The Greeneville daily sun. (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1918-1920, 1918-08-10
Another Letter
By Rickenbacker

Copyright, 1918, by United Press.)
WITH THE AMERICAN AIR
MEN IN FRANCE, July TO- (By
Mail. There was one day in the
history Of the gimper squadron wen
never forget, especially jimmie Meis-
ner, one Of the best gimpers. It was
Jimmie's day, ! guess, and If he was
not scared to death 1t was because he
doesn't know how to be scared"
Lieut.. Eddie Rickenbacker figured
prominently as he saved Meisner's
life twice inside Of an hour. Hence
he is qualified to tell the story.
Jimmie and I were out waiting
for some homecoming English bomb
ers," began Rickenbacker, ''when we
got separated somehow. The Eng
lishmen came along all right and l
spotted them first. Then / saw a
squadron Of German planes harass-
ing the Englishmen.
II dove off toward the flock of
German planes and just as / got
position to pique on one Of them, |
noticed an American plane diving
on one German, with three more
Germans diving on him. could see
he was in danger by the streamer
bullets which passed on all sides of
him.
$50 ] piqued on the most danger
GUS Boche and got him, but as / did
so, saw the American fall, appar-
emily out of control, for it was one
Of the best leaf falls ! have ever
seen. You can't stop when some
thing goes down, so ! began climbing
for altitude and scouting around for
something. / felt like piquing on
some Hun after seeing the American
plane drop.
II was feeling pretty sore when /
saw an American plane with one
wing torn off struggling toward
home. He was having hard time of
it and losing speed all the time, as
well as getting lower and lower. It
was pathetic sight to see gimper
in such a fix and be unable to help
him. ! went up. near and waved my
hand to encourage the gimper and
he waved back. Then / looked around
and saw a German biplane bearing
down on the damaged American
plane, which was going slower and
slower and could not go any way out
of bee line for home, other than
down. Down would have been in
Germany.
$50 / maneuvered for position and
got It. Just as ! let the German
have it he had opened fire on the
American, who was Jimmie, and !
could see by the streamer bullets that
the German was going to get Jimmie
il didn't get him.
fortunately, ] did, and he went
crashing 10 the ground, leaving jim
mic struggling along, always lower
and lower with a regular cloud of
black German archie puffs all about
him. lowered and did some loops
and turns over the German gunners'
heads. The ruse insulted them and
they turned most of their arches
my way, which did no harm since ]
had plenty Of speed and was in little
danger. But it saved Jimmie, who
was now going terribly slow and the
fact that Germans are so easily in
suited helped lot.
"Just as Jimmie was crossing the
line, / noticed another American
piquing down on him. could not
imagine why he would pique on
Rimper who was in such bad plight
and | Unanswered to attract his at
tention.
Later we learned this gimper was
a man from the squadron. He saw
Jimmie with one wing torn off and
thought he was a German taub. He
was just about to iet Jimmie have
it when he noticed the coquards on
Jimmie's tail. So Jimmie had an
other close squak that day.
We all got back all right-Jimmie
nv nothing short of a miracle-and