Louie My town can lay claim to a genuine war hero. Louis Zamperini grew up in Torrance, California and competed in the 1936 Olympics on the U.S. track team. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps and served as a bombardier aboard a B-24 Liberator bomber. In April 1942, while on a search mission for downed American pilots over the Pacific, his plane malfunctioned and crashed, killing eight of the eleven men aboard. Zamperini and two others survived adrift by drinking rainwater and eating the raw fish they were able to catch. They were under constant threats from sharks and Japanese planes. After forty-seven days Zamperini and Russell Phillips were picked up and imprisoned by the Japanese. Despite torture and starvation both survived the war and Louie came home to a hero’s welcome. He married, fathered two children and became an inspirational speaker. At age 97 he lives today in Hollywood and is scheduled to be the grand marshal of the 2015 Rose Parade in Pasadena, California. Angelina Jolie has produced a film about his life that will be released this year. On December 7, 1946 Torrance Municipal Airport was renamed Zamperini Field. Last Saturday I took a trip to Zamperini Field to witness the visit of an old enemy.