New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-03-09
@ K1ckenbacker and the Gods ~

view with the ace, published recently in
The Detroit Sunday News" we learn
that
when Captain Rickenbacker was driving
fast cars in automobile races he was noted
fer his fatalistic ideas, and he carried that
same religion into the air. He believes,
without reservations, in the doctrine of
predestination. When driver or mechanic
met death was seriously injured in a
smashup in race, Captain Rick always
maintained he had it coming
'Very often he would put his finger on
some certain act of the unlucky racer that
brought on the disaster In one instance.
when prominent driver lost his life. Cap
tain Rickenbacker laid it to his treatment
of his wife. which had ended in divorce
proceedings.
when the famous fier landed in New
York he asked if he still held his same
views, and he replied without hesitation:
'' more of fatalist than ever Not
that | want to set myself up as a model but
| believe that the who is on the square
in every way, who lives by the Golden
Rule, will live out his allotted threescore
years and ten.
Il had some close shaves in the air, but
| never left the ground but what | felt |
would come out on top. In several instances
| came near going west but the hand of
fate always ntervened when | had almost
given up hope, and saved me. You are al
ways paid in like coin for your every act,
and when you do not do the right thing
there is penalty that you must pay
I'm proof of his contention Captain Rcken-
hacker recited the details of his fourteenth
official victory north of Verdun. Captain
Rick was flying single-seater Spad with
two machine guns mounted in front He
was out on patrol with his squadron when
it met fleet Of Germans, and free -fer-all,
or dog fight in the parlance of the aviators,
resulted.
"Captan Rickcnbacker picked out fast
two-seater which endeavoring to get
over the American lines from reconnois-
sance, while the two squadrons were bat
Ting, and attacked it. He soon found
that the German pilot and his observer,
with four guns, two in front and two in
the rear, were very we'll able to take care
of their share of the battle. After manou-
wiring for a few seconds Captain Rick
was able to mortally wound the observer
and put him out of the battle He then set
out to finish Off the German pilot
Suddenly his machine guns jammed, and
while he trying to repair them the
German began to riddle his plane, but luck
lily did not wound him. Victory for the Ger
man seemed certain, when Captain Arthur
Chambers appeared on the scene and sent
the enemy machine crashing to the ground
In reporting the fight the official observers
decided to credit both aviators with a
plane.
"'It not in the book that I should
ego west,'' was Captain Rckenbacker's ex-
PLANTATION.
ole uses the downing of his third Ger
man plane another illustration of his be-
lief in fatalism. In this instance he went
out alone before dawn and took up patrol
at 10000 feet over enemy aerodrome near
Metz. He knew that the Germans would
expect the Allied planes to seek combat
from the direction of their own lines rather
than from German territory
"When three Huns took the air and start
ed for their hunting grounds, Captain Rick
sailed in from Germany and opened fire.
an few minutes he was in close quar-
ters, as the German anti-aircraft batteries