*Includes pictures *Includes Rickenbacker's quotes about his life and career *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading “Courage is doing what you are afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you are scared.” – Eddie Rickenbacker The men and women who won World War II for the Allies have been called “the greatest generation,” and rightfully so, for they saved the Western world from destruction and domination by totalitarian dictators. As Winston Churchill so eloquently put it, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” However, even within this glorious group, there was another, perhaps even more superlative generation made up of men and women who fought not only in World War II but also World War I, which at the time was the deadliest and most destructive war in history. A few of these fighters were young enough to fight in both wars, and Eddie Rickenbacker was one of them, one of the “best of the best.” Though he served only in a civilian capacity during World War II, he remains today a romantic hero of a bygone era, a man who flew airplanes that were little more than hang gliders with engines and guns, and survived to help design jets. His service won him the Medal of Honor, along with more awards for valor than any other person fighting in World War I. But participating in the wars was not nearly enough time in the air for the ambitious Rickenbacker. When he was not setting new records in the air, he was setting new speed records on the ground, most notably as a first generation race car driver who not only drove cars but designed them. He also served for decades as the president of one of the world’s first major commercial passenger aviation companies, Eastern Air Lines, seeing it through the ups and downs of the financial and technological boom and bust in America between the wars.