Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared. - Eddie Rickenbacker

When we arrived home, we found the situation in the United States no better. In vain did I attempt to describe to our military leaders the true situation in Germany. My reports were completely at variance with those coming in from our social-climbing lounge lizards, who were too busy going to cocktail parties to do their jobs.

Our American doughboys were pushing in on both sides of the salient. We could see them moving forward. Their bayonets were fixed, and they were using them. They stormed the trenches, fighting with cold steel and rifle butts. From my comparatively safe place in the sky, I watched them with admiration. I have always maintained that American infantrymen were the heroes of the war and that Alvin T. York, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, was the greatest hero of them all.

To my mother, Elizabeth Basler Rickenbacker, with love and appreciation; her inspiration throughout life never failed me.
To my wife, Adelaide Frost Rickenbacker, whose constant confidence, love and dedication have always supported me through failure and success.