The silly old man

That's what people called him as he fed fish to the seagulls, a routine the old "codger" made for himself

to amble about on the beach, the birds eagerly awaiting their meal. Usually the activity is frowned upon in ocean resorts as the flock of birds mess up the area. As you get older there might or might not be a reason why you do things.

The old man was Eddie Rickenbacker, the top scoring U.S. pilot ace in world war 1, highly decorated and an aviation pioneer, race car driver, president of the now defunct eastern airlines among many other notable achievements. The man had escaped death many times including the most unbelievable injuries sustained during a dc3 crash.

During WW2 President Roosevelt called him to the white house for a secret mission. MacArthur (another WWI hero) had become a rogue element and they had lost control over him as he acted now on his own

disobeying all orders regarding the pacific theater.

This secret mission is still classified but recently the leaks have begun. No way was anyone to know how this spat could be made public during the war, the morale in the U.S. concerning a general like Mac Arthur was of utmost importance.

Apparently MacArthur looked up to Eddie only- he was his idol. MacArthur was also a highly decorated WWI1 soldier. No records could ever exist demonstrating the communications going back and forth regarding his loose cannon condition and you can read between the lines here

if you know what i mean. So they enlist Eddie and a selected crew for a B-17 flight to get him to

the pacific secretly-no small feat considering the distances involved. He would put MacArthur

in his place. Much has been written on why they ran out of fuel and ditched in the ocean, but by most accounts an unskilled navigator. The injured survivors ran out of food and water during the first week of their 24 days in a raft, the crate of oranges that floated up from the sinking plane made conditions worse

as the gastric juices made them hungrier. One of the crew died and you would have to read the story of this ordeal to understand the miracle of a seagull landing on eddies head. Besides the meal they used the entrails to fish more food. This was the third time in his life newspapers had declared

him dead ! Only because of his wife's insistence was the search extended and a small float plane

towards the very end found them in Japanese held waters. The pilot won an award as he put the most injured in the confined space and tied the rest to the wings and drove on the waves for 40 miles where they met up with a navy ship.

So, many people would scoff at the old man feeding seagulls unaware of why some people do the things they do- he would say thank you to every bird he fed still wearing the cap he wore during his 24 days at sea.