Show 22 Captain Rick Tells Story Of Sea Ordeal (Continued from rage One) after only two weeks of convalescence he also had a story to tell of American fighting men In the "mud and corruption" of New Guinea and the Solomons "If only the people back home could know" he said "we'd take this war lots more seriously "Because those of us on the home front are 3000 to 8000 miles away from all these hell holes of fire It Is difficult for us to see what those boys are enduring" And he added softly if the folks at home could realize what he and his men themselves had gone through — well it "might prove a stimulus to people here to get them to produce" But Rickenbackera emphasis was on wht the American soldier Is doing and suffering "My opinion" he said of the troops on Guadalcanal "is that if it weren't for the fact they are having tremendous successes their health couldn t hold out Victory Keeps Them Well "But the stimulus of winning and men tally okay" Mindful of what he saw in the aouth Pacific jungles Rickenback er had little patience with those at home who complain about ra tioning of rubber and gasoline "These cries" he said "seem so Insignificant and ridiculous whn you consider what the boys down there haven't got "I have come to the conclusion that if they brought the combat troops back here and put them in factories and had the factory workers replace them in the field we could double production in 30 days' time" "If only you can get the people to realize that" he said As for himself and the men with him "we couldn't have lasted another 4S hours" if rescue hadn't come when it did Rickenbacker arrived at Boiling field here Saturday morning and was immediately escorted to the war department to report to Stimson Later Stimson called reporters in and turned over his chair to the captain "He's back— and I think there's more of S him here than went away" Stimson said Quickly Warms Up Rickenbacker started speaking slowly but quickly warmed up At times he grinned At times he spoke softly Occasionally he was reverent On the second day after their went down "we organbig 7 ized prayer meetings in the morning and in the evening" he said "Frankly and humbly we prayed for our deliverance" Rickenbacker had one story to tell which apparently he feared would be met with skepticism "If it wasn't for the fact that I had seven witnesses" he said "I wouldn't dare tell it" The story was that "one hour after the prayer meeting" one day when starvation was at hand and the men had asked God for food a seagull landed on my shoulder" Rickenbacker's tense face relaxed into a smile as he continued "You can imagine my nervousness aa I reached around to get he said "But I caught it it" we and wrung its neck We feathered it and stripped its innards which we used for bait" The seagull kept them alive But when on the next day another gull landed on his shoulder "I didn't have the heart to wring Its neck and I let him go" Rickenbacker said Three Life Rafts There were only three life rafts Into them crowded Rickenbacker B-1- Colonel Hans C Adamson who NO 4 RED CEDAR 00 about the "darned cold weather" and asked him to "do something about it" The flier was accompanied by Mrs Rickenbacker and their sons Billy 14 and David 17 Rickenbacker chatted with friends for an hour at the LaGuardia field administration building He said he would be in New York for the NEW YORK Dec 19 (UP) Captain Eddie Rickenbacker arriving here Saturday in an army bomber from Washington D C was met by Mayor F H LaGuardia wearing his big black hat but no overcoat and leading a swarm of photographers The mayor clasping Ricken-backe- WASHINGTON Dec 19 (UP) — The marine corps announced Saturday that men between the ages of 20 and 31 who have successfully college completed a two-yecourse with subsequent two years' civilian experience are now eligible to apply for induction into the candidate class for commissioning aa second lieutenants Four years' college training was required previously if troops exchanged places with war workers the nation's production would be doubled He also criticised "crying over rationing and loss of gasofront-lin- e line" HONOLULU Dec 19 (UP) — Honolulu Advertiser will say The hand exclaimed: was editorially Sunday that there "Boy oh boy oh boy am I glad holidays To reporters here he reiterated nothing in Captain Eddie Rickento see you Eddie!" Hickenbacker loshed the mayor his statement In Washington that backer's story °f his rescue and rs ar r previous hardships which could not have been released previously while he was in Samoa or Hawaii The newspaper blamed a "whim" of Secretary of War Henry L Stimson for delay in releasing the story The delay was "a personal triumph for Mr Stimson a private victory over intelligent common sense censorship" the Advertiser said There was nothing in the Rickenbacker story it continued "that could conceivably have given aid or comfort to the enemy had he told It to correspondents from his f hospital cot in Samoa or to the press when he arrived in Honolulu this past week" GENEVA HI Dec 19 (INS)— "But Rickenbacker had been on Death cheated justice Saturday a special secret mission for Stim- when Harold Luke 32 of Montson" the newspaper said "He gomery 111 succumbed to pneuhad an explicit order from the war monia in the Geneva County hosdepartment to keep mum until he pital Luke was arrested December 10 returned to the national capital This was not the responsibility for the triangle love slaying of of official censors in Hawaii It Vernon Coop of Aurora and shootwas a whim of the secretary of ing of his estranged wife La von Luke who was critically wounded war" Murder Suspect Dies Cheats Law " - "XV'V I' isiiiiiiiiiiiffl returned to Washington with him for hospitalization Private John Bartek Sergeant Alexander Kaczmarcyk Captain William T Cherry Lieutenant James C Whitaker Lieutenant John D De Angelis and Staff Sergeant James " V- 1' iJiff hhft 7 - MLA r i ' f f I w Reynolds - z: from Kaczmarcyk was the first Shortly after the rafts were launched the one in which he and Cherry were huddled capsized Kaczmarcyk swallowed some salt water Rickenbacker - r J ill-fat- ed - 9- said V-W- V v S ' A ill - I Ik 3t-- r i- V -- Wlf A f 1 s' Of I SpecV j I TODA dedicated to — this wJ rrii n Menon u- with Victor? b"Cuodrmed-oC''''- ° — Victory-- he - ! - A f i tf-Jr- 4 ""8e° ' for tute html5 °h" reguUrly " o pctiotity ed hich they ) ioSpiration xe itb this of V Uco Tanks women nd W4f r:±yns °rrz 'J od ships i : pto ?oiogei"fflade J" to i ' ' of torn V'°"' 19 for thi - can b he front men v iay for rXh r lhe U(e mas (octco0oeo of tomorrow blight wUl be happr today of - Jot G" iU are creating uir labor eats formingau V - - Meals u - -- those Wea Earth Good trengtn w lor It uODU AMD paODUGuBOU X1S ir eociB paoci ' - ?A s u EX 11 - 11? I lis' - r: - For five days the rafts were becalmed For eight days there was no water not even a shower Kaczmarcyk crazed by thirst drank sea water On the eleventh night he died "In spite of the fact that the temperature was 78 to 80 and the wind was high it was freezing Rickenbacker recalled "The waves were constantly breaking over us and it was like being doused with Ice water I moved the boy into my boat and cuddled him like a mother I tried to give him the warmth of my body" For some reason the stricken man wanted to go back to his own boat and the transfer was made "About 3 a m we heard his last gasp I had been on cinder tracks (as an automobile racer in his youth) and in burning air planes but I had never been through anything like this" Rick enbacker said Afraid to Make Decision "I was afraid to make a dec! sion About 6 a m we pulled the boats together I examined him and finally pronounced him dead Two of the boys were witnesses "Then we lifted him over the boat gently and he disappeared It was one of the hardest jobs I ever had Rickenbacker's plane had over shot the island toward which it was winging" and the occupants knew they would have to go down at sea In their haste to leave the bomber however thejr failed to transfer their water rations to the life rafts All they took along were three 'scrawny oranges "I carved these up into eight pieces and rationed them out" Rickenbacker said "If you ever have seven pairs of hungry eyes watching the carver you'll carve pretty well even if you haven't the facilities" Prayed for Food When the oranges were gone they prayed for food With the entrails of the seagull they baited three small fish lines Cherry caught a little mackerel and Rick enbacker hook a speckled sea bass "It was delicious" he said "Everybody got an equal share" After eight days without rain the men were afire with thirst Then a black squall came up and 'Tve made a business of getting Into" it The men sopped up the heavy rain which followed with their shirts socks and handkerchiefs and wrung them out Into a little rubber bucket "I was the official wringer in my boat" Rickenbacker said They rationed the water at the rate of "two sips a day" Rickenbacker had reason to be thankful he had refused to give up a battered felt hat which he said his wife had been trying to get him to discard for 10 years It saved him from the sunburn which afflicted the others all of whom had thrown away their hats at the outset because of the heat Minds Began to Crack Toward the end Rickenbacker said "our minda began to crack" "I know things about these men's lives that no one else in the world knows" he added "They confessed all their commissions and omissions — all their sins It's a good thing I didn't have time to get started on mine or I'd be talking yet" On the seventeenth day a little plane passed them five miles away The pilot didn't see them It was "heartbreaking" The next day two planes flew overhead but did not see the rafts The day after that four planes came out and again passed us PER BUNDLE December 20 19J2 LaGuardia Gives Rick' Hearty Welcome — Marines Send Out Call for College Men Eight Castaways Said Prayers For Deliverance keeps them physically Salt £akc Tribune £hc Sunday Morning in he of ptoducaoo 1 J!I - X hi - O - - "i- - — —— i -- ? v m --- - - r---A " -- mmm — — up" then the rafts until "had kept together They decided to separate on the theory they would be more easily seen from the air That was on the night of the twentieth day On the twenty-firday a naval plane found Cherry Rickenbacker was picked up on the twenty-secon- d day With the aid of a P-- T boat Rick enbacker Bartek and Adamson were taken to a south Pacific base 40 miles away The others had landed on an island and were later Of the island base where he as taken — to recuperate in prep- -ation for resumption of his mis-'o- n — st reel bargain for a good A economical roofing job We kov oH qaed stock of motf k!ldlag Materials ed 2UILDE3S SUPPLV Rickenbacker "It was jaw one" Shangri-L- a said: if I ever "' ' mo-- i - TOi ff- n mm' in r- ti - ti- wv- - - ' r-- -J J — "wwc n Wnm I |