This Day in Aviation History–Election Edition. Eddie had it worse.

This is the 2024 “election edition” of our aviation history vignettes.  As we approach election day, if you believe the news media and some of the constant barrage of political advertising from the individual political campaigns, we’re about to elect to the highest office in the land either a fascist or a communist.

But it could be worse, right?  It can always be worse.  I was feeling a little down for one reason or another and then a friend related a story about having to put her mom in assisted living and now her mom hates her and her life and wants to go back home…which she can never do.  Her siblings and children are angry with her.  My friend has a bad back and is in constant pain.  Her marriage is less than satisfying.  Her brother was recuperating at her home (she being the caregiver) from a severe motorcycle accident.  And she was just diagnosed a couple of weeks ago with kidney cancer.

I just saw her last weekend.  You’d never know it from looking at this lady all the challenges she faces…she seems fine and is putting on a brave face in the midst of all her troubles. 

Here’s my point: I have nothing to complain about.  Nothing at all.  Most of us don’t, at least compared to this lady.  And we often forget when we complain about this issue or that issue, this political candidate or that political candidate, this person or that person…whatever minor thing we’re complaining about…that the person to whom we’re complaining also has a life and also has his or her own concerns and challenges, challenges and concerns often far worse and more important than our own.

It can always be worse.  And often it is.

Take for instance the famous WWI fighter ace, Medal of Honor recipient, Eastern Air Lines CEO, horribly injured plane crash survivor, and WWII aviation advisor.  Eighty-two years ago today, Eddie Rickenbacker was floating in a (alleged) five-man life raft (actually designed for only one or two men), sitting ducks for being captured or killed by the Japanese in the Pacific Ocean, given up for dead but ultimately surviving for three weeks marooned at sea without food or water…other than what they could gather by fishing or from rain storms.

“The Bug,” the OS2U Kingfisher seaplane that found Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker and others after their 21-day odyssey adrift in the Pacific Ocean. “The Bug” also survived the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Courtesy of the National Museum of Naval Aviation.

So, yes. It can always be worse.  Eddie had it worse.  Read about Eddie Rickenbacker’s continued heroics lost at sea in a long life of heroism here:

https://www.historynet.com/eddie-rickenbacker-and-six-other-people-survive-a-b-17-crash-and-three-weeks-lost-in-the-pacific-ocean 

Eddie Rickenbacker.  Courtesy of History.net.

Citation for the above article as follows:  Billy A. Rea (10/30/2024) Eddie Rickenbacker and Six Other People Survive a B-17 Crash and Three Weeks Lost in the Pacific Ocean. HistoryNet Retrieved from https://www.historynet.com/eddie-rickenbacker-and-six-other-people-survive-a-b-17-crash-and-three-weeks-lost-in-the-pacific-ocean/.

Onward and upward!