My sister’s boyfriend recommended I read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, the New York Times best selling biography of the 1936 US Olympic runner Louis Zamperini.  I read it in only two days because it read like a novel, and I couldn’t put it down.

Zamperini was a juvenile delinquent probably headed for jail until his brother inspired him to take up track.  He subsequently achieved high school and then collegiate records in track that were not broken for years.

When World War II broke out, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps as a navigator and was sent in a B24 on a rescue mission when his plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean.  He and two others were the only survivors on a raft in the middle of the Pacific with just 6 chocolate bars and 6 pints of water.  They fought off sharks and storms and even a half hour machine gun attack by a Japanese plane for 47 days before finally spotting an island.  But the island was held by Japanese troops, who had recently murdered 80 POWs.  He and the pilot (the third man died in the raft) became POWs and were brutally starved and tortured for over two years until the war ended.

It’s a remarkable story that I highly recommend.  Louis is still alive at the age of 95.  He has carried the Olympic torch more times than anyone else in history.  He gave a wonderful long interview at his alma mater USC.  He gave up skateboarding in his 80s and skiing in his 90s.  He is an inspiration to me and probably will be to you.