Louie Zamperini's Early Life

Louie Zamperini’s life was like the waves of a hurricane. Louie’s life was filled with crazy feats he all overcame. Some of these were the Olympics, a P.O.W. camp, and after-war problems. The parts of Louie Zamperini’s life, his early life, military time, and all the time after had been all just as crazy as one another. Louie’s early life was one in a million. Zamperini was always a very odd child.

In Olean, New York, on January, 26, 1917 eleven and a half pound Louie was born. When Louie was young, his lungs were in very bad shape. He kept getting pneumonia when he was two in 1919 (Hillenbrand 5). He was a very quiet and timid child as well. He was bullied in school all the time. Laura mentioned that he wouldn 't say ouch or cry, he would just stand there and let you beat him to death (9). When he was about 15 his brother saw that he had a talent and made him train. This was only the beginning. His brother Pete, would

Louie’s crew was on a search for another plane that had crashed in the Pacific. Only three of the eleven in the crew survived. Louie, Mac, and Phil(Hillenbrand 125). In the first two weeks on the ocean in the safety raft, they saw two planes. They flared them both, but both passed by(Hillenbrand 138). On June 4th, Louie and his crew had officially been declared missing (Hillenbrand 144). On June 23rd, 1943 a Japanese bomber spotted and shot at the men in their raft. The plane about five runs back and forth shooting until it finally gave up (Hillenbrand 160-163). Sergeant Francis McNamara (Mac) died soon after this event. Louie and Phil respected his death with a sea burial. They soon washed ashore in Japanese territory, 2,000 miles away from where their plane had hit the ocean. They had survived forty-seven days (Louie actually predicted this number during the float, Phil had guessed forty-six), with little food, water, many sharks, and the unrelentful sun (Biograophy.com