The Aviators: Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh (4 page)

A forlorn Doolittle beside the wreckage of his B-25. He was convinced he would be court-martialed for losing all the planes
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt decorates Doolittle with the Medal of Honor, with Joe, U. S. Army Air Corps chief Hap Arnold, and Chief of Staff George C. Marshall looking on
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Now at the Smithsonian, Joe Doolittle’s tablecloth features the names of hundreds of celebrities
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President Ronald Reagan and Senator Barry Goldwater pin the fourth star of a full general on Doolittle in 1985
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Rickenbacker shortly after his rescue following twenty-four days lost in the South Pacific in 1942
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Rickenbacker and the crew were confined to small life rafts, virtually lying atop one another
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In 1943 Rickenbacker wrote a best-selling book about the experience. This pamphlet, based on a speech Rickenbacker gave, also described the ordeal
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After two weeks’ recuperation, Rickenbacker completed his secret mission in the South Pacific and continued to support the war effort
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After the war, Rickenbacker resumed his duties with Eastern Air Lines
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Lindbergh is escorted through a South Sea base on an inspection tour for an American plane manufacturer in 1944
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Lindbergh used himself as a guinea pig to test the effects of altitude on pilots
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In 1944 Lindbergh, pictured here with fighter pilots in Emirau Island, talked his way into battle in the South Pacific as an “aviation technician.”

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