Read The Aviators: Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh for Free Online Page B

Special rocketing out of control, smashing through the fence, flipping over, and bouncing high in the air before coming down to crush both Cox and his mechanic, killing them instantly.
    After that incident, Eddie took stock. He woke up one night in his hotel room with a terrible dream that he was in the midst of a crash from which there was “no possible escape.” Nothing he’d ever experienced was so terrifying, and as he sat up in bed shaking he began to recount and relive his many brushes with death. Then it began to dawn on him just how fortunate he was that although he had come within an eyelash of death more times than he could count he was still alive.
    This led to another epiphany, a revelation that the Lord had somehow saved him for “some special purpose,” though he knew not what. Nevertheless he decided that he must prepare himself both spiritually and physically for the challenge. 7
    That night, Rickenbacker said sixty years later, and every night thereafter, when he was able, he got down on his knees to pray, as his mother had taught him. To strengthen his body, Rickenbacker swore off cigarettes and alcohol (a pledge that was not long maintained) and developed a special physical exercise regimen performed for fifteen minutes every morning when he woke and every night before he went to bed. He kept this up, he claimed, well into his seventies.
    He also designed a strict self-improvement program, starting with the practice of carrying with him every day a pocket dictionary to look up words gleaned from men in “higher positions,” whom he had begun to meet as he worked his way up the race car circuit. For some reason, he also gave himself a middle name—which his parents had somehow neglected to bestow upon him—“Vernon,” because he liked the sound of it and the way it looked on paper. And he drew up a whole “booklet of rules,” a sort of life guide he swore to abide by, beginning with: “Always conduct yourself as a gentleman.”
    These were fairly reasonable resolutions, and they reflected the one overarching feature of Rickenbacker’s character to this point, which was an almost superhuman determination to succeed at whatever he decided to do. Armed with all this positive new philosophy, Rickenbacker now set out to become the best race car driver in the world.
    I N 1916 E DDIE TORE UP THE TRACKS , and one of his specialties was the somewhat dubious tactic of purposely skidding into sharp turns on dirt courses in order to stir up an impenetrable cloud of track dust that temporarily blinded the drivers behind him and caused them to slow down. Barney Oldfield was particularly indignant over this ploy, but Rickenbacker remained self-possessed and wore with pride the additional moniker “King of Dirt,” making jokes with newspaper reporters about “leaving ’em in my dust.”
    He had so far been faithful to his resolutions; after work or a race, instead of carousing in the saloons with the other drivers, Eddie went back to his hotel and generally ordered supper from room service with some of his crew. Unlike many of his comrades he did not go for loud clothing. Instead, he was soft-spoken and courteous, and off track he wore conservative business suits. He kept away from crowds, avoided publicity and women, wanting no distractions from his racing. Nevertheless, he was a target for hundreds of mash notes from female fans and was constantly dogged by “engagement” rumors. For example, he received this telegram from a Miss Irene Tams, a movie actress whose latest hit, Lola , was described thusly: “With the help of an electric ray machine a scientist brings back to life his daughter killed in a car crash, but fails to revive her soul.” From the Seminole Hotel in Jacksonville, Florida, she telegraphed Rickenbacker proposing a “leap year marriage” to him. g
    Eddie replied with a profusely flattering letter that ended this way, however: “A women is only a woman, but my soul mate is a