Lost at Sea, page 23
Rickenbacker called this Friday the 13th “my lucky day,” and said that they were taken “through the most beautiful palm trees I have ever seen in my life.” Bartek agreed, and declared that “it was the most beautiful island in the whole world,” mainly because Funafuti “was the first land we had seen in three weeks. To me it was heaven on earth and then we were brought into the hospital.”[21]
Their physical conditions contrasted with the picturesque palm trees. “Capt. Rickenbacker and his party certainly looked as though they had been through the gates of Hades,” said Major Peter Altpeter, a Marine stationed on the island. “They are lucky to be alive.” Pharmacist’s mates carefully undressed the aviator, whom they treated as if he were royalty. Rickenbacker had lost forty pounds in three weeks, and claimed “my clothes literally fell off my back due to the threads in the seams being rotted and eaten away by salt water.”[22] The medics gently washed and applied a heavy coating of ointment to their ulcer-covered bodies, and administered sulfa to provide a little comfort.
In a nearby cot, Johnny Bartek overheard Lieutenant Commander Fuller discuss the private’s poor condition with the staff. In addition to boils and sunburn, Bartek suffered from badly swollen feet and, like Rickenbacker, had lost significant weight. After Fuller injected plasma to help him regain strength, Bartek felt much better.
The once robust Hans Adamson had seen his weight plummet from 195 to 119 pounds, and his medical situation had so deteriorated that Fuller had to administer a blood transfusion as men carried the colonel to the hospital. “The thing that really saved my life was the miracle that on this little sandspit of an island,” Colonel Adamson later explained, the hospital staff “already had blood plasma available.” He concluded that “I would have died within several hours if I hadn’t had the plasma.”[23]
Lieutenant Commander Fuller believed that without the plasma, Bartek, too, would have been dead within a day, and said that Reynolds, who was so weak that he could not lift a hand or speak, would most likely have succumbed within twelve hours. Even though the older Eddie Rickenbacker also suffered from severe dehydration and saltwater ulcers, Fuller thought that the aging aviator could have lasted another three or four days on the ocean.
During that first day and night, Fuller limited the men to sips of tea and beef broth, plus two ounces of water every two hours, to prevent them from overeating. That did not sit well with Rickenbacker, who was so thirsty he felt as if his throat were on fire. His eyes were practically swollen shut from the sun’s daily scorching glare, and, aching from head to toe, he slept poorly.
When he did slumber, he dreamed that he was still on the raft and of again visiting that beautiful home. “Even after we were picked up,” he said, “for many, many nights in the hospital I would awaken with that same hallucination and dream, with the everlasting rocking and swinging of the raft under me.”[24]
* * *
—
When Rickenbacker looked in a mirror the next morning, a specter stared back at him. Mentally he was still the Eddie Rickenbacker of the month before, but this physical version, with a skeletal frame, sunken cheeks, dulled eyes, and a filthy mustache and brown beard, was almost unrecognizable. Rickenbacker expected that sooner or later photographers and reporters, eager to wire to the States the first photographs and stories about the home front hero, would swamp Funafuti. Borrowing a razor, he sheared his beard and mustache so that he at least looked more like Eddie Rickenbacker than a vagabond, donned fresh clothes handed out by the hospital staff, and waited for the avalanche of press to appear.
Lieutenant Forrest, who had helped search for Rickenbacker, had never seen anything like the feverish activity that overwhelmed the tiny Pacific outpost. Funafuti, he wrote on November 14, “became a Mecca for media and senior military personnel as the word was flashed around the world that Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker had been rescued and was safe. Planes poured in, media were busy and Funafuti was definitely on the map—although designated as ‘a forward naval operations base’ due to wartime censorship.”[25]
When the photographers arrived, the hospital staff brought in Adamson and Cherry—who had by now been brought to the island—to sit for photographs with Rickenbacker. In another section of the hospital, Bartek argued that he should be included as well, but the physicians denied his request, claiming he was too weak for the heightened excitement. When Bartek continued to resist, Rickenbacker told him it was more important for him to recover than it was to sit for a photograph or two. “Do you want me to get on another of my mads?” Rickenbacker threatened. Bartek halted his objections, but as he later wrote, “I was very unhappy with his answer.”[26]
Later that day, the four men at Funafuti enjoyed a reunion with the Whittaker group when Hilo docked. For the first time since the seven men in three rafts separated, the entire group, save for Sergeant Kaczmarczyk, was together.
Whittaker walked in and thought Bartek appeared “pretty wan.” He spotted Rickenbacker, who as he recalled, “looked much weaker and much sicker than when I had seen him last.” The lieutenant figured that since their watery saga had ended, Rickenbacker could allow himself to relax and would no longer carry the burdens of commanding the group, but nonetheless, added Whittaker, he was the same leader “whose indomitable spirit brought more than one of our company thru alive.”
“What’s the matter, Rick? Been sick?” the copilot joked. Rickenbacker smiled and held out his hand to greet his fellow survivor. “I marveled again at this man,”[27] wrote Whittaker of a person who had endured two near-death airplane crashes in less than two years.
On November 13, 1942, a bearded Second Lieutenant James C. Whittaker (right) and Second Lieutenant John J. De Angelis, exhibiting significant weight loss, end their twenty-four agonizing days on the ocean. The PT boat tender USS Hilo (PG-58) transported the two men to Funafuti Island for treatment.
Auburn University, Special Collections & Archives
Rickenbacker thought that Whittaker looked surprisingly good, but claimed that Reynolds, who had remained aboard the Hilo, “was an emaciated wreck.” When Whittaker learned that many in the military and in the press had given them up for lost, he brusquely replied, “Everybody knows that Eddie Rickenbacker always comes back, and I figured my wife thought the same thing about me.”[28]
Three unidentified military officers accompany Second Lieutenant John J. De Angelis after his arrival on Funafuti Island in November 1942. He had lost significant weight from his time on the ocean.
Auburn University, Special Collections & Archives
The seven men—six in the hospital and Reynolds aboard the Hilo—spent November 14 and 15 recuperating. Cherry and Whittaker made speedy progress, and physicians thought that Rickenbacker was steadily gaining strength. Even Adamson, who had been lifeless and depressed on November 13, and Bartek, displayed signs of renewed strength.
A steady diet of nourishing food and liquids so quickly revitalized Rickenbacker, Adamson, Cherry, Whittaker, and De Angelis that physicians who flew up from Samoa deemed them strong enough for a plane hop to that island and its better-equipped facility. They concluded that Private Bartek and Sergeant Reynolds should remain in the Funafuti hospital and Hilo respectively until they had recovered sufficiently for them to fly out.
* * *
—
A combination of factors brought the seven survivors safely to Funafuti. Rickenbacker’s hard-nosed determination to survive, and in the process bring the other six with him, played a major role, but faith and prayer contributed as well.
Although Eddie Rickenbacker might disagree, Captain Cherry’s insistence on leaving the cluster of rafts and dispersing the survivors to a wider plot of ocean led to his discovery by Lieutenant Woodward, which in turn gave Cherry the chance to direct forces to the remaining two rafts. Had the men not disbanded, they might never have been rescued. Shortly after returning to the United States, Lieutenant Whittaker said that everyone owed a debt of gratitude to the pilot, for “Cherry’s rescue led to all the others.”[29]
* * *
—
While Rickenbacker flew to Samoa, in the United States news broke that the nation’s hero had been found. Other than military officials involved in the rescue, Adelaide Rickenbacker was the first to know that her husband had been picked up, but within hours, newspapers had spread the information to the entire nation.
PART V
Home from the Pacific
The Cherry Family Collection
The Bartek Family Collection
CHAPTER 11
“Make Me Plenty of Apple Pie”
Home, November–December
Eddie Rickenbacker, Johnny Bartek, and the other five survivors were not the only ones celebrating their rescue from a likely Pacific grave. Newspaper headlines and articles in the United States exploded with the news that the nation’s hero had been located, and gave his return equal status on front pages with positive news from the war against Hitler, where an American assault into North Africa had begun, and bulletins from the Pacific, where the nation’s naval forces were then engaged in a critical slugfest off the shores of Guadalcanal to determine who would seize control of that vital island.
The American public had received heavy tidings with Eddie Rickenbacker’s October disappearance. By mid-November, however, heartening news from both theaters and Rickenbacker’s reemergence imparted a renewed sense of optimism.
“He Must Have a Rabbit’s Foot or Something”
Other than her brief visit to Washington, DC, to spur Hap Arnold to action, Adelaide Rickenbacker had spent most of her time at their New York apartment, waiting for word of her husband. During the morning of November 13, Marguerite Shepherd, Eddie’s secretary, arrived to keep her company. Around 9:00 a.m. the telephone rang, and when Adelaide answered, she heard Hap Arnold saying, “I have good news for you.” She waited until the general provided more details before replying, “God bless you.” When Hap offered to transmit any message she might want to send to her husband, Adelaide promptly scribbled a hasty note before hanging up.
Adelaide immediately telephoned her mother-in-law, who resided in Beverly Hills, to relay the glad news. The phone awakened Eddie’s brother Dewey, who had been staying with his mother, and when he heard the news, Dewey muttered a quiet “Thank God” before calling to her.
Dewey’s holler let Lizzie know that her prayers had been answered. For the past three weeks, she had refused to believe that her son, who had so often survived events that probably should have killed him, had succumbed in a desolate part of the Pacific. When Dewey informed her that Eddie had been found and transported to an island hospital, she broke down in tears. “None of us had given up hope,” she said, “and we were sure all the time that he would be located.”[1]
“I never knew Eddie to give up on anything,” Dewey said later. “Maybe that’s why we never gave up on him. Of course, I’m overjoyed to learn he’s safe, but I can’t say I’m surprised.” As he explained, “There’s something about Eddie that makes you believe that he’ll rise to any occasion. He’s done it before, and he can do it again—and again.”[2]
Adelaide next notified their two sons, fourteen-year-old William, a student in Asheville, North Carolina, and eighteen-year-old David, a first-year cadet at the Admiral Farragut Naval Academy in New Jersey. David joined a wild celebration in the hallway as word spread, and later said that he “felt from the beginning that dad’s luck would hold out and that he would be found.”
Rickenbacker’s two sisters, Mrs. Emma Hanson and Mrs. Mary Pflaum, celebrated in the family’s hometown of Columbus. In Detroit, Rickenbacker’s brother William pointed out that fate had happily always favored his brother. “He must have a rabbit’s foot or something. It’s just marvelous that they found him safe.”[3]
Two hours after receiving Hap Arnold’s call, Adelaide walked down to the apartment lobby to talk to the throng of reporters eager to capture her words. In a formal statement, she told them, “I have just been advised by Gen. H. H. Arnold of my husband’s rescue.” Adelaide said that “I never lost faith and knew that he would be rescued,” but she admitted, “I was worried in the last few days because he burns so and I kept thinking about him on a raft. I’d dream about him on a raft and wake up and still think I was seeing him.” Now confident that her husband, although underweight and sunburned, was in good shape and on his way to recovery, she added, “Now I’m so happy it’s hard to describe my feelings.”[4]
On November 13, after learning that her husband has been rescued, Adelaide Rickenbacker meets with members of the press in the lobby of her New York City apartment building.
Auburn University, Special Collections & Archives
Adelaide credited the successful outcome to the public’s support and the coordinated effort by the nation’s military in finding her husband. “As stated before, my belief in the resourcefulness of this wonderful group of men, to say nothing of the constant prayers of Eddie’s thousands of admirers and friends, would make it possible for them to withstand the strain until the War Department’s thorough and efficient search brought about their ultimate rescue. I can’t speak too highly of the wonderful cooperation of the Army and Navy, and wish I could thank every one who participated personally.”[5]
The Bartek and Adamson families received government telegrams announcing the good news. A November 14 communication from the adjutant general to Bartek’s parents informed them that he was “gratified to inform you the commanding general hawaiian department reports your son private john f. bartek air corps has been found in poor condition but recovery expected. progress reports will be furnished as needed.”[6]
Charles and Mary Bartek express relief and thanksgiving after learning that their son, Johnny, had been found alive.
The Bartek Family Collection
Hundreds of publications, in large metropolitan centers as well as in small towns offering only weekly editions, plastered headlines across their front pages to inform the public that their hero had been found. Movietone News, Pathé News, and other newsreels disseminated the information throughout the nation’s theaters, and popular radio commentators, such as Walter Winchell, praised the military’s effort in bringing home America’s most famous aviator.
“Here, surely, is a miracle; a miracle of good fortune, but a miracle also of courage and stamina and great faith,” declared the New York Times. “It is a story that will take its place among the great sagas of the sea and the great tales of heroism in this war. A gallant soldier of the First World War comes back to us to fight again.”[7]
“Once More the Editors Revise Rick’s Obituary” dominated the Chicago Tribune’s front page, while the Charlotte Observer offered the headline “Rickenbacker Again Cheats Grim Reaper.”[8] Time magazine celebrated that the despair felt by the nation after Rickenbacker disappeared had now been replaced by a newfound sense of national pride over yet another heroic exploit by the aviator.
Each publication placed its own spin on the story, but because reporters lacked sufficient knowledge of what the men had experienced, they could only craft sanitized versions. They knew nothing of the sun, the sharks, the tern that landed on Rickenbacker’s head, Alex Kaczmarczyk’s dying, the Rickenbacker-Cherry dispute, or Rickenbacker and Bartek being strapped to the wing of a plane.
A Navy spokesman said that no new details would be divulged until the men returned to the States. According to Time magazine, as one of the country’s most popular personages, Rickenbacker would naturally dominate the narrative, and any details of noble deeds and perilous moments, “the Navy left for Hero Rickenbacker to tell himself.”[9]
Until he could, others spoke for him. W. L. White, the son of William Allen White, the prominent Pulitzer Prize–winning editor and publisher of the Emporia Gazette in Kansas, who would succeed his father after his death in two years, epitomized the home front reaction. “There is a limit to everything,” White wrote. “Even the tough old Pacific, after battling Eddie Rickenbacker for twenty-one days, finally gave him up to the skies. I would imagine with a weary sigh of relief along its white beaches.” Damon Runyon, one of the most celebrated writers of the time and a good friend of the hero, wrote that people from coast to coast “were electrified out of their worries, and shouted happily to strangers. It seemed that nothing except the surrender of Hitler could have cheered them more as the news went rippling along their tongues—Eddie Rickenbacker has been found alive!”[10]
* * *
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The news of Eddie Rickenbacker’s rescue handed the home front a third positive event within a week. Sharing the front pages were articles about the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in the Pacific that would by November 15 end in an American triumph and spark a turning point in the Southwest Pacific, as well as stories that highlighted the American Army advancing against German forces in North Africa. Rickenbacker’s Friday the 13th rescue enabled the nation to celebrate a trio of encouraging events that made people think that, at long last, the war might be slowly turning in their favor.
On the island of Samoa, on December 12, 1942, after recuperating from his twenty-four days on the Pacific Ocean, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker shakes hands with Lieutenant William F. Eadie, the aviator who landed near Rickenbacker’s raft and transported him to PT-26. Rickenbacker was on his way home to the United States when he stopped in Samoa to pick up his friend and fellow survivor Colonel Hans Christian Adamson.
