The Aviators: Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh, and the Epic Age of Flight

417 Pages·2013·4.06 MB·English

by  Winston Groom

A W G
LSO BY INSTON ROOM
Nonfiction
Conversations with the Enemy, (1982, with Duncan Spencer) Shrouds of Glory
(1995) The Crimson Tide (2002) A Storm in Flanders (2002) 1942 (2004)
Patriotic Fire (2006) Vicksburg, 1863 (2009) Kearny’s March (2011) Shiloh,
1862 (2012) Fiction
Better Times Than These (1978) As Summers Die (1980) Only (1984)
Forrest Gump (1986) Gone the Sun (1988) Gump and Co. (1995) Such a Pretty,
Pretty Girl (1998)

Published by the National Geographic Society 1145 17th Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036
Copyright © 2013 Winston Groom. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or part of the contents
without written permission is strictly prohibited.
E-book ISBN: 978-1-4262-1157-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Groom, Winston, 1944-The aviators : Eddie
Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh, and the epic age of flight / Winston Groom.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-4262-1156-0 (hardback : alkaline paper) 1. Rickenbacker, Eddie, 1890-1973. 2. Doolittle,
James Harold, 1896-1993. 3. Lindbergh, Charles A. (Charles Augustus), 1902-1974. 4. Air pilots–United
States–Biography. 5. Air pilots, Military–United States–Biography. 6. Heroes–United States–Biography. 7.
Adventure and adventurers–United States–Biography. 8. Aeronautics–United States–History–20th century.
9. Aeronautics, Military–United States–History–20th century. 10. United States–History, Military–20th
century. I. Title.
TL539.G73 2013
629.13092′273–dc23
2013015171
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Interior design: Melissa Farris 13/QGF-CML/1
v3.1
For Theron Raines (1925–2012),
author’s representative.
For thirty-five years, a mentor, confidant,
business partner, and friend: Well done.
Oh Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won.
—WALT WHITMAN (1865)
For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, Saw the Vision of the
world, and all the wonder that would be; Saw the heavens fill with commerce,
argosies of magic sails, Pilots of the purple twilight dropping down with costly
bales; Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rain’d a ghastly dew From
the nations’ airy navies grappling in the central blue; Far along the world-wide
whisper of the south-wind rushing warm, With the standards of the peoples
plunging thro’ the thunder-storm —ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON (1809–1892)
We loop in the purple twilight
We spin in the silvery dawn
With a trail of smoke behind us
To show where our comrades have gone.
So stand to your glasses steady, This world is a world full of lies.
Here’s a toast to those dead already, And here’s to the next man to die.
—WORLD WAR I–ERA AVIATOR’S TOAST
In flying’s Hall of Fame
There’s a special breed of men,
The Old Gray Eagle
Is among the best of them.
You see him totter on his cane
As he goes walking to his plane
So old you wouldn’t think they’d let him fly.
But when he gets into the air,
And if you ever meet him there
You’ll know that he’s a master of the sky.
His snowy hair is so much whiter Than all the rest of them,
The Old Gray Eagle
Among the best of men.
—COMBAT PILOT’S DRINKING SONG
(SUNG TO THE TUNE OF “THE OLD LAMPLIGHTER”)
CONTENTS
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Image Gallery
Map of Pacific Theater in World War II
ONE: These Three Men
TWO: The King of Dirt
THREE: The Man with the Outside Loop
FOUR: Can Those Be Stars?
FIVE: Air Combat Is Not Sport, It Is Scientific Murder
SIX: New York to Paris
SEVEN: Man’s Greatest Enemy in the Air
EIGHT: I Was Saved for Some Good Purpose
NINE: An Inspiration in a Grubby World
TEN: His Halo Turned into a Noose
ELEVEN: The Raid
TWELVE: We Were Slowly Rotting Away
THIRTEEN: The Lone Eagle Goes to War
FOURTEEN: Masters of the Sky
Notes
Notes on Sources and Acknowledgments
Bibliography