TonyM wrote:
tom d. friedman wrote:
another great aviation movie would be eddie rickenbacker's story!!! his ww 1 story speaks for itself, between the wars as an airline executive, would be a cool part as well ..... but his early ww 2 ditching on a u.s. government sponsored fact finding mission aboard a b-17 for a tour of the pacific would be quite dramatic. eddie & the b-17 crew drifted & survived 3 weeks in the pacific ocean & were later rescued by a kingfisher, where the pilot put the survivors of the raft on the kingfisher's wings & taxied the seaplane in very rough waters for a number of miles to a waiting u.s. submarine.
Further, Rickenbacker and the others who survived with him became so angry with each other during the ordeal that they split up and took their chances. The men broke off into three groups and were rescued seperately. I guess the enemity between some of these men lasted until well after the rescue.
TonyM.
Here is a quote from a work of mine that will be published in the future:
"After enduring three agonizing weeks adrift on the sea, the seven survivors seperated. Capt Cherry set off by himself in the two-man raft. He was spotted by U.S. Navy airplanes and rescued by a USN motor torpedo boat on 11-11-42. Capt. Cherry was able to give rescuers general directions for a search effort. Whittaker, DeAngelis and Reynolds, who had seperated in a five-man raft, were able to make it to an island. Island natives found the group and were able to alert authorities. The fliers were rescued by the US Navy a short time later. Rickenbacker, Adamson and Bartek drifted for a couple days before two single-engine amphibian airplanes spotted them and circled their raft as dusk approached. The airplanes were able to signal surface units by using flares. Rickenbacker, Adamson and Bartek were rescued by a USN motor torpedo boat during the evening of 11-12-42. The seven survivors returned to the United States at San Francisco on 12-19-42."
Tom,
You have Rickenbacker's rescue confused with another rescue, which actually involved two Kingfisher airplanes one of which sunk. My research does not indicate that these men were towed to safety by any aircraft.
TonyM.