Fighting the Flying Circus - Eddie Rickenbacker

Growing up, I saw planes landing and taking off from the Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base on a daily basis. I also watched air shows from my front yard. It was pretty cool seeing jets streak over my roof. I even saw the Thunderbirds go past the house in formation one year. Great stuff. Anyway, I realized that I knew very little about the man himself, Eddie Rickenbacker.

Before World War I, this man was a race car driver. During the war, he was an Ace pilot who cared about the other pilots in his squadron, but not too much. He refers to it as one of the horrors of war. You had to be able to carry on the next day no matter what had happened to your friend.

This book is completely about his time in the air. He is very descriptive when it comes to telling what happened during a lot of the mid-air battles, and he tells what happened to others in his squadron as well. I noticed again that pilots have an unusual amount of respect for their enemy. Just like when I read Samurai!, there is a level of respect and good will for the other men in the air. Rickenbacker doesn't like to see men burning on their way to the ground and fought with valor in the skies.

He mentions a couple of times the fact that he saw German pilots abandon their planes and float to the ground with parachutes. It was something he and his fellow pilots didn't have. I found that ridiculous and agreed with his criticism that the Americans should have the same choice. He saw men burn on their way to the ground and wished they'd had the option to bail out. Who could blame him?

I enjoyed this book and wish I'd read it sooner. I can't believe people flew in these things and made it out alive. Or even that they chose to get in one. The first planes the 94th Aero Squadron had were prone to have the fabric of the wings shear off if you put too much strain on them during maneuvers. WHAT?! These men were so much braver than I'll ever be, and they have my respect. To the ones who made it and who never made it home, I salute you. Good Book!