Digest - Readers Digest Soldier Stories

War affects us all. The violence. The destruction. The death of heroes, and the incredible stories of determination and survival. The fearless men and women who go forth to serve our country and fight for our freedom willingly accept their mission. They are part of an army of thousands, and each has a story to tell.

Readers Digest has been chronicling the deeply moving and complex saga of America in conflict since World War I, and now we have sifted through these real-life stories to provide you with a retrospective of the most extraordinary tales of camaraderie, sacrifice, and heroics all under one cover. These stories are not about the wonder of our Stealth aircraft, nuclear-powered attack subs, and armored battle tanks; these are stories about peopletheir motivations, their fears, and their triumphs.

These stories illuminate the multifaceted nature of our military history and offer inspiration to all Americans. The brave men and women profiled here are ordinary people who have achieved extraordinary things: They have mastered fear, challenged adversity, and pushed themselves beyond their own personal limits. Their experiences not only provide us with a unique perspective into their world but also inspire us to imagine the impossible and overcome the unimaginable.

BY LOWELL THOMAS

On February 27, 1941, I delivered my nightly newscast over CBS radio with a heavy heart. For the lead item was that Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, the famed flier and a good friend of mine, had been critically injured in an airliner crash near Atlanta. The odds seemed stacked against him. Still, I remember thinking: In any fight for life, youve got to bet on Eddie. Hes won so many of them.

Pinned for hours against the dead body of a steward before rescuers could get to him, Eddie had a crushed pelvis, a smashed hip, a crushed elbow, a broken knee, several broken ribs, and one eyeball was lying on his cheek. Hes more dead than alive, an intern said when he was brought to a hospital. Lets take care of the live ones. That intern didnt know Eddie Rickenbacker.

Its going to be painful, one of the doctors warned. We cant give you an anesthetic.

Go ahead, Eddie said grimly. I can take it.

So, marveling at his courage, they put his eyeball back in its socket and sewed the eyelid shut to keep it there. Then they encased him in a plaster cast from chin to toes.

Eddies condition worsened, and his wife, Adelaide, and two sons were called to his bedside. But he clung stubbornly to life. He woke up groggily one evening in an oxygen tent, the radio near his bed turned to Walter Winchell. Flash! Eddie Rickenbacker is dying. He is not expected to live another hour. With that, Eddie stuck his one good arm out of the oxygen tent, grabbed a water pitcher and heaved it at the radio. Both tumbled to the floor, smashed. And then he proceeded to recover, although it took four months of almost constant pain.

Eddie once told me hed had brushes with death 134 timesin aerial combat, auto races, and accidents. He was flirting with death the first time I saw him. I was a student at Valparaiso College in Indiana and went to the road races at Elgin, Illinois.

Afterward, I sought out Rickenbacker, and was astonished to discover that this daredevil was only a year older than myself. He was tall (six-foot-two) and thin, coated with dust, goggles hanging around his neck. I complimented him on his driving. It isnt all just shut your eyes and grit your teeth, he said. You gotta know how to take the turns and baby your engine.

Eddie was born in Columbus, Ohio, one of eight children of a construction worker. The family was poor. A lot of kids had hand-me-downs from their older brothers, he once told me, but I had to wear my older sisters shoes. He dropped out of seventh grade and went to work at age 13 when his father was killed in an accident. Excited by a ride in the towns first Ford runabout, Eddie got a job in an automobile company by offering to work free as a janitor. Impressed by his eagerness, the head of the company, Lee Frayer, promoted him to mechanic. Eddie proved to be a whiz.

When Frayer drove one of his own cars in the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup races, Eddie rode alongside him as mechanic. Before long, the youngster himself was competing against the best drivers of the time. He entered the famed Indianapolis 500 four times. He set a world record of 134 m.p.h. at Daytona Beach, Florida, in a Blitzen-Benz, and in 1916 won 7 of 13 major races, clearing $60,000. He had numerous wrecks, but seemed to have a charmed life. My angels wings were always hovering over me, he said.

Then came World War I. When the United States declared war on Germany, Eddiehaving recently had his first plane flightset his heart on becoming an aviator. Over the age limit for pilot training, and lacking the required college degree, he joined the Army and got to Paris as a staff driver for Col. Billy Mitchell, head of the infant Army Air Corps. Eddie finally pestered Mitchell into transferring him to the flying school at Issoudun, France, as head mechanic. There our paths crossed again; I was covering the war as a correspondent. Eddie had learned to fly and had been commissioned, but because of his mechanical experience was assigned to servicing the planes flown by others. I dont like it one damned bit, he grumbled.

Shortly, however, Eddie was allowed to join the famous Hat-in-the-Ring 94th Aero Pursuit Squadron. This blunt-spoken, grease-stained ex-mechanic soon made believers of his fellow pilots. On one of his first combat missions in April 1918, Eddie shot down a German Pfalz fighter. He brought down four more enemy planes in May, and won the French Croix de guerre .

He survived innumerable close calls. In one dogfight, half his propeller was shot off. Another time, the fabric covering his upper right wing ripped off in a dive, and he had to nurse the plane home at treetop level, muttering prayers as bullets zinged around him. Many of his battles were with the famed Flying Circus of Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron.

He was made squadron commander. I want no saluting, no unnecessary deference to rank, he said. Were going to work together as equals, pilots and mechanics alike, every man doing his job. On his first day as commander he downed two planes to win the Congressional Medal of Honor. And his manner inspired confidence in others. His old friend John Wheeler said that before one mission some of his pilots seemed jittery. I expect to live to be 90 and then be arrested for rape, Eddie told them. During October, he bagged 14 enemy aircraft, bringing his total to 26. When the war ended, his squadron had shot down 69 German planes, more than any other American unit. And he was the Ace of Aces.

Eddie came home as one of the countrys most acclaimed heroes. Swamped with offers, he chose something he knewthe automobile business. He liked to say that Americas greatest freedom was the freedom to go broke, and he found out the hard way. Backed by a group of financiers, he designed and manufactured a sporty car called the Rickenbacker, which introduced four-wheel brakes. But, unable to buck the big automotive companies, he wound up $250,000 in debt.

It didnt daunt him. Failure is the greatest word in the English language, he declared. If you have the determination, you can come back from failure and succeed.

He proved it. He not only paid off his debt but raised $700,000 more to buy the Indianapolis Speedway. There, amid the zoom of speeding cars and the rough camaraderie of the drivers, he was in his element. His parties on the eve of each Memorial Day race raged until dawn, with Eddie presiding by pounding on a table with a baseball bat.