Eddie Rickbacker was called America’s Ace of Aces during World War I, the highest scorer of American aerial victories over the Germans. He could just as easily have been labeled the ‘luckiest man alive,’ however, since he survived — by his own count — 135 brushes with death during his exciting lifetime. He joined automobile designer Fred Duesenberg in 1912 and struck out on his own as a race car driver and set a world speed record of 134 mph at Daytona in 1914.
When America entered the war in 1917, Rickenbacker volunteered despite the fact that he was making a reported $40,000 a year at the time. He flew a total of 300 combat hours, more than any other American pilot, and survived 134 aerial encounters with the enemy. ‘So many close calls renewed my thankfulness to the Power above, which had seen fit to preserve me,’ he wrote in his memoirs.
He joined Eastern Air Transport (Eastern Airlines) in 1933 as its vice president and was instrumental in the growth of the commercial airlines company and eventually retired after 33 years. He and his wife moved to a ranch in Texas, but didn’t like the isolation and donated the ranch to the Boy Scouts and moved to New York, then ultimately Florida.
He passed away in 1973, and lived his motto, ‘I’ll fight like a wildcat,” till the end.
~ C.V. Glines, http://www.historynet.com