Workers on Rickenbacker rescue boat. How mileage rationing can save lives on the battlefronts was pointed up dramatically by Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, who with six members of his crew were rescued after three weeks adrift on life rafts in the Pacific. "One tire that is not wasted on pleasure driving may save the lives of seven men as ours was saved," Rickenbacker said. One old rubber tire is sufficient to make a three-man raft of the type that saved the party in the Pacific