Unbroken (The Young Adult Adaptation): An Olympian's Journey from Airman to Castaway to Captive

While training in Washington in 1942, Louie meets Russell Allen Phillips (“Phil”), who will become his pilot. Phil, Louie, and the rest of crew No. 8 of the 372nd Bomb Squadron train on the B-24 Liberator, a heavy, clunky, and difficult-to-navigate bomber often called a “death trap” and “the Flying Coffin” (56). Louie is tasked with sitting in the “greenhouse,” the glass-windowed nose of the plane from which he sends out bombs. The crew becomes the best in the squadron, eventually piloting their B-24, which they nickname Super Man.

Meanwhile, the Japanese continue to attack United States territories and airbases throughout the Pacific. In October 1942, Louie and his crew are sent to war in Oahu to contain them.

Although Oahu is on constant alert after the Pearl Harbor attack, going into a strict blackout at night, there is little for the men to do besides “sea search,” ocean flying patrols to watch for enemy planes. They patrol around the island, where Louie and Phil discover that several airfields are full of planes and equipment made only from plywood to fool the Japanese, information that “one day […] would be very important” (63).

Louie regularly plays practical jokes on his crewmates, such as placing gum in the plane’s urine relief tube or replacing his gum with laxatives as punishment for people stealing it.