The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-09-09
CAPT, RICkENBACHER STARTED IN LIFE AS
 TOMBSTONE GUTTER
Noted Aviator, War Ace and Auto Racer Gave Up $6 Job for $4 Position in Garage in Columbus, Ohio.

Columbus. O., Sept. g - Sixteen years ago in a small tombstone works here a gangling youth of 15 wrestled with mallet and chisel, learning the art of monument making, physically on the job, mentally behind the steer ing wheel of a racing automobile.
 That was the first job Captain Ed ward V. Rickenbacher, American ace of aces in the World War, ever held in his life. He was getting $6 a week. Later he gladly accepted a job in d garage. It paid $4 a week.
 Rickenbacher was born in a little frame cottage close to the Columbus Driving Park. From the days when he was big enough to peer through the fence, the track fascinated him. When automobile racing started the Driving, Park was his mecca. His crowning ambition was to drive a rac- ing autom obiIe. He reached his goal when he was IS years of age. At that time he was sent to Texas by local automobile concern, in whose factory he had been working, to dem onstrate it's speedsters.
 From then on his career was mete- oric. He became one of the best known automobile racers in the country.
 Rickenbacher entered the World War as chauffeur to General Per shing- His rise to American ace of aces was as sensa tionaI as the jump from the obscurity of his Columbus home to the highest pinnacle of rac- ing fame.
 Richenbacher became a part of the A. B. F. after a series of rebuffs. When the United States entered the war he was in England buying racing cars. He immediately returned to this country and offered his services. He tried to get governmental sanction to a plan to his to enlist 6, flying squad ron from among racing drivers of the country, but army officials turned the proffer down.
 A few weeks later Rickenbacher was on his way overseas as chauffeur to General Pershing. short time after arriving abroad he was in an av- iaton training camp, placed there through the personal intervention of General PerShing.
 Rickenbacher bagged his first Ger man early in 1918. Within a month he had won the CroiX de Guerre, and, respite his delayed entrance into avia- ton, he was the second American to be given the title of ace. At this juncture he met with an ac- cident that nearly ended his career as a flyer.
 His eardrums were split as the re- suit of a 6,00O-foot fall, which came after single-handed fight against | three German planes. The tip of one of the wings of the plane Ricken- | bacher was piloting was carried away i by a hostile F>okker and he plunged to earth. He was pronounced inca pacitated for further service. The former racing driver refused to | be put out of the running. and carried | his case direct to General Pershing ! The latter ruled that he still might 1 fight.
 When he became a, captain Ricken- bacher commanded the famous Hat in-the-Ring Squadron. His victories | continued to pile up, one after the | other, until he was acclaimed Ameri l can ace of aces.
 i Many of the medals and cups wor | and conferred upon Riclenbachel | during his career are packed careful i here, but there are four things Mrs Elizabeth Rickenbacher, his mother l values more than anything else. The! | are:
 A piece of marble chiseled in tn, | shape of a book, and bearing the in l scription Holy Bible"
 A small wooden chest.
 A silver cup. embossed with gold
 the championship trophy won b.
 Rickenbacner in bitter contest a
 Sioux City, Iowa. in July. 1914, whel
 he drove a DuSenburg car to victor
 in a 300-mile race on gumbo dir | track.
 A citation from the French govern
 ment, accompanying the award of tn
 CroiX de Gueerre.
 Rickenbacher chise1ed the marbl
 book in his monument-making ap
 prentice days. The wooden chest i
 a memento of a short time spent il
 the shops of railroad here.
 | His mother values them symbo
 lie of the steps in her sons life.