The film's premiere was held in Eddie Rickenbacker's home town of Columbus, OH, at The Ohio Theatre on August 1, 1945. In attendance were 20th Century-Fox stars Carole Landis, Peggy Ann Garner, James Dunn and Lloyd Nolan, along with Ohio politicians Congressman Jerry Voorhis, Mayor of Columbus Jim Rhodes and Gov. Frank Lausche.
As the movie title implies, Edward Rickenbacker preferred to be known as "Captain Eddie", the rank at which he attained his fame as the top US Fighter Ace of World War I, but he actually attained the rank of colonel in the Army Air Corps Reserve after that war; while his duties in World War II were in a civilian capacity, he still held that rank during the plane crash at sea which frames the movie.
There is a story that Eddie Rickenbacker, while going 100 mph in a race, had to decide whether to hit a child who wandered onto the track or crash. He decided to crash, and later on he found out that the child was Fred MacMurray, the actor who portraits Rickbacker in this movie.