The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-07-28
AMERICAN FL YING TANKS
 RAN BOCHES LN THE AIR

position to open his gun on me Nov that would never do. so I zoomed at once. It was a second too late for perfect getaway, and not a second too early for chance on getting lunch. My upper left wing collided with the tail of the Albatross and tore it off. My own wing-well, you see what's left of it-''
 We both fell into a vrille Ia spiraD. saw Fritz spinning around in little circles toward the ground entirely out of control and for all know I was spin ming around just the same way"
 How. did you get out of the vrille = acked Lieutenant C., who had joined me.
 "T don't know. But I must have come out of it somehow. I tell it that 1t IS just as true of falling aviator as of a drowning man, All my past stood ouL before me was thinking. while fall5 ing of all the good things l had ever done"
 'Yes. and all the good things you might have done" interrupted D..
 And then suddenly I got my control stick working Old altimeter was read ing 40 I had fallen almost a mile. When did get control l saw the smashed up wing, and I can't tell you how funny I felt I was five miles at least in Ger many
 That's so, Eddie that's where you ought to be now, if it wasn't for that auto racing luck you have. Remember the time at the Speedway when you ran into the diteh?'
 You bet I do.' Rickenbacker replied, but I'd do that hundred times be- fore I'd do this again. 1 didn't catch my breath for an hour it seemed to me, until I got the bus somewhere near flat, and then I tried to balance her so that the right wing got all the pressure. Then I started coasting for home, and the first thing I saw was a piece Of canvas rip itself loose and sail off behind me.
 After while piece of wood kicked itself free and fell I saw one Of my wires pull out. Then another piece or canvas began Tapping every time the wind tension let up on it, and thought the whole ship would just come to pieces along the road and drop me and the motor into the German trenches.
 ''I was coming lower all the time ana my troubles kept on increasing, l saw the trail of a tracer bullet from some damn German gun. I thought the two Albatross were following me but lookea around and what do you think? Those birds were so scared by the collision that they were going for home about as fast as I was. The bullet came from ground machine gum
 LODGING THE ARCHIES
 when got closer to the German lines, shedding my wings as l went, thelr Archies began throwing shrapnel at me One of them burst near me and rocked me SO badly I thought it was all over. TWO or three more burst above me few seconds later, and I couldn't do any dodsing with my machine in that condi- ton, So I just let the motor on full ana outran them-and here we are.'
 Lieutenant Meissner came up and they shook hands. Meissners adventure had been stranger still. He had gone out with two more to fight five Germans, and Incoming engaged with one, set it on ire hv lucky shot into the gasoline tank. The German. either in desperation, pr because his machine was out of con- trol. collided with Meissner
 The two machines were locked Both fell. The flames from the Albatross were spreading the aeroplanes would not disengage and Meissner was as helpless as his adversary.
 Fortunately the German was under- meath. and as his resistance against gravity decreased, his wings released. and he fell straight, with flame and smoke marking his trail. Both Melss- nersss wings were ripped, but his pro pelfer had kept him up, and gave hirn just enough strength to cross the line. He landed only a little way behind the trenches and amidst rows or reser c wire. His machine fell over on him so that he could not extricate himself, but apparently, chance was his all that day for he was dragged out by some infantrymen, unscratched and even tfe 'propeller of the airplane the first thing to go in a crash, was unbroken. The next day the machine was ready for other exploits
 Both these incidents border on the impossible, yet the men are here, and have seen their planes after the com bats Their comrades of the Ameri- can units, all the men who fly in any unit, have all head their adventures, for unlike the earth and the sea- you cannot roam very far or for many days in the air without adventure coming to you
 They are men of new world, a world that is never the same. but, like the sea, it is world of chaos and change. Aux and flow and each day is unlike any other. So, like the sea, it is a world that fascinates by fear or by love or by that strange yet com mon mingling of the two, and holds the souls of men.
 They live with the elements, they fight against them they are helped by