Posted on 08/20/2015 4:23:09 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Unbroken: Louis Zamperini
Liberated August 20, 1945
Zamperini, an Olympic track runner, served as a bombardier in the 307th Bombardment Group, 7th Air Force, flying B-24 Liberators in the Pacific. Zamperinis aircraft went down in the Pacific and he and the two other survivors from his crew were adrift for 47 days. Captured and tortured by the Japanese, he survived the war, regaining freedom on August 20, 1945. Zamperini was one of the 34,648 Americans held prisoner by the Japanese during WWII. Nearly 40% of those men died in captivity, a staggering 12,935 lives lost.
Louis Zamperini at The National WWII Museum in 2011
Is my slip showing?
Louis was one-of-a-kind and, as you might imagine, is quite a hero among us Trojans. Sadly, he died mere months before he was to be Grand Marshall in this year’s Rose Parade; his family rode in his place. Why the Tournament of Roses waited until he was in his nineties is a bewilderment and, frankly, a scandal.
I detect sarcasm.
Ya think? lol...
That’s what you get for changing your tagline.
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