Without ammunition aboard,
The plane should have enough power
To stay in the air.
Crash procedures were reviewed,
Special inspections completed,
Survival equipment in place,
Take off.
Clouds pressed against the plane,
Someone noticed one side's engines burning more fuel,
There was a sudden shudder,
"Prepare to crash."
Rolling onto the left side,
Engines thundering,
He felt intensely
Alive.
Pulled into the water,
Down,
Then up again,
The wires were tangled like spaghetti.
Arms flung out,
Trying to find a way
To escape the darkness
Pulling him under
Long, smooth metal
Is the savior.
Through the window he went,
Pushing off the frame.
Fumbling for the Mae West cords,
Praying no one poached the carbon dioxide canisters.
Suddenly light,
Floating up to the bright surface.
He burst into dazzling daylight,
Gasping for breath,
Followed by vomit,
"I survived."
- I chose this "section" because it had a lot of imagery. I took bits and pieces throughout the whole packet and made something out of it.
- I tried to write it so that people would get a picture in their head as they read.
- I like it because I feel like it paints a picture. I set it up this way to "add drama" to the poem.
(First part; background) Louis Zamperini (January 26, 1917) is the son of Italian immigrants Anthony Zamperini and Louise Dossi. His older brother is named Pete, and has two younger sisters, Virginia and Sylvia. The family moved to Torrance, California in 1919, where Louie attended Torrance High School. Louie and his family spoke no English when they moved to California, making him a target for bullies. His father taught him how to box in self-defense. Soon he claimed to be "beating the tar out of every one of them"..... To keep Louie out of trouble, Pete got him involved in the school track team. In 1934 Zamperini set a world interscholastic record for the mile, clocking in at 04:21.2 at the preliminary meet to the state championships.The next week, he won the championships with a 04:27. His record helped him to win a scholarship to the University of Southern California and eventually a place on the 1936 U.S. Olympic team in the 5000 meters, at 19 the youngest U.S. qualifier ever in that event.
(Second part; War life) Zamperini enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces in September 1941, and eventually became a second lieutenant. He was deployed to the Pacific island of Funafuti as a bombardier on a B-24 Liberator bomber. In April 1942, the plane was badly damaged in combat, and the crew was told to search for the lost aircraft and crew. They were given another B-24, The Green Hornet. While on the search, mechanical difficulties caused the plane to crash into the ocean 850 miles west of Oahu, killing eight of the eleven men aboard. The three survivors (Zamperini; Russel Allen "Phil" Phillips; Francis "Mac" McNamara), had little food and no water. They drank rainwater and ate small fish, raw. They caught two albatrosses, which they ate and used to catch fish, all while fending off constant shark attacks and nearly being capsized by a storm. They were strafed multiple times by a Japanese bomber, puncturing their life raft, but no one was hit. (McNamara died after thirty-three days at sea.)
On their 47th day adrift, Zamperini and Phillips reached land in the Marshall Islands and were quickly captured by the Japanese Navy. They were held in captivity and severely beaten and mistreated until the end of the war in August, 1945. Zamperini was held in the Japanese POW camp at Ōfuna for captives who were not registered as prisoners of war. He was especially tormented by sadistic prison guard Mutsuhiro Watanabe (nicknamed "The Bird"). Held at the same camp was then-Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington, and in his book, Baa Baa Black Sheep, he discusses Zamperini and the Italian recipes he would write to keep the prisoners' minds off the food and conditions.
Zamperini had at first been declared missing at sea, and then, a year and a day after his disappearance, killed in action. When he eventually returned home he received a hero's welcome.
* Zamperini wrote two memoirs about his experiences, both of them bearing the same title, Devil at My Heels. The first was written with Helen Itria was published by Dutton in 1956. The second was written with David Rensin appeared in 2003 from Morrow. *
