A timeline of Louis Zamperini’s journey

Reading Time: 2 min

I just finished reading “Unbroken“, at the urging of my wife, and it was a great book!  It inspired me to create a Google Earth file that shows all of his adventures, but I was unable to find a simple timeline of his events.

By working back through the book, and using various other online resources, I came up with the following.  If you see anything that is missing or inaccurate, please leave a comment and let me know.

Update: April 26, 2011 — Thanks to David Hale, the list is now much more accurate, including dates for most of the major events.  For a full timeline, you can check out this Google Spreadsheet.  Thanks David!

Early Years

• Jan 26, 1917 – Born in Olean, NY — 327 Coleman Street (thanks Alec!)
• 1920 – Moved to Torrance, CA — 2028 Gramercy Avenue
• Aug 26, 1929 – Louie saw the Graf Zeppelin over Torrance, CA
• Jan, 1933 – Louie began tenth grade at Torrance High School
• Feb, 1933 – Louis began competitive running
• Dec, 1935 – Louie graduated from High School
• May 22, 1936 – Track meet in USC Coliseum.  Louie finished second in the 5000.
• July 3, 1936 – Louie left Torrance for the Olympic trials in New York.
• Aug 7, 1936 – Ran in the Berlin Olympics
• 1938 – Attended USC
• Sept 29, 1941 – Louie joined the Army.

Bombardier school

• Nov, 1941 – Houston, TX – Ellington Field
• Aug, 1942 – Midland, TX – Midland Army Flying School

Training

• Aug 19, 1942 – Ephrata, WA
• Oct, 1942 – Sioux City, IA
• Oct, 1942 – Hamilton Field, CA (stopover to Hawaii)
• Nov 2, 1942 – Hawaii — Hickam Field

Missions

• Dec 23, 1942 – Wake Atoll (via Midway Island)
• Feb, 1943 – Canton (to prep for Makin and Tarawa)
• Feb, 1943 – Makin (in the Gilbert Islands)
• Feb, 1943 – Tarawa (in the Gilbert Islands)
• April 17, 1943 – Nauru, then landed in Funafuti
• April 18, 1943 – From Funafuti, via Canton, to Palmyra Atoll
• May 24, 1943 – Stationed at Kualoa Field, Oahu

The Crash

• May 27, 1943 – The plane that they were searching for crashed on the way to Canton from Kualoa
• May 27, 1943 – Heading from Kualoa to Palmyra and crashed, roughly 225 miles north of Palmyra

POW

• July 13, 1943 – Landed at Wotje in the Marshall Islands
• July 16, 1943 – Kwajalein
• Truk Atoll (stopover on the way to Yokohama)
• Sept 15, 1943 – Yokohama, Japan (on the eastern coast of Honshu) to Ofuna
• Sept 31, 1944 – Omori (on an artificial island in Toyko Bay)
• March 2, 1945 – Naoetsu

Going home

• Sept 5, 1945 – From Naoetsu to Yokohama
• Sept 17, 1945 – Okinawa
• Sept 18, 1945 – Laoag, Philippines
• Sept, 1945 – Manila
• Sept, 1945 – Stopover at Kwajalein
• Sept, 1945 – Hawaii
• Oct, 1945 – Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco (Pete came to visit)
• Oct, 1945 – Long Beach airport (reunited with family)

Post-war

• May 25, 1946 – Cynthia and Louie were married.
• Sept, 1949 – Billy Graham came to Los Angeles
• June, 1954 – San Gabriel Mountains, CA – Louie opened the Victory Boys Camp
• 1984 – Louie carried the Olympic torch in Los Angeles
• Jan 22, 1998 – Louie carried the Olympic torch past the Naoetsu POW camp.
• April, 2003 – Wantanabe died
• July 2, 2014 – Louie died