Word: zamperini
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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When Maclntyre's mind began to wander, Zamperini threatened "to report him," which brought the red-headed gunner back to normal for a few days. On the 33rd day he whispered in his agony, "How long will I last?" and Zamperini said gently, "You'll die during the night." Zamperini was a good prophet...
...bright dawn Zamperini said the Lord's Prayer and for half an hour, while Philips listened, delivered a eulogy of the young gunner, prayed again for his fellow Catholic and then gently, easily - so wasted was the body - pushed it over board. Zamperini and Philips floated on into the sixth week of their ordeal...
...began to see more planes, which they identified in the distance as Japanese. Then one day a storm broke over them, flung them up on the crest of a wave and gave them a sudden, unbelievable view of a patch of green. By that time, incapable even of joy, Zamperini could only say flatly: "There's an island over there." They paddled weakly all that day and night, until a second storm swept them inside a coral-ringed lagoon in the Marshalls. It was the 47th day. Spotted by Japanese fishermen, Zamperini and Philips were lifted from...
Prisoners of War. One ordeal was over. The fishermen treated them decently. And when Zamperini and Philips were delivered to the base at Wotje, Japs there also treated them decently. But when they were moved again to Kwajalein, another ordeal began...
Guards, jabbing them with pointed sticks, made them sing and dance for their amusement, hurled them food - gobs of rice - so that they had to scramble for the grains on the filthy cell floor. Learning that Zamperini was a famous miler, they forced him to compete against healthy Jap runners, bribed him (with food) to stall so the Japs could score a glorious victory...