Eddie Rickenbacker lost on Pacific flight (10-24-42)

The Pittsburgh Press (October 24, 1942)

RICKENBACKER LOST ON PACIFIC FLIGHT
Ace missing 3 days on secret mission

Wide area south of Hawaii searched for bomber, prospects ‘gloomy’
By Frank Tremaine, United Press staff writer

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Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker. Will his luck hold out again?

Honolulu, Hawaii –
Army and Navy planes and surface vessels searched the sea south of the Hawaiian Islands today for Capt. E. V. (Eddie) Rickenbacker and the crew of a bombing plane which disappeared Wednesday evening.

At 2 p.m. EWT, Capt. Rickenbacker, the plane, and its crew had been missing 66 hours and authorities felt that prospects of finding them were “gloomy.”

But there was hope. In addition to the chance that the plane had made an emergency landing on one of the countless atolls in the Pacific and had been unable to establish radio contact, there was the possibility that all the men were adrift on the life raft with which the plane was equipped.

Planes sink quickly

Land planes forced down at sea sink almost at once, but the rafts, painted yellow so they can be spotted from the air, are easily launched. There have been cases since the war started of Navy pilots drifting on them for as long as a month before being rescued.

Though the fortitude of the greatest American ace of World War I is well known, he is now 52 years old and was seriously injured in an airplane crash near Atlanta, Georgia, in 1941, and authorities feared that he might not have the physical stamina to endure prolonged exposure to the blistering sun.

On special air mission

It was revealed in Washington last night that Capt. Rickenbacker, who is president of Eastern Airlines but is serving as confidential aviation adviser to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson had been aboard a bombing plane of unspecified size but believed to have been a four-motored one, which disappeared while en route from Hawaii to “an island in the South Pacific.” He was on a special inspection trip on behalf of Lt. Gen. H. H. Arnold, commanding general of the Army Air Forces.

Washington reported that it was believed there Capt. Rickenbacker was en route to Australia.

The number of men with Rickenbacker was not known, but was believed to be 9 to 11.

Gas for only an hour

Late Wednesday afternoon, the plane reported that it had gasoline for one more hour of flight. Then nothing more was heard and because of that, it was feared it had been forced to make a crash landing at sea.

The plane disappeared in approximately the same region where Amelia Earhart Putnam disappeared in 1937, during the course of an around-the-world flight, never to be heard from again.

Capt. Rickenbacker only recently returned from Great Britain where he was on a mission similar to the one on which he was engaged when he disappeared.

His presence here had been a closely guarded secret known only to a few high military and civilian authorities. His friends here refused to believe he had perished, saying he had a faculty for pulling out of difficulties.

Capt. Rickenbacker flirted with death most of his life. He was an auto racing hero in the early days of the motorcar, a flying ace who took on seven German planes at one time by himself in World War I, an auto manufacturer and head of Eastern Airlines.

His narrowest escape from death was in the crash of one of his own company’s planes near Atlanta, Georgia, on Feb. 27, 1941.

Eight persons were killed; he suffered a broken hip and numerous other fractures, and lay pinned in the wreckage for hours before rescuers arrived. Despite his pain, he did what he could to make the other injured comfortable and kept them from lighting cigarettes that might have set the wreckage on fire and burned them all.

Toured air units

Although his health was not fully restored, he made a 14,000-mile flying trip around the country early this year at the request of Gen. Arnold, Chief of the Army Air Forces, to deliver talks to air combat units.

Before Pearl Harbor, he urged a stronger air force and said most Americans did not appreciate the global problems confronting the Allies.

Capt. Rickenbacker was born in Columbus, Ohio. He quit his first job, selling autos, to become a racing driver and won one of the early Indianapolis Memorial Day races.

Pershing’s chauffeur

He volunteered in the Signal Corps in 1917, but because he had no college education, found it difficult to get into flying school, until after he had served several months in France as Gen. John J. Pershing’s personal chauffeur. He was sent to the flying school at Issoudun.

Soon after he graduated, he became commander of the 94th Aero Squadron. His record, the best of any American flier, was shooting down 25 German planes.

He was awarded the Croix de Guerre, French Legion of Honor medal and the Congressional Medal of Honor for his attack upon seven German planes – five fighters and two bombers. He shot down one bomber and one fighter, and the rest fled.

Mother confident he’ll be found

Los Angeles, California (UP) –
Mrs. Elizabeth Rickenbacker, 79-year-old mother of Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, today would not give up hope for her son who is missing somewhere in the Pacific.

Mrs. Rickenbacker was quoted as saying by the missing aviator’s brother, Dewey C. Rickenbacker:

Eddie had many narrow escapes from death and I am sure he will be found alive and well.

The brother reported that his mother was upset by the report but she expressed the firm belief to him that Capt. Rickenbacker would be found alive and well.

Dewey Rickenbacker said:

She’s as confident that he will pull through this as she was that he would live through that crash last year in Georgia when the doctors just about gave him up.

The brother disclosed that Capt. Rickenbacker visited them only last Sunday.

Mrs. Rickenbacker hopes for the best

New York (UP) –
Mrs. E. V. Rickenbacker sat by her telephone today, hoping for the best.

Friends called and tried to comfort her. Occasionally, she wept a little.

She said:

There is nothing I can do – nothing. That is what makes it hard. I just sit here and wait.

Lt. Gen. Henry Arnold telephoned her from Washington yesterday that her husband was missing.

She said:

Since then, I’ve just been sitting here, hoping he will call again to tell me all is well.

With forced jollity, she said:

Oh, I’m used to waiting for news that Eddie has arrived. He always has spent a lot of his time going places. He’s not reckless and he knows the air. And he always has said that he’s the darling of Lady Luck.

She and Eddie were married in 1922. They had two sons: David, 15, and William, 18, who are attending school in Asheville, North Carolina.

The Pittsburgh Press (October 25, 1942)

Life raft may save him –
Rickenbacker hunted at sea

Planes comb wide area for ace in Pacific

Honolulu, Hawaii (UP) – (Oct. 24)
Hope for the rescue of Capt. E. V. (Eddie) Rickenbacker, World War I air ace and Eastern Airlines president, was pinned tonight on the possibility that he is afloat on the life raft with which his plane was equipped when it was presumably forced down in the Pacific Wednesday.

Army and Navy personnel aboard planes and surface craft carrying out the search kept sharp lookout for such a yellow raft, part of the emergency equipment of all military planes in this area. The searchers were aided by a full moon.

It was believed possible that Capt. Rickenbacker could stay afloat on a life raft for weeks. The feat has been accomplished by several Navy pilots who have been forced down at sea.

The Army announced that:

All available facilities are being used for the search.

…and the Navy’s big flying boats were cooperating. The hunt spread out southwest of Oahu, where Capt. Rickenbacker’s plane was last reported.

Capt. Rickenbacker’s presence in Hawaii had been a closely guarded secret until yesterday’s announcement by the Army in Washington that his plane was missing. He was making a military inspection trip for Lt. Gen. H. H. Arnold, Army Air Force chief.

Capt. Rickenbacker is 52 years old and not fully recovered from a crash of one of his company’s planes when he set out on his Pacific inspection tour.

The Pittsburgh Press (October 26, 1942)

Lost with Rickenbacker –
Eight on board missing plane

Hunt continues for craft in Pacific area

Washington (UP) –
The War Department revealed that seven Army officers and men accompanied Capt. E. V. (Eddie) Rickenbacker, foremost American ace of World War I, in the big Army plane that disappeared during a secret Pacific flight.

The names of Capt. Rickenbacker’s companions were disclosed as all available Army and Navy air and sea forces in the Hawaiian area continued to search for a trace of the plane and its occupants.

The ship, believed to be a four-motored bomber, was on a flight from Hawaii to an undisclosed island in the Pacific. Those aboard besides Capt. Rickenbacker were:

  • Col. Hans C. Adamson, Washington, a passenger;
  • Capt. William T. Cherry Jr., pilot, Fort Worth, Texas;
  • 2nd Lt. James C. Whittaker, Burlingame, California;
  • 2nd Lt. John J. De Angelis, Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania;
  • Sgt. James W. Reynolds, Fort Jones, California;
  • Sgt. Alexander T. Kaczmarczyk, Torrington, Connecticut;
  • Pvt. John F. Bartek, Freehold, New Jersey.

The disappearance of Pvt. Bartek, 23, is the second tragedy to strike his parents within a month. John’s sister, Ruth, 17, dropped dead on her way to school recently.

Officials here clung to the hope that Capt. Rickenbacker and his companions are still alive, possibly awaiting rescue on rubber life rafts or on some island.

Capt. Rickenbacker was surveying military installations in the Pacific area on behalf of Lt. Gen. Henry H. Arnold, Chief of the Army Air Forces. He only recently returned from a similar tour in Great Britain.

The Pittsburgh Press (October 29, 1942)

Hope for Rickenbacker still held by Stimson

Washington (UP) –
Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson said today that the search for Capt. E. V. “Eddie” Rickenbacker has not been abandoned and that he was “clinging to the hope” that the flier will be found.

Capt. Rickenbacker was reported missing in the Pacific on Oct. 23, while flying on a special mission for the Secretary.

Secretary Stimson said during his regular weekly press conference today that:

There has been no news of the Army plane which was carrying Capt. Rickenbacker. But the search for him and the seven gallant Army flyers who were with him has not been abandoned. You and I know Capt. Rickenbacker as an exception to all the cut-and-dried rules.

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