Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Eddie Rickenbacker in the "Great War"


PBS "American Experience" "The Great War" documentary discussed Rickenbacker, a World War I Army hero that the USAF has co-opted.




1. The professor asserts that the USA [ Democrat Party controlled ] government greatly censored news available about the war to the general public. They cherry picked which service members should be hyped as heroes





This video only had 29 views




















If they are heard by the American public, that's because they think that's a story they think they will latch onto. Eddie Rickenbacker absolutely a case in point. He is one of the most all American heroes of the war.















Narrator: Eddie Rickenbacker had been fighting the odds his whole life.  His father died young, so Eddie had to drop out of school in the seventh grade and help feed the family.

















Narrator: After working at a foundry, a brewery, a shoe factory, and a monument works, he wound up in the Columbus Buggy Company where he fell in love with their latest product: automobiles.
















John F Ross: Rickenbacker found himself at a moment in American history when cars were going fast enough to race and automobile manufactures wanted cars to race so that they could sell them.  And here's this kid with not much to lose and everything to gain.


Narrator: By the time war broke out, Rickenbacker was a celebrity.















Narrator: He'd raced in the Indianapolis 500 four times and ranked third nationally.  But he also had an accent and a German name.

Thomas A Hoff: Even though he's born in the United States he grew up in a family that spoke a combination of German and English and he grows up with a bit of an accent.  And in fact when war breaks out there was a [spurious] news story that actually he was the son of a German baron and he had been disgraced and sent to America to prove himself.  and so he was actually "von Rickenbacker".

Narrator: As anti German hysteria swept the United States, the 27 year old arranged a meeting at the War Department [now the Department of the Army] determined to prove his loyalty.

Ross: He figures that all his buddies on the racing circuit should be the guys who are going to be pilots [not such a bad idea considering the wash out rate for pilot training] of these new airplanes so he marches into Washington D.C.







For some reason this video had over thirty times more views than the other videos in this thread, 650 views at the time of this transcription






















Ross: He says, I've got a plan for you. And they listened to the way he spoke, he mangled his English, and they laughed at him.  They basically told him to get out of there.














Narrator: Rickenbacker wouldn't quit [if at first you don't succeed, try, try again]

















Narrator: He went to France as a driver with General Pershing's delegation, a few weeks after America entered the war.  Through sheer perseverance, he qualified as a pilot and was assigned to a fighter squadron in the Spring of 1918. It was a dubious prize.  The life expectancy of a new combat pilot was 20 days. But the same combination of recklessness and calculation that had marked his career on the race track, served him well in the air.
















Narrator: He downed his first German airplane on April 27, 1918 and never looked back. As Rickenbacker's score mounted, the public fell in love with him.















Ross: These aviators really invented the new icon of American manhood.  Ultimately, the old stereotypes of cavalry leaders and chargers and lumberjacks and cowboys gave way to the modern era
















Ross: And what was that? Well, it was a pilot with his silk scarf and his goggles.
















Ross: You see the beginnings of "The Right Stuff" right here. American manhood redefined.

















Narrator: A working class hero was a reflection on the changing nature of the air war. Where early pilots had reveled in the image of the gallant, chivalrous airman, Rickenbacker had seen too many friends go down in flames to romanticize combat flying.  He called it, "scientific murder," and was constantly refining methods to make it more scientific, and more murderous.  "Most of the pilots he killed, never knew what hit them,"  a fellow airman recalled.








This video only has 13 views for some reason

















Narrator: Out of the sun, a quick burst, then gone.


Ross: What makes him a great fighter pilot is his understanding that there was a science to flying and maybe because it was because he was a little older. Maybe it was because he had faced death a few times, he had different perspective. He understood the limits of his aircraft and he was going to use it as the tool it was designed to  be.


NARRATOR: Although the papers tracked the leading pilots' scores like a sports rivalry, the day of the solo air ace was over; the era of the air force had arrived.  When America declared war, its air force consisted of 55 airplanes, 51 of which were obsolete. By the fall of 1918, the United States Air Service comprised    740 front line aircraft and 200,000 men.  Operations were carried out  by ever larger formations, coordinated with movements on the ground.  Rickenbacker's scientific approach to combat flying was perfectly suited to this new air war.  He was promoted to squadron leader, ahead of more senior pilots, on the eve of the Meusse Argonne offensive. "The squadron began to love him," another pilot recalled.   "I don't know how to explain it. At first he was just an uneducated tought bastard who threw his weight around the wrong way. But he developed into the most natural leader I ever saw."















Ross: When a pilot took command of a squadron, the often lay back, didn't fly as much, were more cautious. Eddie actually flew more when he became the commander of the 94th.  And I think it was that willingness to tangle, to teach novices, to let them take a kill that he set up, to fly more than anybody, to log more hours






This video received 29 views:
















Ross: That really made people come to regard him with such high esteem.

Narrator: Among other things, the fighter squadrons had to blind the enemy to American troop movements and to their perilous supply lines.  A week into the offensive, Rickenbacker led a flight of 24 fighters on a mission to bring down two German observation balloons.  He assigned three planes to shoot down the balloons while the rest of the group provided cover from carefully designated positions.  Rickenbacker flew thousands of feet above and behind the formation. So high that the lack of oxygen left him light-headed, while the freezing wind was an agony.  But from there he could survey the action like a general behind the lines.  As the Americans approached the balloons, Rickenbacker spotted eight German Fokkers racing in from one direction, and eleven from another.  Their red paint identified them as the most famous fighter unit of the war: the Flying Circus.















Ross: The Red Baron started the Flying Circus.  By the time Eddie Rickenbacker and the Americans hit the front line, the Red Baron had already died [been killed by the allies], he was shot down, himself.  But all of his Flying Circus members, all of his squadrons that he had trained were still very much alive and were very experienced. And they were a frightening thing to behold in their Fokkers all colored in bright scarlet paint.

Narrator: Rickenbacker dove to warn the others.  He and the Flying Circus arrived at the same time. and the sky became a swirling mass of airplanes with tracer bullets streaking in all directions.




This video only received 26 views

















Narrator: Rickenbacker quickly set one of the Fokkers on fire and watched as the pilot bailed out.  Moments later, on of his comrades went down in flames.  For him, there was no escape. 

Ross: In World War I, the American pilots were not issued parachutes tough very serviceable parachutes existed.  But the American headquarters believed that parachutes would give them a sense of being defeatist and they would bail out of the airplane at a moment's notice.













Ross: This, of course, caused Eddie Rickenbacker to do back flips, he was so angry seeing so many of his men die who could have survived with that. 

Narrator: Each American pilot was left to plan his own death should his plane catch fire.  Some carried pistols to shoot themselves.  Others preferred to jump.  Rickenbacker planned to inhale the flames, he'd heard that shortened the agony.  Right now, he wanted no more of this huge dog fight miles behind enemy lines.  He coolly shepherded the group back towards friendly territory until the Germans finally broke off the fight.  Eddie's careful planning and cool head had proved more than a match for the virtuosity of the Flying Circus.  His squadron downed nine enemy aircraft that day, while losing just two [did he achieve the original mission of shooting down the German observation balloon?] It was a sign of things to come.  As American pilots fought for control of the skies, a very different struggle was unfolding below in the mud and darkness of the Argonne Forest. 















Although the documentary doesn't state whether Rickenbacker's squad achieved its mission of downing the German observation balloon, the Rickenbacker wikipedia article asserts that he achieved the reputation of a balloon buster over his military career;















Rickenbacker's amazing rise to success from blue collar worker to WWI flying ace is even more remarkable when placed in contrast to the stunning failures of many Harvard Ivy League graduates, supposedly the best and the brightest in America, to even earn their pilot wings, let alone make it into combat, let alone survive long enough to become an ace.

From Howe, Mark A. DeWolfe. Memoirs of the Harvard Dead in the War against Germany. III, Harvard Univ. Press, 1922. https://archive.org/stream/memoirsofharvard03howe#page/n5/mode/2up






An ivy leaguer who was killed in a training accident. Never saw combat:



























Another ivy leagurer managed to pass flight training but died on his first combat patrol, possibly due to a fainting spell











































Another ivy leaguer killed in training exercises


























Another ivy leaguer killed in a training accident























Another ivy leaguer killed in a training accident




























Another ivy leaguer killed in  a training flight



So the PBS documentary condescending attitude that Rickenbacker with his purported "mangled English" only received recognition because the Democrat controlled media deigned to recognize him is simply not true. Rickenbacker earned his officer's commission, pilot's wings, and promotions on his own talent and initiative, without the unfair manipulation from the media.





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