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18 New Year’s: Louis Zamperini, war diary, January 1, 1943, entry.

19 STEEL FILLS JAP SOX: Undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN.

20 “fled in terror”: “Tells of Raid on Wake Island,” Mansfield News-Journal, January 2, 1943.

21 Japan finished within the year: “U.S. Can Take Care of Japan, Halsey Thinks,” Ada Evening News, January 2, 1943.

22 “it’s a little premature”: Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Kelsey Phillips, December 31, 1942.

Chapter 8: “Only the Laundry Knew How Scared I Was”

1 Coxwell’s crash: Louis Zamperini, diary, January 8–10, 1943; Missing Air Crew Report No. 16218, Air Force Historical Studies Office, Bolling AFB, Washington, D.C.; Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Kelsey Phillips, February 13, 1943.

2 Buried in Honolulu: American Battle Monuments Commission.

3 Crashes over the past two months: Army Air Forces Statistical Digest, Table 64; Louis Zamperini, diary, December 27, 1942, and January 9, 1943; Britt, pp. 10, 13.

4 Crash, loss statistics: Army Air Forces Statistical Digest, Tables 100 and 161.

5 In the air corps, 35,946 personnel: Army Battle Casualties and Nonbattle Deaths in World War II: Final Report, 7 December 1941–31 December 1946, Department of the Army, Statistical and Accounting Branch, Office of the Adjutant General, p. 7.

6 Disease kills 15,779: Preventive Medicine in World War II, vol. IV: Communicable Diseases, Office of Surgeon General, Department of Army, Washington, D.C., 1958, Table 1.

7 In the Fifteenth Air Force, 70 percent of KIA: Mae Mill Link and Hubert A. Coleman, “Medical Support of Army Air Forces in World War II,” Office of the Surgeon General, USAF, Washington, D.C., 1955, p. 516.

8 Super Man flies into storms: Louis Zamperini, diary, January 1943; Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interview, August 18, 2006.

9 Planes land together, bulldozer: Frank Rosynek, email interview, June 15, 2005.

10 “The takeoff”: Frank Rosynek, “Not Everybody Wore Wings,” unpublished memoir.

11 Foot on “off” switch: Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interview, August 18, 2006.

12 Plane hits mountain: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

13 Inadvertent release of life raft: Britt, p. 13.

14 Navigation difficulties: John Weller, email interview, September 21, 2006; John Weller, “The History and Flight Log, Jeter Crew,” unpublished memoir.

15 “We just sat there”: Martin Cohn, telephone interview, August 10, 2005.

16 Half of a Zero on B-24 wing: Cleveland, p. 103.

17 Japanese range finders: Louis Zamperini, diary, March 1, 1943.

18 B-24 drops mine into another: Jesse Stay, telephone interviews, July 23, 2004, and March 16, 2005; Cleveland, pp. 130, 137, 181–82.

19 AAF combat deaths: Army Battle Casualties, p. 7.

20 Odds of dying: Jesse Stay, telephone interviews, July 23, 2004, and March 16, 2005.

21 Ditching: W. F. Craven and J. L. Cate, eds., The Army Air Forces in World War II, vol. XII: Services Around the World (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1966), p. 482.

22 Statistics on ditching: Johnsen, p. 29.

23 Death of Almond: John Henry, “Flier Wins 18-Hour Fight with Sharks,” San Antonio Light, July 13, 1943.

24 Rescue statistics: “Air Sea Rescue 1941–1952,” USAF Historical Division, Air University, August 1954, pp. 66–99; Air Force Historical Studies Office, Bolling AFB, Washington, D.C.

25 Half of Catalinas crashed: Craven and Cate, p. 493.

26 September 1942 raft ordeal: Cleveland, p. 237.

27 Raft found off Christmas Island: Katharina Chase, “Unraveling a WWII Mystery,” Defence, November–December 2006.

28 Rape of Nanking: Chang, pp. 4–104; Yuki Tanaka, Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II (Boulder: Westview, 1996), p. 80.

29 Rumors of Japanese killing on Kwajalein: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

30 All but one man choosing to die in crash: John Fitzgerald, POW diary, Papers of John A. Fitzgerald, Operational Archives Branch, NHC, Washington, D.C.

31 Nervous