The book Unbroken was written by Laura Hillenbrand on the life of an olympic sprinter and war hero. This olympian was louis Silvie Zamperini (Louie), an olympic sprinter in the 1936 Berlin olympics. Louie was born in Olean, New York on January 26, 1917. They then moved to Torrance, California. He died on July 2, 2014 at the age of 97 of pneumonia.

In Louie’s early childhood he was not the best kid ever. He would steal, drink, smoke, and get in trouble with the law all the time. Then after one incident where a cop found him with his stash and he was brought home to his father where the police told him what louie was doing. His older brother Pete Zamperini took him to the track after seeing that if he didn't get involved in something good he would end up somewhere bad. …show more content…
He got 1st in the National High School Districts 1600m run with a time of 21.2 that stood for 20 years. Then the american olympic team invited him to join the olympic team with them. Before he could get his chance to shine in the olympics, WW2 broke out and Louie signed on with the newly formed Army Air Corps. After basic Training, he was sent to be a Bombardier on the B-24 Liberator.

Out on his first mission, Louie and the rest of his plane crew went on a search and rescue for a pilot who went down somewhere in the pacific ocean. During their mission, the plane suffered major mechanical engine failure and went down; of the 11 people crewing the plane, only louie and 2 others survived the crash. They had been

adrift for 47 days when the japanese found them and took them to a POW