Next morning Rickenbacker was sworn in as a sergeant in the army and given his uniform and gear. The advance party shipped out on the White Star Line’s RMS Baltic, with Eddie consigned to a hammock in the steerage, which, he complained, was grubby and the mess hall was grubby too. Up on deck he ran into a friendly fellow sergeant and was amazed to learn that this man had been installed in a comfortable second-class cabin. “It’s because I’m a sergeant first class,” the man told him, pointing out that Eddie was just a staff sergeant. Rickenbacker hadn’t known there were different kinds of
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