Louis Zamperini is a legendary NCAA & Olympian distance runner and a WW II hero, who wrote the stirring memoir "Devil at My Heels".He was honored at a ceremony at the University of Southern California this past Saturday
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Louis Zamperini Plaza
The Entrance To USC's Track Stadium--To Be Dedicated This Saturday Several Trojan Olympians to be on hand to honor legendary distance runner and war hero.
Feb. 18, 2004 Los Angeles -
Trojan distance running great and World
War II hero Louis Zamperini will be honored at noon on Saturday, Feb. 21,
as USC dedicates "Louis Zamperini Plaza" as the official entrance to Katherine
B. Loker Track and Field Stadium. Zamperini, USC President Steven B. Sample,
Katherine B. Loker and several Trojan Olympians will be present for the
event, which will take place at Loker Stadium on campus.
The emcee for the ceremony will be former Trojan and Olympic gold medalist swimmer John Naber. The plaza, located at the northeast end of Loker Stadium, features obelisks bearing the names of USC track and field's Olympic gold medalists, Olympic participants and NCAA individual champions.
Zamperini--a product of Torrance High--was among the most outstanding milers in the U.S. in the 1930s. At age 19, the "Torrance Tornado" was the top American finisher in the 5000m at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. He later won two NCAA individual titles in the mile while running for USC track and field from 1937 to 1939.
After his collegiate career, he enlisted as a bombardier in the Army in World War II and was shot down over the Pacific Ocean. He survived, but after 47 harrowing days on a life raft in shark-infested waters, he was taken prisoner by the Japanese.
He spent over two years as a prisoner of war--enduring hunger and torture--before being rescued. Upon his return home, he received a hero's welcome. He later met the Rev. Billy Graham, an occurence that caused him to dedicate his life to Christian work. Now age 87, Zamperini resides in Hollywood.
His inspirational story is told in his autobiography, "Devil at My Heels", a stirring memoir that is a living document about the brutality of war and the tenacity of the human spirit.
Louis
Zamperini Plaza--The Entrance To USC's Track Stadium--To Be Dedicated Thi
http://usctrojans.ocsn.com/sports/c-track/spec-rel/021804aaa.html
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THE DEVIL AT MY HEELS: A WW II HERO'S
EPIC SAGA OF TORMENT, SURVIVAL, AND FORGIVENESS
From Library
Journal
Zamperini was an
intractable troublemaker of a youth who became a champion runner, competing
in the 1936 Olympics and shaking hands with Hitler and Goebbels. When war
seemed inevitable, he joined the Army Air Corps and flew a number of combat
missions in the Pacific as a B-24 bombardier.
In May 1943, his plane crashed on a routine search mission, and Zamperini and two survivors floated on a raft for 47 days before being taken prisoner by the Japanese. He spent the rest of the war in prison camps undergoing terrible abuse, as did many prisoners in Japan.
After the war, disaffected and rootless, he attended an early Billy Graham revival and found religion. He became an inspirational speaker, eventually returned to Japan to confront and forgive his captors, and spent the rest of his life spreading Christianity and supporting various Christian endeavors.
His memoir will fit
well in inspirational collections, but it is also a well-written addition
to the growing body of World War II personal narratives. Zamperini's positive
attitude, resilience, and narrative strength make this a reasonable purchase
for many public libraries and military collections. [During the 1998 Winter
Olympics in Japan, Zamperini's story and dramatic return to face his torturer
was chronicled on CBS's 48 Hours.-Ed.]-Edwin B. Burgess, U.S. Army Combined
Arms Research Lib., Fort Leavenworth, K.
--Edwin B. Burgess,
U.S. Army Combined Arms Research Lib., Fort Leavenworth, KS Reed
Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
A juvenile delinquent,
a world-class NCAA miler, a 1936 Olympian, a World War II bombardier: Louis
Zamperini had a life fuller than most when it changed in an instant. On
May 27, 1943, his B-24 crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Louis and two other
survivors found a raft amid the flaming wreckage and waited for rescue.
Instead, they drifted two thousand miles for forty-seven days. Their only
food: two shark livers and three raw albatross. Their only water: sporadic
rainfall. Their only companions: hope and faith -- and the ever-present
sharks.
On the forty-seventh day, mere skeletons close to death, Zamperini and pilot Russell Phillips finally spotted land -- and were captured by the Japanese. Thus began more than two years of torture and humiliation as prisoners of war.Zamperini was threatened with beheading, subjected to medical experiments, routinely beaten, hidden in a secret interrogation facility, starved and forced into slave labor, and was the constant victim of a brutal prison guard nicknamed the Bird -- a man so vicious that the other guards feared him and called him a psychopath.
Meanwhile, the Army Air Corps declared Zamperini dead and President Roosevelt sent official condolences to his family, who never gave up hope that he was alive.Somehow Zamperini survived and he returned home a hero.
The celebration was short-lived. He plunged into drinking and brawling and the depths of rage and despair. Nightly, the Bird's face leered at him in his dreams. It would take years, but with the love of his wife and the power of faith, he was able to stop the nightmares and the drinking.
A stirring memoir from one of the greatest of the "Greatest Generation," Devil at My Heels is a living document about the brutality of war, the tenacity of the human spirit, and the power of forgiveness.
Reviewer:from Dayton,
Ohio
I hope that Louis
Zamperini's story becomes required reading for our children one day. This
man's amazing story of survival against all odds during WWII is truly miraculous.
To describe Louie as merely "lucky" misses the mark somehow. He should
have died many times over before and during the war, but through God's
grace and Zamperini's formidable willpower he survived to tell his story.
And what an incredible, page-turning saga it is! I couldn't put this book
down and after reading it, I was a changed woman. I had a new respect for
my grandfather, and the men of his generation who suffered unimaginable
horrors on the battlefields of Europe and Japan during the 1940's.
Reviewer:from Waynesboro,
PA
If you are into
adventure, tragedy, and ultimate triumph, you NEED to read this book. It
is inspiring and is VERY hard to put down. Buy it, read it, and then give
it to a friend!
Amazon.com:
Books: Devil at My Heels: A WW II Hero's Epic Saga of Torment, Survival,
and Forgiveness
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/006018860X/
qid=1077685621/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-4337808-6969468?v=glance&s=books