Admiral Edward Vernon “Eddie” Rickenbacker According to http://www.lib.auburn.edu/archive/find-aid/101/eddie.htm, Edward Rickenbacher was born on Wednesday, October 8, 1890, “in Columbus, Ohio.” He “adopted his middle name, “Vernon,”later and changed the spelling of his name to “Rickenbacker” in 1918. His father, William, and his mother, Elizabeth (Basler), were Swiss immigrants who met and married in Columbus, Ohio.” “Eddie” was the third child, and had seven other siblings, and one of seven out of the eight Rickenbacher children who lived to be an adult. In 1893, William had his own construction company, but couldn’t make enough money to keep the family out of poverty. Luckily, “Elizabeth managed to save enough money to buy two adjacent …show more content…
He even “took mechanical engineering course from International Correspondence School in 1905.” He worked for 2 automobile companies, Oscar Lear Automobile Company in Columbus, Ohio, and Columbus Buggy Company in Columbus, Ohio. In 1910, “Eddie entered his first race as an advertising gimmick for the Firestone-Columbus. He raced a stripped down Firestone-Columbus on a dirt track in Red Oak, Iowa.” Unfortunately, Eddie finished the race early: he had an accident. However, that was only his first race. The next year, he entered the “Indianapolis 500 on Memorial Day. He raced for the Columbus Buggy Company until 1912, when he left to be a professional racer. He raced for a second rate team called the “Flying Squadron” until the end of 1912.” When he left racing, he “took a job with Fred and Augie Duesenberg at Mason Company.” There, he “raced for Mason until the end of 1914.” He raced for 1 more company, “ Prest-O-Lite,” until 1916, before “joining the Army in 1917. He never raced …show more content…
Thus, the plane crash. The 8 men were stranded for 24 days. Sadly, one of them died: Sergeant Kaczmarczyk. The seven men were rescued “ 500 miles beyond Canton Island.” That’s a total of 2,409 miles. That’s pretty far. Crazily, they were like Louie Zamperini- they ran out of food quickly. Just like Louie, they ate any bird that came their way. What’s also crazy, Eddie’s wife didn’t give up hope and accept that her husband was dead. I say, good on her, because she was right. There’s more than this. So, if you want to know more, go to the site mentioned
In the events of September 1, 1939 – September 2, 1945 world war 2 erupted and up came a man his name was Louis Zamperini. During Louie's life as a young adult, he decided to join the army to defend his country. Then during one of his missions on the way to the bomb site two, two of the four engines on their b-24 malfunctioned sending them plummeting into the ocean. In the book Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand uses the life experiences of Louie Zamperini to show the traits of optimistic and resourceful.
The Forgotten 500 told the miraculous story of the rescue of 500 almost all American airmen in Yugoslavia during World War II. These men bailed out of airplanes and landed behind enemy lines and defied all expectations by staying alive. To do this they had to hide from enemies for weeks or even months. That is what made this book very interesting because the Germans were always close by and if found, the men would all be killed. What kept these men safely in hiding was Yugoslavian Serb General Draza Mihailovic and his followers.
Louie Zamperini was a crewman of a B-24 Liberator, he was a bombardier until his bomber went down into the ocean. As a bombardier on a B-24, his mission was to drop bombs onto enemy positions to destroy important caches, such as Fuel, Ammunition etc. After the B-24 went down into the ocean, Louie, Phil and Mac were stranded in the ocean, with no food or water, determined to live they held on. When Phil and Louie were captured by the Imperial Japanese Navy, they were taken to Kwajalein. Louie and Phil was then transferred to Ofuna, and lastly, Omori, where he was beaten by the Bird. In the book Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand uses the life experiences of Louie Zamperini to show the traits of Determined and Courageous.
Louis “Louie” Zamperini went from the Terror of Torrance to a World War II hero. He grew from a young boy, who terrorized his town, into a record breaking runner, who competed in the Olympics. He later joined the United States Army Air Forces and served as a bombardier in World War II. After his plane crashed and he was stuck on a raft in the ocean, he was captured by the Japanese and became a prisoner of war. Louie’s resourcefulness, toughness, and defiance from his boyhood helped him to survive the relentless torment thrown at him later in life.
In 1996 he started to race professionally. He raced the motocross season and got eighth over all in that season. When the season was over he was named rookie of the year for doing his best in that se...
During their western voyage, the group notoriously known as the “Donner Party” inevitably became trapped in a snowstorm in the winter of 1846 and 1847. Originally, the group set out for California in search of new opportunities. Figure 1 shows the path that the party followed to arrive in their set destination. After departing from Springfield, Illinois, the Donner’s first stop was in Independence, Missouri where they joined the rest of their traveling companions. The party had then planned on arriving at Fort Bridger to join another expedition, but they were too late and the expedition left without them (Johnson, 1). They left from Fort Bridger on July 31, 1846 using their own navigation skills in hopes of landing at their destination (Diamond, 2). When an unfortunate snowstorm hit, the group was left stranded. To make matters worse, they were split up between Truckee Lake and Alder Creek. They struggled during this time for they had few supplies and a limited food source. Of the 81 person party, only 45 survived the horrendous conditions (Johnson, 1). That number of casualties may seem fairly typical based on the condit...
Dale Earnhardt grew up in Kannapolis, North Carolina, a textile mill town. His father, Ralph Earnhardt, was known as "Iron heart" on the short-track racing circuit, and he taught Dale how to drive stock cars and work with engines. His father had converted a barn behind the family home into a garage, and he was well known for his skill with engines. Earnhardt's earliest memory is of watching his father race. Dale dropped out of high school after the eighth grade because he tried ninth grade twice and just couldn't do it. After he dropped out, Dale worked odd jobs, drove dirt tracks, and also argued with his father, which wanted him to complete high school. Dale became most famous with his black Monte Carlo with a dominate # 3 in white on it, but his first dirt track car was a 1956 hot-pink ford Sedan, which his neighbors gave to him, David and Ray Oliver. His father Ralph had built the engine, and some other friends, Frank and Wayne Dayvault and their cousin Gregg, tuned it. They intended to paint the car avocado green, but a paint mishap resulted in the car being pink. They could not afford to repaint it, and Dale raced the pink car on dirt tracks around Charlotte, North Carolina. Dale married for the first time at 17, and at age 18 had a son, Kerry. Dale divorced his first wife at 19 and married a second time to Brenda. This marriage would last five years before he divorced again. Dale had two children with his second wife, a daughter, Kelley, and a son, Dale Jr., who would both followed him into racing. While Dale was at the age of twenty two his father died from a heart attack. Earn...
Louis who is not a lone survivor shared his horrendous experiences with Russell Phillips. Together they went through the hardship of surviving not only through a plane crash but also a POW camp. The plane crash leaves him and two other crew members, one of which being Philips, stranded in the pacific on a raft for 40 days with little provisions which could barely last them the night. With occasional rainwater and fish they were able to survive long enough to be found by a Japanese plane. By that time it was too late to save the unknown crew member. Now just only Philips and Zamperini are left both being treated at a Japanese hospital where they will be restored to full health to just be stored into a prisoner of war camp. “…Clubbing him, jamming pen knives under his fingernails, tearing his fingernails off, and applying the water cure…”(Hillenbrand 201). Zamperini was stuck being tortured almost every day until the second nuke dropped on Nagasaki. Both adversities making a tremendous impact on their lives yet they still found a way to cope with it.
The book Flyboys follows the story of US Navy pilots Jimmy Dye, Floyd Hall, Merve Mershon, Warren Earl Vaughn, Dick Woellhof, Grady York, Glenn Frazier, and Warren Hindenlang. Bradley starts off the book by giving background stories of several of the men whom had aspired to enlist in the Navy and eventually came to it. The book then transitions to the main story; the year is 1945 and the US is at war with the Japanese during WW2. US warplanes are bombing small communication outposts on Chichi Jimam, not showing much concern for how difficult of a battle they're setting up for themselves as ChiChi's geography included hilly terrains and unsuitable coasts aswell as an armed force of 25,000 men. Because of these odds, US pilots were sent in to neutralize ChiChi's defenses. Of these aviators, 9 men survived af...
On the twentieth day of their imprisonment the men remembered that they had access to a portable wireless machine, which they could send and receive messages from those outside. They were notified by the engineers in charge that it would take ten more days till they could rescue the men. After this notification they asked to talk to medical personnel and informed them of their food predicament and conditions, and asked if they would be able to survive the next ten days on the rations they had taken with them. The medical personnel informed them that there was little possibility of survival. After eight hours of receiving this information Whetmore asked the medical personnel if they would survive for ten days if they consumed the flesh of one of the men trapped ...
It happened on November 10, 1975. Edmund Fitzgerald was about to make its trip to Detroit MI with only one mission at hand: to deliver ore. That was all there was to it. But the members of the ship had gotten much more than what they had bargained for. They thought that they would be okay. Or so they thought?
In the early 1900s bicycle design and manufacture had reached a point where aerodynamics was a major factor in bicycle racing. It began with these two seated bicycles that were fitted with French DeDion-Buton single-cylinder, air-cooled internal combustion engines in order to propel the cycles at regulated speeds just ahead of the racers. The pacers were complicated to operate and required two people to run: the front rider was a driver who steered the vehicle and the rear rider was an engineer who constantly adjusted the flow of fuel to the primitive carburetor in order to maintain a constant speed. Unfortunately these engines were very unreliable they would break down often because the fuel delivery of the French carburetors was so unstable. An answer to the problems came from a small-time machinist and self-taught bicycle designer/fabricator named Oscar Hedstrom. Hedstrom started modifying single-cylinder engines and carburetors for bikes and started making them more and more reliable. Hendee started working with Hedstrom and became a huge success in the New England area. This partnership soon leads to a professional business that sold motorcycles.
The friendships and bonds that formed in the jungles of Vietnam between the members of Alpha Company help them to survive on a day to day basis. Not only while they were in Vietnam, but also in dealing with their lives back in the United States. Without the bonds of friendship none of the men of Alpha Company would have survived mentally or physically the strains and trauma of the Vietnam War. In the end it is realized that the men not only carried their gear and weapons, but they carried with them bonds, friendship and a connection that only the men of Alpha Company will ever really understand.
The friendships and bonds that formed in the jungles of Vietnam between the members of Alpha Company help them to survive on a day to day basis. Not only while they were “in country”, but in dealing with their lives back in the United States. Without the bonds of friendship none of them men of Alpha Company would have survived mentally or physically the strains and trauma of the Vietnam War.
...light arose, my eyes began to squint shut trying to block the sunlight drifting in. I failed and immediately woke up opening my red watery burning eyes. David ran through the rough edged sedimentary grey rocks and through the bright green leaves of the trees with an idea. “To get rescued we should make a large SOS sign with rocks so that the planes flying from above can see it” he said. I thought the idea was incredible, so we all came together placing rock after rock deeply in the wet sparkly sludge like sand. After a long hardworking 12 hours we were finally finished. As we waited anxiously day after day for rescue we finally received it. Fifteen days later a enormous smooth plane landed on the island. As the plane slowly lifted off the almond colored ground making a turbo noise, I felt that we all learned in any situation that we need to stick together to survive.