Born to fight — that’s what Louis Zamperini felt like he was born to do.
He had a native trend towards obstinance, and it continually got him into trouble both in school and with his parents. His older brother did what he could to keep him out of trouble, with relative degrees of success.
But then came Pearl Harbor.
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The Front of the Battle
And with it, Zamperini’s bullheadedness and drive would be used to the fullest.
Assigned as a bombardier to a B-24 Liberator in the Army Air Corps’ 372nd Bomb Squadron, Zamperini was literally at the front of the battle, sitting in the clear bubble at the nose of the plane.
Turbulence was about to become something he would become proficient in…in more ways than one.
While on a 1942 raid against the Japanese at Wake Island, his plane almost ran out of fuel on the trip back home. The journey was unnerving, but Zamperini didn’t realize that even more was in store for his life.
Soon, on another run, his B-24 would be torn to shreds by Japanese Zero fighters. Several of his brothers-in-arms were wounded during the attack, with one of his friends being killed.
Miraculously, his plane made it back to the base, albeit riddled with over 600 holes from enemy bullets and shrapnel.
Rolling Doubles
Rolling the dice against fate, Zamperini once more set out for another mission on May 27, 1943. And yet again, Zamperini would seemingly prove to be invincible.
While over the middle of the Pacific, his plane’s engines suddenly died, causing the plane to crash into the ocean.
Everyone was killed in the process, with the exception of Zamperini and two of his friends. Zamperini would later say of the crash, “it felt like somebody hit me in the head with a sledgehammer.”
He awoke amidst a tangle of floating metal only to discover the horrors of his predicament.
Linking up with the other survivors, they would spend the next 47 days adrift at sea, constantly fighting off sharks, harvesting rainwater, and trying to live off of whatever they could catch, at one point even being strafed by a passing Japanese bomber.
Captured
Two thousand miles later, Zamperini and the one other remaining survivor aboard the raft were captured by the Japanese near the Marshall Islands.
For Zamperini, perhaps he thought it would have been better to have remained at sea.
He would now spend the next two and a half years at various concentration camps in Japan being tortured, particularly by a Japanese guard known simply as “The Bird.”
Regular beatings became a part of the daily routine, yet Zamperini never broke.
The Return
Eventually, Zamperini was freed after the war ended.
He would go on to live to be 97 years old, dying a very happy old man despite everything he had undergone.
You can read further detail about his amazing life story in the bestselling book Unbroken.
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3 Leave a Reply
great story
greater man
THE BOOK IS A GREAT STORY OF REDEMPTION,I HIGHLY RECCOMEND IN FOR EVERY TRUE AMERICAN TO READ,VERY INSPIRATIONAL.
I very much agree ! Great story! A must read!