It should have been a “milk run,” as the military put it at the time where a bomber was to fly a search route and if it failed in that search the bomber turned back to base.
It was to have been as simple as that for Louie Zamperini. He was well into his teens when he realized that he was fast on his feet, as in Olympics fast. He performed in the same Olympics where Jesse Owens put flight to the rumors that Germans were the “most perfect race” of people on the planet as African-American Owens beat the vaunted German Olympic team four times on track and field.