Edward Vernon Rickenbacker

Before Eddie Rickenbacker became America’s legendary “Ace of Aces,” he was a schoolboy forced to leave the classroom, a self-taught mechanic fascinated by engines, and a race car driver who made speed and danger his profession. Within little more than a decade, that same young man from Columbus, Ohio, would command the famous 94th Aero Squadron, record 26 confirmed aerial victories in World War I, receive seven surviving awards of the Distinguished Service Cross, and earn the Medal of Honor for one of the most remarkable solo attacks in the history of American military aviation.

Edward Vernon “Eddie” Rickenbacker was born in Columbus, Ohio, on 8 October 1890, the son of Swiss immigrants. His father died while Eddie was still young, and Rickenbacker left school during the seventh grade to help support his mother and siblings. Work at Evans Garage introduced him to automobiles, machinery, and the rapidly developing world of motor transport. His mechanical ability soon led him into automobile racing, where he became a nationally known driver before the United States entered World War I. Years later, his connection with American motorsport would come full circle when he led a group of investors that purchased the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1927.

Rickenbacker entered military service on 25 May 1917, joining the Signal Enlisted Reserve Corps and receiving assignment to the Aviation Section. Sent to France as a sergeant first class, his automotive experience initially made him valuable as a driver. He served as a staff driver in the American Expeditionary Forces, but flying rather than driving quickly became his ambition. After persistent requests, he secured aviation training at Tours, France, completed the course in October 1917, and received a commission as a first lieutenant. Following additional duties at Issoudun, he finally obtained the combat assignment he wanted and joined the 94th Aero Squadron of the 1st Pursuit Group in March 1918.

The 94th Aero Squadron, famous for its “Hat in the Ring” insignia, became the unit with which Eddie Rickenbacker would forever be identified. He entered combat in the spring of 1918 and rapidly proved himself in the air. By early summer he had become an ace, but his combat career was temporarily halted by a serious mastoid infection that required hospitalization in Paris. After approximately two months away from operational flying, he returned to the front. On 25 September 1918 he assumed command of the 94th Aero Squadron, and on 28 October he was promoted to captain. By the Armistice, his official record stood at 26 confirmed aerial victories, consisting of 22 enemy aircraft and four observation balloons, the highest confirmed total credited to an American fighter pilot during World War I.

The scale of Rickenbacker’s combat record is best understood through the citations for his Distinguished Service Cross awards. His first surviving DSC citation covered the action of 29 April 1918 near Montsec, where he pursued an Albatross into German-held territory and shot it down near Vigneulles-les-Hattonchâtel. On 17 May over Richecourt, he attacked three Albatross aircraft, destroyed one, and forced the others back across their lines. Five days later over St. Mihiel, he again attacked three enemy aircraft, separated one from the formation, and shot it down near Flirey. On 28 May over Boise Rate, he attacked a formation of six German aircraft, destroyed one, and dispersed the remainder. On 30 May over Jaulny, he engaged five enemy aircraft, shot down one, and drove off the others. Returning to combat after his hospitalization, he attacked four Fokkers near Villecy on 14 September, destroying one in flames and scattering the other three. The following day near Bois-de-Wavrille, he attacked six enemy aircraft that were threatening four American SPADs, destroyed one, and broke up the enemy formation. These seven citations, all for extraordinary heroism, represent the surviving Distinguished Service Cross awards on his final entitlement.

Yet the action for which Rickenbacker became most famous came ten days later. On 25 September 1918, while flying a voluntary patrol near Billy, France, he encountered seven German aircraft, five Fokker fighters protecting two Halberstadt two-seat aircraft. Instead of withdrawing, Rickenbacker attacked. His Medal of Honor citation recognized his “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty” and recorded that he shot one Fokker down out of control before attacking and sending down one of the Halberstadts. The action was originally recognized with an additional Distinguished Service Cross. More than a decade later, that award was upgraded to the Medal of Honor, leaving Rickenbacker with the Medal of Honor and seven Distinguished Service Cross awards in his final record.

President Herbert Hoover formally presented the Medal of Honor to Rickenbacker at Bolling Field near Washington, D.C., on 6 November 1930. Hoover praised his wartime skill and bravery and described his record as a source of pride to his comrades and countrymen. The ceremony permanently linked Rickenbacker’s name with the highest American decoration for military valor and confirmed the extraordinary significance attached to his 25 September 1918 action.

France also recognized Rickenbacker’s combat service. He was appointed a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur and received Croix de Guerre citations. One French citation described him as a pilot of “extraordinary bravery, indifferent to danger” and praised his aggressive combat performance during operations on the Marne and Aisne. Particularly valuable physical evidence survives in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: Rickenbacker’s original Army Air Service coat carries his French Légion d’honneur ribbon and a Croix de Guerre ribbon bearing three palm leaves. His World War I campaign service was additionally represented by the World War I Victory Medal.

Returning home as one of America’s most celebrated veterans, Rickenbacker resumed a career at the intersection of engineering, transportation, and business. He became involved in automobile manufacturing and, in 1927, led the group that purchased the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He remained closely associated with the Speedway through the difficult economic years of the Great Depression before selling it in 1945. His attention increasingly shifted from automobiles to commercial aviation. He joined Eastern Air Lines during the 1930s and by 1939 had become its president and chairman, positions he would hold for more than two decades.

Danger, however, did not end with the First World War. In February 1941 Rickenbacker was badly injured in an Eastern Air Lines crash near Atlanta and survived despite the severity of his injuries. After the United States entered World War II, he served his country primarily as a civilian adviser and investigator for senior military officials. Secretary of War Henry Stimson sent him on inspection and fact-finding missions to assess American air operations, equipment, tactics, and morale.

The most dramatic of these missions began in October 1942. On 21 October, Rickenbacker and his party departed Hawaii aboard a B-17 bound for Canton Island. The aircraft failed to locate the island, exhausted its fuel, and ditched in the Pacific. Rickenbacker and the other survivors escaped into small life rafts with limited provisions. For weeks they endured exposure, dehydration, hunger, and the vast isolation of the open ocean. Search forces eventually located the scattered survivors in November. Rickenbacker himself had spent more than three weeks adrift, but after hospitalization he insisted on completing the inspection mission that had nearly killed him.

His wartime service continued in 1943 with a major fact-finding journey through areas including China, India, and the Soviet Union. Rickenbacker observed Allied aviation operations, gathered military information, and reported his findings to senior American authorities. For his civilian contribution to the American war effort during World War II, the President awarded him the Medal for Merit, one of the United States’ highest civilian decorations of the period. The award connected the second great war of his lifetime with the same qualities that had defined his earlier career: technical knowledge, determination, physical endurance, and a willingness to accept difficult assignments.

Although Rickenbacker was promoted in the reserve establishment after World War I and later accepted a colonel’s Specialist Reserve commission in 1929, he remained closely identified with the title he believed he had earned in combat: “Captain Eddie.” His achievements eventually stretched far beyond the cockpit. He had raced automobiles at the highest level, commanded American fighter pilots in combat, helped shape commercial aviation, led Eastern Air Lines through a formative period of airline history, survived a major airliner crash, endured weeks lost at sea, and returned to national service during another world war.

Eddie Rickenbacker retired from active leadership at Eastern Air Lines in the early 1960s. He died in Zürich, Switzerland, on 23 July 1973 at the age of eighty-two and was buried in his native Columbus, Ohio. His place in American aviation history rests above all on a combat record that has remained extraordinary for more than a century: 26 confirmed World War I aerial victories, command of the legendary 94th Aero Squadron, seven surviving Distinguished Service Cross awards, French recognition for battlefield bravery, and the Medal of Honor for attacking seven enemy aircraft alone near Billy, France. From race tracks to the skies over the Western Front and from the birth of commercial air travel to the global air war of World War II, Eddie Rickenbacker’s life became inseparable from the rise of American aviation itself.