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Louis Zamperini
Story taken from Wikpedia
Louis Zamperini was born in Olean, New York, to Anthony and Louise Zamperini. The Zamperini family moved to Torrance, California in the 1920s, where Louis attended Torrance High School. The son of Italian immigrants, Louis spoke no English when his family moved to California. This made him a target for bullies, so his father taught him how to box in self-defense. Soon, according to Louis, he was "beating the tar out of every one of them... but I was so good at it that I started relishing the idea of getting even. I was sort of addicted to it."[1]
"Before long he was picking fights just to see if anyone could keep
up with him. From juvenile thug, he progressed to 'teenage hobo.'
Hopping a train to Mexico, he courted danger for the thrill of it.
'I caught a wild cow in a ravine and tore my kneecap till it was
just hanging off,' he recalled. 'I snapped my big toe jumping out of
some giant bamboo; they just sewed it back on. I’ve got so many
scars, they’re criss-crossing each other!'" Louis had a knack for getting into trouble, so his brother got him involved in the school track team. In 1934 Louis set a world interscholastic record for the mile, clocking in at 00:04:21.2 at the preliminary meet to the state championships.[2][3][4][5] The following week he won the championships with a 04:27.8[6] That record helped Louis win a scholarship to the University of Southern California and eventually a place on the 1936 U.S. Olympic team in the 5000 metres, the youngest U.S. qualifier in that event.[7] While attending USC, Zamperini was a member of The Kappa Sigma Fraternity and lived in the fraternity house along with his older brother. Olympic career n the Olympic trials at Randalls Island, Louis finished in a dead heat against world-record holder Don Lash and qualified for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany, though neither he nor Lash had much chance at winning the 5000 meter race. Louis has related several amusing anecdotes from his Olympic experience, including gorging himself on the boat trip to Europe. "I was a Depression-era kid who had never even been to a drugstore for a sandwich," he said. "And all the food was free. I had not just one sweet roll, but about seven every morning, with bacon and eggs. My eyes were like saucers.” By the end of the trip, Louis, in common with most athletes on the ship, had gained much weight - in Louis' case, 12 pounds. While the weight gain was not advantageous for his running it was necessary for his health, as he had lost 15 pounds while training in the summer heat in New York for the Olympic Trials. Louis finished eighth in the 5000 meter distance event at that Olympics, but his final lap of 56 seconds was fast enough to catch the attention of Adolf Hitler, who insisted on a personal meeting.[8] As Louis tells the story, Hitler shook his hand, and said simply "Ah, you're the boy with the fast finish."[9] Two years later, in 1938, Zamperini set a national collegiate mile record which held for fifteen years. He was nicknamed the "Torrance Tornado". Military career and beyond Zamperini enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces in September 1941,[11] and earned a commission as a second lieutenant the following August. He was deployed to Hawaii as a bombardier. He and his crew were assigned to a B-24 which they named Super Man. After this plane was shot up, they were assigned a different plane, The Green Hornet, to conduct a search for a lost aircraft and its crew. Mechanical difficulties caused the Green Hornet to crash into the ocean on May 27, 1943, killing eight of the eleven aboard. The three survivors, with little food and no water, subsisted on captured rainwater and small fish eaten raw, and were strafed by patrolling Japanese aircraft on several occasions. One of the survivors died after forty days adrift. While on a raft in the ocean for 47 days he recounts that their minds became more alert at the end of the ordeal than they had originally been because of the mind conditioning they did daily. One of the things he did was prepare (mentally) complete recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and later added brunches and snacks. He gave measurements or ingredients and oven temperatures. They all were "at the end of their rope" so they prayed continually to God. They caught an albatross and used some of the breast meat to catch fish. They found the bird repulsive to eat (smell), nonetheless a week later they caught a second one and forced themselves to eat a bit more than previously, and a week later caught a third one which Louie claims "tasted like a hot fudge sundae with whipped cream & nuts"! Louie's other misadventures while adrift included being strafed multiple times by a Japanese bomber, fending off multiple shark attacks, and nearly being swallowed by a storm. On the 47th day, Zamperini and pilot Russel Allen "Phil" Phillips were captured by the Japanese Navy. Zamperini was held in captivity and severely tortured until the end of the war. His family assumed he had been killed in action; when he eventually returned home he received a hero's welcome. Zamperini was held in a Japanese Navy camp at Ofuna for captives who were not labeled as Prisoners of War. Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington was held at the same camp and in Boyington's book, Baa Baa Black Sheep he discusses Zamperini and the Italian recipes he would write to keep the prisoners' minds off the food and conditions. After the war and suffering from severe post traumatic stress disorder, Zamperini met Billy Graham, who helped him launch a new career as a Christian inspirational speaker. His wife was instrumental in getting him to go to Billy Graham's meetings and not leaving before he was saved. Louie had been a terrible alcoholic and was instantly released of alcoholism. He could immediately read the Bible and understood it for the first time in his life; he instantly felt total forgiveness towards all who had hurt and tortured him in the prison camps. One of his favorite themes is "forgiveness," and he has visited many of the guards from his POW days to let them know that he has forgiven them. Many of the war criminals who committed the worst atrocities were held in the Sugamo prison in Tokyo. In October 1950, Zamperini went to Japan, gave his testimony and preached to them through an interpreter (a missionary named Fred Jarvis). The colonel in charge of the prison encouraged any of the prisoners who recognized Zamperini to come forward and meet him again. Zamperini threw his arms around each of them. Once again he explained the Christian Gospel of forgiveness to them. The prisoners were somewhat surprised by Zamperini's genuine affection for those who had once ill-treated him. Most of the prisoners accepted copies of the New Testament which had been given by the Gideons. For his 81st birthday in January 1998, Zamperini ran a leg in the Olympic Torch relay for the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. While there, he attempted to meet with his chief and most brutal tormenter during the war, Matsuhiro Watanabe, who had evaded prosecution as a war criminal, but the latter refused to see him. In March 2005 he returned to Germany to visit the Berlin Olympic Stadium for the first time since he competed there.[12] Torrance High School's home football, soccer, and track stadium is called Zamperini Stadium, and the entrance plaza at USC's track & field stadium was named Louis Zamperini Plaza in 2004. In his 90s, Zamperini continues to attend USC football games and befriended star freshman quarterback Matt Barkley in 2009.[13] In October 2008, Zamperini was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in Chicago, IL. On April 24, 2011, Zamperini received an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters from Azusa Pacific University. The following month, on May 20, 2011, Zamperini delivered Bryant University's 2011 baccalaureate address and received Bryant's inaugural Distinguished Character Award. The following day, May 21, Bryant presented Zamperini with an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters. The next day he threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the Red Sox-Cubs game at Fenway Park in Boston.
See link page for his book "Unbroken" Link page Return
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