable lives and
costly planes. The British ' were
foolhardv as a matter of orinciole
and morale, because they found that
they got the test resulta with their
people in that way. Compared
with the French, playing their own
game in the way they had settled
down to it toward the end of the
war, our men seemed reckless. Com
pared with the British they seemed
cautious. But, of course, the three
systems had nothing to do with the
courage of the three nations or of
individual Frenchmen, bnglishmen
or Americans. The French and
English had each worked : out a
method of scientific murder that did
the job. We were working out ours
with the experience of both to help
us and the methods of both' to
choose from. The result was, gen
erally, a sort of compromise.
The Flyer's Age.
Right here I may mention ai a
matter of interest, that in point of
maturity for this work, the English
man of 18 is about even with the
American of 22. Our men are gen
erally at their best as flyers be
tween the ages of 22 and 26: the
English are best between 18 and 22.
I have been asked why, and I think
it is due to differences in early edu
cation in the two countries rather
than to anything directly connected
with the British and American
practice of training flyers.
Returning for a moment to the
French People Indignant
Over .Delay of Indemnities
France, With a Deficiency of $10,000,000,000, Finds
. Herself in Situation Which Recalls the "Green
" backs" in America After the Civil War; Her Credit
. Is Good But the Franc Is Weak Abroad and at
Home. -.
stories of recklessness on the part
of our aviators, there were men
like Frank Luke, whose record is
one of the brightest glories of our
air service and who gave his all,
his life, to the cause. Luke s is
Huns include 11 balloons, and.to
get a balloon you have to go
through the antt-aircratt ana ma
chine gun barrage and the Naming
onions they send up to protect it.
Getting a balloon is so much more
difficult than getting a plane, in fact,
that the Germans credit a pilot with
two victories for every balloon
brought down.
Luke from the beginning jwai a
wild man in the air. He would take
off and playfully do a series of loops
within a few hundred feet of the
ground. That sort of thing was
strictly forbidden in my own squad
ron. Men and planes are too valu
able and too difficult to replace at
the front to berisked unless there
is real reason, for the risk. But after
a run of hard luck such as came
along sometimes when we had lost
a lot of men and the spirits of the
others were beginning to show the
Strain, I used to go out myself and
do all sorts of Stunts right out , in
front of them. It had a surprising
moral effete The men said, "Any
way, they haven't got Ricken
bacher's goat." On the next sortie
they went up lull of pep and snap
and ready to go anywhere and do
anything. .
Hat-ln-Ring Squad.
My own aquadron, the Ninety
fourth (Hat-in-the-Ring), had a fine
record. We were the first American
sauadron in the game: we had the
first ace and the highest record of
air victories of any American squad
ron at the end of the war, and final
ly, we had a chance to go into Ger
many at the head of the American
army, which was a magnificent cli
max to the unit's active career and
an experience not to be forgotten by
any of us flying over those cities
and castles and vineyards along the
Rhine that we had been thinking of
as theilistant goal of all the fighting
that went before.
Some of the men who have been
flying over there in FranM came
back saying they are fed up and
have had enough of the air. But I
do not think Lam one of them. The
sky means something to me it never
meant before. When 1 look no ana
see the sun shining on the patch of
white clouds up in the blue, I begin
to think how it would feel to be up
somewhere above it. winging awiftly
through the dear air, watching the
earth below and the men on it no
Kbigger than ants. I rarely go to
church except with my mother wnen
I am at home,, to show that a plaint
.T . , ' 1 I A. 1 f
xeDrasica raisinjj nas j noi uccn
wasted on her boy but there is
something spiritual I don't know
what else to call it irvthe feeling
you get up there. .At least it seems
so to me, though somebody sug
gested that it was just, in a tnagnl
tied form, the feeling of superiority,
or exaltation, or whatever it U, ol
the man on horseback or in a swift
automobile ai he looks down, ai he
sweeps past, upon the man on foot
To Continue Flying.
At all events, I expect to keep oa
flying and I expect a part of the
future of flying to lie in the scope it
gives to the initiative of the Ameri
can boy in the sort of thing; that
nunting usea to mean to mm in un
days when there was hunting close
at hand for almost every boy, and
that sport in maay forms still meant
to him and always will mean to
him. Whatever happens or does
not happen in the way of the com
mercial expansion of aviation, flying
will always have the sporting ele
ment, and military aviation, which,
through the fortune of war,-is sa
much in advance of other forms ol
flying, must be kept alive and strong
as the backbone of, the others.
In a very real sense, the future of
aviation in this country, is in thi
hands of the men who hare been
trained to fly in the army, who have
mastered the i art either on fields
on this side or at the front, not with
out paying a heavy price for it In
the lives of comrades just as good
but not to lucky as themselves,
i
John P. Tarbox, executive' enrt.
neer ot Curtlsi Engineering corpor
ation, saya airplane stabilizer are
needed and will be produced soon In
such -form aa to make airplane of
great commercial value. -
.... -1
' -; : A t? $ -:t 'f r ' :
' - - -
Funeral Horn of -
Stack & Falconer
HTC-Arrt?w
Oar On Thoagat Is
Service
, TL Kancf 64
33rd A Paraaaa OMAHA
By NABOTH HEDIN. '
Staff Correspondent of Universal
Service. '
(Special Ctble DUpatch.)
Paris, March IS. The French
slogan today is "Peace and Pay."
"Germany must pay first,'-' resounds
or stares from every tribune, sign
board and newspaper. Mass meet-
ings are held and .resolutions are
sent to the Chamber of Deputif s de
manding that before the French tax
payers are aaddled with new bur
dent Germany must pay for the
damages it has caused.
The French budget has been more
than tripled and there is a $10,000,-
000,000 deficiency which must be
raised forthwith. The Chamber last
week voted- to have 3,000,000,000
francs additional paper money
printed. This makes a total ot36,
000,000,000 francs of paper money in
circulation as against less than 6,-
-000,000,000 before the war.. Econ
omists argue the excessive circu
lation of paper rsney it responsible
for raising the prM.' j
The situation Hcalls the "green
backs" in America after the civil
war. French credit is good.but
there is no denying that the franc is
weak both 'abroad and at home.
The rising prices make the situa
tion -fi many people desperate, es
pecially that of salaried men and
women. Last Sunday employes of
the government who are underpaid
joined labor unions as a means to
raise their incomes. Applied to
America, this is as if the American
government employes joined the
federation of labor or the I. W. W.
for concerted action. ,
The French capitalist class is wor
ried by talk of confiscation of one
fourth o everybody's property to
pay the war deficit.
France looks with anxiety toward
the discussion at the Quai D'Orsay
Saturday of the reparation problem.
For the amount which Germany is
to be sentenced to .pay is a vital
question for France. Returning sol
diers do not like to pay for the war
which they have won.
The fresh activity of the peace
congress in fixing the preliminary
treaty of peace pleases the French
who consider the congress has not
paid sufficient attention to Germany.
The Paris Midi says editorially:
"Mr. Lansing declares we hare ar
rived at a critical point in the world's
affairs, and that we ought to have
peace without delay. The American
secretary of ttate is a thousand
times right and it is not French
opinion which contradicts him.
"Nobody here understands why we
have been waiting ever since Novem
ber 11 or 123 days to say: 'These
are the new German frontiers, these
are the future German military ef
fectives, these are the debts Ger
many must oav.' '
i iVe xsuat act twicklx aad the
French do not understand why there
is such delay. We hae persistently
shouted here and the French press
generally has done so that the first
subject for the conference to tackle
was the question of Germany. Now
we are finally getting there. Indeed,
it is 'getting there' to announce that
Germany is in peril through lack of
activity for her factories and sup
plies for her markets. It is clear that
when the supply ships enter the
boche ports the question of the new
frontiers will be settled in a sensi
ble fashion. It it clear that the debt
r,,rmanw nvap- 11 will be known
then and that she will recognize thatl
pledges are not to be promised but
"?. . - . .......
ihougn tne trencn peace delega
tion now ooenlv shares the "Ameri
can view regarding the' necessity of
1..! .... .' ) ... . A
supplying ucrmauy in uiu iu yui
anarchy in that country, Chauvinis
tic sections of the French press
make ironical references to Secre
tary Lansing's insistence on this
subject. -
The government inspired yrti$
has abandoned this attitude.
At regards the repeated implica
tions that the society of nations pro
ject delayed the conclusion of a pre
liminary' peace, I am able to state
on authority that this is entirely
falser The league project did not in
the slightest delay the formulation
of the military, territorial, naval and
fiscal terms to be imposed on Ger
many. Separate commission! were ap
oointed for these subjects and they
have been working independently.
While it is true that the league of
nations commission had is report
ready first, thanks to long night ses
sions under the propulsion of Presi
dent Wilson, the other commissions
have been working unhampered by
the league plan ,and would not be
ready until now even if the league
of nations had never been planned.
JBriefly, those who fry to make the
league project the "goat" for the
delay, know not whereof they speak.
Omaha Boys at Camp
Mills Waiting to Be
l-V . 1 . II-
Ketumed to nomes
Eighteen Omaha boys were
among the total, of 2,163 officers and
men who sailed on the Steamship
America Febru'ary 10 from Mar
seilles and arrived in New York
March 2. The men now are at
Camp Mills awaiting to be mustered
out of the service.
The Omaha boys are:
Dvy, Harold W. Rlchlaon, Ralrb B.
Beatrice Reports Big
Real Estate Deals
During the Past Week
Beatrice, Neb., March IS. (Spe
cial.) George Zager, a farmer liv
ing near DeWitt yesterday purchas
ed the old Griggs farm of 200 acres
southof that place of WW. Barm
by for $240 per acre. . ILf. Barmby
a year ago purchased the tame
farm from Mr. Griggs for $140. This
thowt an advance of $100 an acre
during the last year The farm is
well improved. "
Glen Watson, young son of Mr.
and Mrs. E. H. Watson of this city,
died last evening of pneumonia
after a' brief illness.
The Beatrice Poultry association
held itt annual meeting and elected
these officers: 'President, Julius
Neuman; vice president, T. B. Ful
ton; secretary-treasurer, D. O.
Kassing: superintendent. S. A. Sey
mour. Thelates for the next thow
and the selection of the judge will
be made later. '
Word was received here of the
death by influenza of Mrs. Clara
Heiliger, which occurred at her
home at Holyoke, Colo. The de
ceased formerly lived at Plymouth,
to which place the remains will be
taken for burial. The deceased was
23 yeart of age and leaves no fam
ily except her husband.
Heavy showers, the first of the
season, tell in this section ot the
state. The ground is Sn excellent
condition for spring seeding and
winter wheat never looked better at
khis season of tne year. A number
of farmers are at present engaged
in selecting their teed corn for this
year. 1 - " -
r. K. Andersen ot filley hat pur
chased the quarter section farm of
Carl Sorensen near that place for
$26,400.
Judge Wray of York, Neb., ad
dressed a small crowd at the high
school last evening on the new wel
fare ordinance, which was recently
passed by the city commissioners.
A petition signed by -fhe required
number of voter? was recently filed
with the -commissioners requesting
them to call a special election for
the purpose of submitting the prop
osition to the voters, but the com
missioners decided not to call an
election, so the ordinance will not
become effective until 1920. Judge
Wray is president of the welfare
board at York, which has success
fully looked after theaters, public
dances, etc. -
C. of C. Committee to Urge
Changes in Blue Sky Law
Changes in the Nebraska Blue
Sky law will be proposed by a com
mittee of the Chamber of Com
merce, named by Francis Brogan.
This committee comprises Messrs.
W. E. Rhoades, chairman; Yale C.
Holland, Chas A. Goss, W. S.
Weston and Thomas 'A. Fry.
Dickson, TUdan W.
Eaelln, Earl 6.
Johnson, Walter O.
Montmormcy, F. I
Oiborna, Robtrt O.
Pans, Ana-tlo .
Penny, Fran T.
Rldiway. Roy
Rockwell, Loula H.
et. Clair, Lynn R.
Shannon, dward O.
Shropshire, Cl7d C.
Stabler.' Arthur A.
Thompson, I. H,
Isletv.aits & yasAerlerd. T, Q,
L'Alliance Francaise Will s
MeeUt Mrs. Martin's Today
The members of the French Al
liance will be entertained at the
home of Mr. and .Mrs. Charles W.
Martin, 632 South Thirty-seventh
street this afternoon at 4 o'clock.
Dr F, T. Despecher will give an
illustrateiTlectura on yartailiea,
4
A MESSAGE '
TO MOTHERS
C V
Miss Lutie E, Stearns
of Milwaukee
whose ability to interest
an audience is well known ;
- in the
Omaha Circle of Woman's Clubs and Educators
r WiirSpend the Month of April
IN OMAHA '
The enthusiasm with -which Miss Steams' lecture1
"The Bitter Cry of the Children"
has been received recently in St. Louis, Duluth and Milwaukee has oc-
casioned the Alamito Dairy Company tomake arrangements with her
so that the various organizations of JDmaha women : the
Home Economics Classes, Mothers' Circles, Ladies' Aid Societies,
Municipal Nurses, Qrade Teachers' Association and Woman'
Clubs in general may have the pleasure and priyilege of hearina:
not onjy the above-mentioned talk, but also Miss Stearns' enter
taining semi-serioua discussion regarding what adults are to drink!
after the nation goes dry.
- " ' ' ' . '
No charge will be madefor Miss Stearns' services, but Club Sec
retaries are requested to please make application for dates at their'
earliest convenience so that cofliction of dates may be adjusted
to the satisfaction ai-everyone concerned: t'. i
PHONE DOUGLAS 409 AND ASK FOR MRS. NOEL, who will be"
pleased to furnish further details.
Any organizations who prefer to do so may have the -use of the
Reception Room of the Alamito Dairy in which to hear Miss
Stearns talk otherwise Miss Stearns wUl be glad to address them
at their regular meeting place.'
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