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Jon: charles krauthamer, a very smart guy. jenna: absolutely. jon: time for the remarkable story for world two veteran, once olympian thought to be killed in action only to survive the japanese prison cams. his tale of survival is subject after best-seller. james rosen joins us from the washington bureau. it is an amazing story. reporter: it sure is, jon. it is to marvel at man s cruelty to fellow man and capacity of the human spirit to overcome just about anything. american athletes arrived in berlin for the 1936 olympics presided over by adolf hitler. that year s sensation was track star jesse owens who shattered records and nazi claims of racial supremacy. also competing that summer was louie zapborini of torrence, california who finished the 5,000 meter ....
Holes. five cannon holes. right tail shot off. left tire flattened. blood all over the plane. we had seven men seriously injured. got them back alive. one died. reporter: louie narrowly escaped death. not long after in may 1943 he was ordered to undertake a search and rescue mission in this notoriously faulty b-24, nicknamed the green hornet. we re flying along and number one motor goes out. as it crashed i ducked down low and held onto the raft. i knew this was it. i m dead. reporter: louie and two crewmates survived. but one pilot, russell allen phillips was badly wounded. attacked by sharks, japanese fighter planes and starving wasting away the trio would drift 2,000 miles on a pair of flimsy life rafs. the tailed gunner panicked. he started screaming we re all going to die. we re all going to die. reporter: in time that tail gunner francis mack ma ....
Arm off. people real heroes are the people lose their limbs. reporter: an hour from now we ll have more from our interview with louie on the websites foxnews.com. our thanks to him for the service and sacrifice and all our fighting men and women. back to you guys in new york. jon: thanks to him for sure. james a couple hours ago i got my own copy of the book, a little christmas gift from my coainge or over here, jenna lee. gripping reading. jon: i m looking forward to read it. james, thank you very much. jenna: an incredible report. i have hope you enjoy it. what an amazing story. we re talking about gift-giving. an important reminder there is true meaning of christmas. not at busy shopping malls. but at the birthplace of christ. we ll be live at bethlehem in just a moment. ....
Nara would redeem himself saving louie s life. at 33rd day of at sea he died. phillips, down to 80 pound half his body weight were rescued by the japanese only to be sent to the most hellish p.o.w. camps in the pacific. louie the olympic hero of torrence, california was officially declared dead but over the next two years he would live through unspeakably savage cruelty at the hands of his japanese captors and one sadistic commandant in particular. aka the bird. i had nightmares on this bird guy. if i looked away from his eyes he punched me out for looking away. if he stared at his ice he punched me for staring at his eyes. every day he did something to me. hit me over the head with a big, two-pound steel buckle. cracked my skull open. i m down on the ground bleeding. he hands me a piece of toilet paper to wipe the blood. then he says, ah, like i m sorry. and i thought, well he can t be so bad after all. ....
So i wiped the blood off. i stood up, wiped it and looked at it and he hit me again. reporter: with the end of the war louie would be rescued and repatriated a national hero risen from the dead. he married and published his life story, second time an updated version. yet the nightmares continued. a lingering form of torture by the bird. by then an accused war criminal on the run destinned to live quietly on his death in 2003. louie descended into alcoholism and his wife cynthia was fixing to leave him. we were falling apart. reporter: then in the fall of 1949 prompted by cynthia, louie attended a religious revival led by a dynamic young preacher who was delivering a gospel in a tent in los angeles. there the tormented pow found salvation. the reverend dr. billy graham brings the word. there are two roads. one leads to judgment and destruction and hell and the other leads to life in this ....