Also, is it true that Rickenbacker's parents (or one of them) were
German?

Rickenbaker was a fascinating case. A 7th-grade dropout from the
sticks, he had to make his way in a group dominated by Yalies, and
this at a time when class was much more important in the U.S. than any
of us remember.

His father was a construction worker; he started out in life as a
teen-aged automobile mechanic, and by 1916 was an auto-racing
superstar. At 25 he was regarded as too old to become a pilot, so he
enlisted in the army and became a chauffeur on Pershing's staff.

You'll have to ask somebody else about his parentage, but the spelling
of his name suggests that his father wasn't an immigrant. More likely
it was a couple generations back.

(During World War II, we used to hear the same thing about Eisenhower.
The Germans, meanwhile, wondered if he wasn't a Jew.)


all the best -- Dan Ford
email: www.danford.net/letters.htm#9

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com