Julie Moriarty
03-04-2014, 10:09 AM
I just finished reading this book. I don't think I've ever read a book about human suffering, endurance, resilience and determination that stunned me like this book did. Had the book not been so well researched, I would be saying some of it must have been fabricated or the victim of human imagination.
The movie is getting attention now and that's how I found the book. I haven't seen the movie. For those who are unfamiliar with Unbroken, it's the story of an incorrigible child, Louis Zamperini, who channeled his energies into running. His accomplishments in the field of running were unprecedented. Many say he would have been the first man to break the 4:00 mile. But WWII got in the way. He became a bombardier on the unloved B-24, the plane most said could barely fly on four engines, but it was a workhorse of early WWII.
Sent on a mission to find a missing crew, he boarded a B-24 that had been deemed unfixable and was being cannibalized for parts to repair other B-24s. Some 800 miles from base, the plane began faltering and eventually went down. Three of the crew survived. They salvaged two 6-foot life rafts and drifted at sea for weeks, barely surviving shark attacks, the bullets of Japanese fighters and starvation. Two of them almost made it to land, after 2000 miles at sea, only to be intercepted by the Japanese.
And their life turned into hell on earth.
Louie Zamperini is still alive today. At 95, he seems to still be going strong. It's an amazing story.
The movie is getting attention now and that's how I found the book. I haven't seen the movie. For those who are unfamiliar with Unbroken, it's the story of an incorrigible child, Louis Zamperini, who channeled his energies into running. His accomplishments in the field of running were unprecedented. Many say he would have been the first man to break the 4:00 mile. But WWII got in the way. He became a bombardier on the unloved B-24, the plane most said could barely fly on four engines, but it was a workhorse of early WWII.
Sent on a mission to find a missing crew, he boarded a B-24 that had been deemed unfixable and was being cannibalized for parts to repair other B-24s. Some 800 miles from base, the plane began faltering and eventually went down. Three of the crew survived. They salvaged two 6-foot life rafts and drifted at sea for weeks, barely surviving shark attacks, the bullets of Japanese fighters and starvation. Two of them almost made it to land, after 2000 miles at sea, only to be intercepted by the Japanese.
And their life turned into hell on earth.
Louie Zamperini is still alive today. At 95, he seems to still be going strong. It's an amazing story.