5 reasons why you cannot not call Louie Zamperini a hero.
Louie Zamperini is a veteran, survivor, and a hero of World War ll. No matter what you have to respect him with a high level of integrity and honor. There could be a long discussion on all of the war heroes but one in particular is Zamperini.
He survived World War ll. You have got to respect a man/woman who has or is serving; but one who served in World War ll. That’s an extreme case. He served as an Army Airman which is now the Air Force, flying planes during WW ll was one of the most dangerous things to do. Bombs and missiles were shot at the planes constantly, and to boot that the planes weren’t even built with strong materials and had a lot of failures. Zamperini survived multiple crashes, one of these even consisted of being stranded in the ocean for multiple days without sane men and little rations.
Zamperini survived a Japanese POW camp. That is really impressive considering the way that the Japanese treated Zamperini and the fact that there was a low survival rate in the Japanese POW camps. The Japanese had many terrible and cruel tactics and torture methods to provoke and kill the prisoners. One of these being getting punched in the face as hard as they can by everyone in attendance of the punishment. Zamperini survived this punishment and many others.
Zamperini was also an Olympic runner. He broke multiple records in both America and the world. He had the record for the fastest mile alive. After just falling short of the gold medal in the Olympics a year before World War ll started, he and his brother Pete started training nonstop. He ran almost every hour of every day. He would run from his house, a mile to the pool, jump in the pool and sit on the bottom to control his breathing and endurance. That is a pretty impressive feat. He would often do this more than five times a day.
Zamperini put others before himself. When his base where he was stationed was raided, he tried as hard as he could to try and protect the others and get them to safety before himself. Unfortunately this happened more than once and he did the exact same thing. Some people died and some people lived because of Zamperini’s brave actions. Once when Zamperini and his squad were up in the air and they were getting attacked, many of the men on the ship got shot and needed treatment. Zamperini risked his life to protect them and dress their wounds. Fortunately two of the men were saved. Unfortunately one of the three men he tried to save died. Still Zamperini should be seen not only as an Airman but as an Airman and a legend.
The last reason why Zamperini is a hero is that he turned his entire life around. He started as a trouble maker, who didn't care about people or necessarily at all. During his early to mid teen years, Zamperini was inspired by his brother Pete Zamperini to join a team sport in his school so he can learn to gain friends. This somewhat works, but in a different way. Zamperini doesn't gain any friends but he develops a love for the track team. He felt as if he was one of them and was born to be a runner. Eventually this worked and he was accepted in his hometown of Torrance again. He wasn't seen as the menace anymore, but as the hero and legend of the town. After Zamperini had broken his first record, people came non stop to his door to congratulate him and give him and his family presents. After Zamperini was invited to the Olympics, the Zamperinis couldn't even get out of there front door without being bombarded with a frenzy of questions asking about how Louie was going to do in the Olympics or how special it was to Louie that he was being asked to participate.
These are just a few reasons why Zamperini is a war hero, survivor, and a veteran of World War ll and his time period. Surely there is more but then this would turn into a summary of his life.
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