Evening star., 1942-10-30

.0AAS 1SAS~SSs 1OWs 140
may never. have caught Z gun or
knitted . shark. but he'll do 1t. His
friends share with his wife the con-
viction that Rick, If given one
chance In 100, will make it to port.
If the Fates didn't give him any
time-if they just told him, right
quick, that his time was up, and
that he would never have another
Tomorrow, I can tell you how he
took the news.
He took 1t with q little grin. He
looked Mr.. Death right square in
the eyes and said, "Okay, brother.
you're in charge" But you can al
ways know that before Mr.. Death
had time to take complete charge.
Rick did his best to see that tho
members of his crew had q chance
to beat the f1nal rap.
Mr.. Death was no stranger to
Rick, you know. Rick met him first
on the roaring road that automo-
bile racers travel. He was in there
trying to get his hand on the
steering wheel lots of times. Hs
met him again in France in 1917.
up in the clouds, when Rick was hy.
ing those Liberty powered. comns
that passed for airplanes.
He met him again, not so long
ago, in a plane crash just outside
Atlanta. He was supposed to have
escaped with broken hip, but that
was because Rick didn't want his
friends to know just how badly he
was hurt.
The hip was just one Of Is things
that were broken. He lay that night,
in the scrub pine where the plane
fell, pinned fiat on his back with the
dead steward nat across him. Hurt
in no one will ever know how many
places, he directed the rescue.
~ 4
He told me about that crash. He
told me how he was standing in
the lounge, up forward, when he felt
the brush of the trees on the planes
belly.
Unless you had been q pilot"
he said, you never would have
known what that little swish Of the
branches was. When I felt It I
jumped up and backward and out
Of the lounge" ~
He didn't say so, but the reason
he jumped was to get out of the
lounge and back In the body of the
ship-with the passengers. He
wanted to get back where he could
help.
looked Mr.. Death in the eye
with Rick. That was years ago
when we went to California with q
new Douglas transport to try to set
. West-East crossing record. There
were i've of us-Rick, 81 Morehouse.
chief Eastern Air Lines pilot;
Jimmy Kilganen of I. N. s., and
Roy Howard, Scripps- Howard pub
Usher. We took OF from Burbank
one dawn with q storm on our tail,
and, using the stratosphere for the
first time, headed for New York as
the crow flies.
Over the Rockies, where q fly
couldn't land without a parachute,
the motors quit. Down we came,
and down, and down, until Roy,
Jimmy and I, sitting in the tail Of
the ship, could see the birds in the
trees. The three OF us prepared for
the worst, and not very manfully.
Then, over the big drum Of gasoline
that took up most of the fuselage,
crawled Rick. I can see his grinning
face now.
Boys" he said, you had better
adjust your safety belts. We may
have to make a forced landing"
He knew what forced landing
meant. So did we. But he was
smiling. His old friend of many
years, Mr.. Death, was just outside
the windows, but he was laughing at
him. Mr.. Howard's remark, when
Rick suggested the safety belts, will
stay with me always.
Rick" he said, as he grabbed the
canvas strap, "this is the most
inadequate-thing I ever saw"
The motors caught and we didn't
have to land. Hours later, thou
sands Of feet up, and needing to get
In New York in nothing flat almost
to set a record, Rick again crawled
over the gasoline drum.
Boys" he said, hold on. We're
going down hill to see If we can
make It," He and 81 did q power
dive, straight from nowhere. We
got TO the old Newark airport from
where We were In exactly zero. We
broke the record.
Rick saw Ill Of this war coming.
Three or four years ago I ghosted q
story for him for Look" In which
he said this country must start pro-
ducins $1,000 planes . year. "Were
dead If we DON'T" he said.
He had visited Germany, been
shown their air power by Udet and
Goering and Mich. He stopped of
in England to urge preparedness.
but no one listened, no one needed.
Here's another little thing about
Rick: 3
He was strong, and tough, and IN
dependent, .but each Christmas his
friends got letter from him. All
In longhand. A two or three
page letter. And the letter told Won
that rs the years went on friends
became dearer, the tie between old
pals became = little stronger,
| Writing these letters must haya
taken much Of his time, and he Wa
busy man, but they meant I lot
l. - IL IS