European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 24, 1967, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Looks Rickenbacker the boy hard work and  by John Reese staff writer it has already been said that  Rickenbacker has made him self a legend in his own time. Whether or not this is a True assessment of the air plane and automobile Pioneer Rickenbacker certainly does Little to destroy the legend in his autobiography Rickenbacker Prentice Hall. No one can deny that Rickenbacker career has been a colourful one capped with More than a modest measure of financial Success. Of his daring exploits As the leading american air Ace i world War i we would expect to find much in the Book. And there is  same can be said of his struggles to put Eastern air lines on a paying basis and Lead it to its present position of prominence in . Transportation. From his earliest childhood in Colum bus Ohio Rickenbacker had to be first in a Foo Trace or in a test of a homemade Soapbox car. His life was one Long love affair with Speed. The son of poor Swiss parents he never finished the seventh Grade at 13 was working in a factory and by 14 was involved in autos. Before he was 20 he was racing mostly Duesenberg and Maxwell specials clashing with such greats As Barne Oldfield. Came world War i and he flashed to glory As a Spad Pilot with the94th Aero Pursuit so in France becom ing America s Ace of aces with 26victories. I never wanted to kill men Only destroy machines he said a grateful nation awarded him the medal of Honor which Rickenbacker curiously misidentified As the congressional medal of Honor in his own Book and put him permanently in the Public Eye. He bought the Indianapolis Speed Way to save it from real estate investors rebuilt it and sold it. He dug up $3.5 million to buy Eastern airlines and made it into a National  the tense Days before world War ii he got a first hand look at Hitler s migh tas a . State dept. Consultant and in 1943 was in the soviet Union for meet Ings with top communist leaders on the War. The russians found him so inter Esting that they entertained him at a Countryside Dacha where local beauties picked wild strawberries for him and went swimming  Rickenbacker of the incident the russians apparently were trying to worm technical information out of him i could t help noticing that All the girls i saw swimming. Were using the  Eddie As he was widely known after his epic victories in the War clears up a matter that has baffled quite a few modern researchers who have come across old newspapers in which his name was spelled  winding up a letter to a Friend. I happened to sign my name Eddie Rickenbacker and put a Little bracket around the second k to Call attention to it. My Friend. Promptly called in the wire services. And papers printed stories headed Eddie Ricken photo on these pages Are from Rickenbacker reprinted with permission of Prentice Hall. Page 12 a a a. I i 1 38s\\ i a to Rickenbacker the Challenge was the thing As Here at red Oak Iowa where he had his first racing car mishap. Honors poured in on Captain Eddy Here with medal of Honor. Backer has taken the Hun out of  Jyh. Racer Rickenbacker headed Indianapolis Speedway drove Duesenberg there. The stars and stripes however it might come As some Surprise that collectors of Camp will Fin done of the most Fertile Fields in recent letters in Rickenbacker s Book. Chebook is Rich in corny Alger esque observations such As As i worked with my hands Resol ing shoes for the other children in the family automatically coordinated the work with my head. And hands an head Are the winning combinations in any  or working Long hours before and afterschool even at the age of eight or nine was not punishment but a , upon looking at one of his first Auto engines my 15-year-old mind was sufficiently Able to project current knowledge into the future for me to realize that eve that powerful engine could be improved  hard work and self denial were Learned Early in Rickenbacker s life. As a boy of eight he recalls he would get up at 2 . To run a paper route. And later when he was learning the automobile business he would get up at 4 . To study his correspondence school lessons to say nothing of using his lunch period for study. As a Man who was to have Many brushes with the grim reaper As Rickenbacker Calls death he display san extreme preoccupation with death., at the age of nine Rickenbacker was caught in tears by his father. He adjust reached the shocking realization that some Day he would die. His father not apparently Given to tender sympathies thrashed the boy severely with the admonition Don t Ever let me catch you crying Over such foolish things again whack " a few pages later Rickenbacker re turns to the death theme. Even by that time in my Young life i had had several brushes with death. All boys particularly those As Harum scrum As i was have their moments of danger but i had already had More than my  was a pattern that was to run All through my life for i know of no Man who has had More brushes with death than  later after he had experience several More close brushes with the grim reaper on the Auto race track Rickenbacker developed a Haemorrhage following a Tonsillectomy. I began to feel my life flowing away with my blood. I Felt no sense of discomfort no panic. Rather everything seemed Serene and Lovely. Still i continued to bleed and still remained in quiet almost pleasurable state accept ing death. It was truly a sensuous  easy it was to lie there and with a heavenly sensation of Contentment die. Then i realized that never never indy life Horatio Alger to the fore had i taken the easy Way out. I had always fought fought to win to achieve to win. Now i had to face up to the great est fight of All the fight to live. I simply refused to die. Somehow i called Forth the will and the Energy to Tell the intern and the nurse. To Call my doctor. I Lay there fighting off death until he  in Rickenbacker s prose the Choice of words is always the most dramatic the accomplishment the most heroic when he is speaking of himself. This Book carries Many absorbing accounts of the Early Days of Automo bile manufacture sales and racing. There is also a wealth of extremely interesting accounts of the world War i Ace s dog fights with the  s versions of financial manipulation and mane vering in the company of some of the largest Money Mea of the twenties and thirties As he was building his airlines Are equally  s accomplishments Are duly recorded and documented alas often in too great detail. But when the end of the Book is reached the readers still at a loss to know just what kind of a Man Rickenbacker is. His life should make a worthy subject for some Good biographer the wrong View of Rickenbacker and a Spad if you were an enemy fighter Pilot. Rickenbacker travelled widely during world War ii Here Speaks to troops in aleutians. Tuesday october 24, 1967 the stars and stripes Page 13