On May 28th, 1943, Lt. Louis Zamperini’s plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean while he and his crew were on a search and rescue mission to find other U.S. servicemen fighting in World War II.
For 47 days, Zamperini drifted in the Pacific on a life raft with no supplies, surviving on fish he’d catch and rainwater. On day 47, Zamperini was captured by Japanese forces and taken as a prisoner of war. He spent more than two years being interrogated, tortured, and fed a near-starvation diet that caused him to lose half his body weight.
As the war ended in the summer of 1945, Zamperini was released—surviving an insufferable 28 months against all odds….