Perth Amboy evening news., 1918-08-09
HOW THE G|MPERS
GOT ACQUAINTED
Eddie RickenbaCker Tells of
Their Introduction to War in
Interesting Manner.

tCopyright 1918 by the United Press)
WITH THE AMERICAN AIRMEN
IN FRANCE, July 10 (By Mail)-
The ''glmper squadron" had an ideal
Introduction to warfare, back in the
middle of April, according to Lieut..
Rickenbacker, American ace and
former auto racer Let Rickenbacker
tell the story;
1--WE had finished our training. and
being the first all-American outfit to
take to the front without previous ex-
perience, we were allowed to ny
around until we felt more confident,
before taking over responsibility OF
~patrolling a sector.
zone Saturday night we decided we
were ready for business. We called
up the French and told them. They
replied that we could take over pa
trolling a big chunk of the line north
of Tou1, beginning the next
at daybreak.
Accordingly, we planned the first
gimper patrol. Capt. David Peterson
led 1t, while Lieut.. Reed Chambers
and / were the rest of the personnel.
Captain Peterson had had considera-
BILE experience owe the lines.
Before going up he told me to
AXE the leadership of the patrol IN
ease he had motor trouble and mad
to come down, and that we would
not need to patrol II 1t were too
cloudy. So we went up with that
understanding.
"Just as we were ready to start,
Reed Chambers yelled to Doug Camp
bell and Allan Winslow, Wei 40 out
and scare the Heinies up and you
buys knock 'em down!
1--WE circled around for altitude and
Captain Peterson came down. He
had decided 1t was too cloudy TO pa
troll, but I assumed he had motor
trouble and started off for the lines.
with Chambers following me.
TT was our first trip over and we
made a long one. Before long we ran
Into a couple of Huns and maneuver-
ed to fire on them. We got a couple
of shots at them and they ran. We
continued our patrol, not without ap-
~prehension, since we were not sure
of our locations, and that first trip
IL a scary one even when you are led
by someone who knows the lines.
FINALLY. / lost Chambers and be-
gan patrolling up n down to locate
him. It became more cloudy n /
Sould see nothing. At length I started
Cor what I thought was home but 1t
took a long time to find 1t. Chambers
wasn't there, when I finally came out
of the clouds, but the two Germans
we had chased put of the clouds were.
after Chambers pormise TO scare
some Huns, Campbell and Winslow
had gone into the tent and were play
cards. Suddenly they were called
to answer an alerte. They had barely /,
into their machine and gained
altitude when they saw w
German planes coming for the camp.
Both thought the Germans were COM
ing to strage the hangers n each
out q German to head him of.
Doug tool the first n and got on
tail. He landed h German right
the aviation field four and a half
minutes after he had left his cards.
"Winslow had a little more diff
Guilty, but took only a minute and q
half longer to bring down his Boche
near the field. The German n.y.
srs were all captured. and the feat
Of landing them right on the home
grounds made. the victory more than
q perfect score.
"We were looking them over and
ave his man a cigarette for
lack of knowing what else to do, and
s.hen went up In the air, when Reed
whom I had lost In the
came buzzing in.
.Chambers was surprised. but an
at finding the German avia-
tors there. Those are the birds we
promised to round up for you to
knock down. he said. Ask them IL
not the Heinies we met up
Questioning the Germans revealed
they were the hes we had shot at
had lost their way and were spotted
by observers. who aierted us to get
them. That opening morning was so
successful It's still a dream to us, but
1t surely was a gimper start for the
whole escadrilie."