Phil and Zamp

 With the new year upon us, I think there is a mutual decision to blow the dust off this blog and get it moving. Which is why I am here, today, posting.

 I have decided, with no other ideas coming to mind, that I will do a nice ranting post about two of my heroes. I've had them on my mind a lot lately, so it is easy to do a post on them.

 Louis Zamperini and Russell Allen Phillips.

Phil and Louie in the movie. BOTH great actors

 Louis and Phil's stories are told in the books Unbroken and Devil at my Heels and the film Unbroken. Both served in WWII, Phil - everyone's nickname for him - being a pilot and Louis a bombardier. They became best friends, though everyone on their crew was close. Louis and Phil later shared a special bond though after they were stuck on a raft together for 47 days, turned POWs, and nearly killed. They became, as I think one of them put it, closer then brothers. After facing death so many times together though, a close bond is bound to form.

Louie and his big brother Pete

 While on base together, Phil and Louis - whom Phil calls Zamp unless he is mad at him then it is Zamperini - spent a lot of time together. In Unbroken it talks about some of the trouble they got into, though usually it made it sound like it was Louis who came up with the ideas and dragged Phil along with him. (My favourite story is when Louis and he take their air mattresses out and try and float on them. Both nearly drown.)

Phil not happy they got a B-24 and not a B-17. The B-24's were known for having problems. Many men died in crashes before they even saw battle

 Louis was more of the outgoing one between the two. He was a prankster and always getting into trouble. One time he extracted revenge on Phil and had to leave the island for two nights while Phil ran around yelling, "Where's Zamperini!?" Even while on the raft the two kept up some of their teasing, they even had a bet of when they would reach land. When they finally spot land they decide they both won.

Louie in the movie

 While on the raft together, Louie tells Phil and Mac about his mom's cooking while all three are starving. He goes into great detail about how every meal was made and if he left something out Phil and Mac would remind him. It was one of the ways they kept alive, eating fake meals. Louie also caught sharks, which he did when he got mad at the sharks for attacking them while they were in the raft. Phil also spent much time on the raft singing hymns. He was quiet about his faith, but he had an influence on Louie's life.

Louie after Superman, their B-24, was shot up after a mission. Nearly all of the crew was hit and one man died

 While in the POW camps Louie never really lost his sense of humor. In Japanese, saying hello sounds like Ohio. Whenever his captors greeted him Louie would reply with, "No, California." While at some of the other camps he helped in stealing food and newspapers. The war only really got to him when it was over and he returned home. For years he was haunted by nightmares of one of his captors, known as the Bird, beating him in his sleep. Later Louie becomes a Christian and returns to Japan were he forgives every single one of his captors who beat and tortured him. He lived to be 97, and all one has to do is look at pictures of him to see how happy he was after he was saved.

Louie and the plank

 Phil, even though he was quieter, was just as mischievous as Louie. He and another pilot got into bets to see which of them could fly their massive B-24's closest to the ground. Phil won, passing by bottom story windows of houses.

Louie skateboarding in his eighties. He said he'd let everyone know when he got old

 He was also protective of his crew. During one mission they were attacked and most of the crew was hit. Louie was in the back tending to them but needed help. Unfortunately the only other one who could help was the co-pilot, and Phil couldn't fly the B-24 alone. However, when he learned lives were in danger he let the co-pilot go back and flew with his hands and knees. Because of that the co-pilot was able to save a life.

Phil in the movie

 Phil had a sweetheart back home. They had plans to marry before he was shipped out but that didn't work out. Instead, he sent her money home to by a ring and told her he wished they could run away and get married and hide where no one would be able to find them. When he returned home from the POW camps that is just what they did, after his father married them.

Phil in the raft

 After the plane he is flying on the rescue mission crashed into the ocean Phil only flew one other time in his life. Other than that he avoided planes and always took his car.

Louie back home, hugging his mom while his sister Sylvia watches. Sylvia never believed he was dead and kept writing him letters even when the army declared him dead

 Unlike Louie, who used his story to tell others about what God did in his life, Phil didn't talk much about his time in the war. Weather he had as hard a time coming back as Louie did is unknown, but he did seem able to move on and enjoy his life with Cecy and his children.

Phil back home. HIS HAPPY SMILE!!

 Both men were amazing and wonderful and the more I learn of them the more I love them.

Two families interrogate each other

Grant: Hello. I...don't really know what I'm doing here. I guess it has been decided that myself, my brother Jamie, and some fellow characters will be writing a post today. I was just told about it. I had no idea it was coming until a few seconds ago.

Jamie: I had to yank his book away and sit on it to get him to agree. So be glad he's here, because it wasn't easy getting him here on my part. I almost got a black eye.

Grant: I did not almost hit you.

Jamie: Why do you think I fell on the floor? I was dodging your fist.

Grant: I will punch you if you keep insisting I was trying. But shouldn't we let the other family introduce themselves?

Jamie: Yes. Though we didn't really do an introduction.

Grant: Doesn't matter, give me my book back.

Bri: Hey, boys? How about I take over. I'm Bri. Bri Baxter. Hello! These are my brothers, Sam, Nick and Charlie. Sam and Nick are the two oldest, then there's me and then there's Charlie. We're here to interview you.

Charlie: Then you interview us back.

Nick. "Yeah. This should be so much fun."

Bri: It wasn't my idea. I wanted to go to the mall

Sam: You are such a girl.

Bri: "Uhhhm, yeah?"

Charlie: How about you boys introduce yourselves?

Jamie: Hello. My name is James Chase, but you can call me Jamie. Everyone else does. This is my older brother Grant. 

Grant: Pleased to meet you. I didn't know this was an interview. I am afraid I'm not prepared.

Jamie: Good. You shut up for a few minutes then and watch how this is done. Where are all of you from?

Bri: "My family comes from up South in the mountains. We've lived there my whole life and it's a lovely place. Nice and secluded it.

Sam: "Yeah, but we don't live in the wilderness or anything, which is what most people think when you say mountains.We live in a city. It's a small city but it's certainly there."

Bri: "Where do you come from?

Grant: Living in the mountains would be nice. Open air, no fog. Plenty of places to hike. I assume though, when you say South, you are talking of America?

Jamie: Grant and I live in London, England. We own a flat there though we don't stay there often. We travel a lot as part of our job. Also, we aren't full blooded Englanders. Our father is South American, and as you can see, Grant has a lot of South American traits. He even sounds like he has spent his whole life there.

Grant: What do the four of you enjoy doing?

Bri: Yes, I do mean America, but in case you couldn't tell my mom came from Britain - that's why we have our accent.

Nick: Our accent is kind of light, Bri. It isn't his fault he didn't hear it.

Bri: he comes from London.

Nick: Okay. Sure.

Bri: Anyway... where were we. Oh yes. We do a bunch of stuff for fun. Sometimes we'll go out to a movie. Sometimes we'll take a hike. Sometimes.... Well, sometimes we do other stuff. My family is a pretty old family, if you know what I mean. We have this great house that's been handed down for generations. We have this amazing basement down stairs and that is where we usually end up if we get board. We can shoot there.

Nick: We can all shoot and its one of our favorite past times. My dad taught us.

Sam: What do you do, living up in London? Anything exciting?

Jamie: Grant is the one who picks up on accents and things like that. Blame him. Shooting is fun though, Grant and I do our fair share of that.

Grant: Not in a basement though. Our land lady would throw us out onto the street faster than we could blink. As to answer your question, we don't do much in London. We just categorize the things we find while traveling the world.

Jamie: Not that we live boring lives. What Grant means to say is London can get dull, the real excitement is when we are working. We work for an organization that finds the impossible, the things no one believes exists. Anything you can think of, we try and find it. 

Grant: The Loch Ness Monster, El Dorado, Atlantis...

Jamie: My brother's personality.

Grant: *Punches him in the arm* It keeps our lives from getting boring.

Jamie: When you say your family is old are you implying you have secrets locked up in your house and you go out at midnight and hunt down warewolves or monsters no one thinks are real?

Bri: *Looks sideways at Nick.* Actually that is pretty accurate.

Charlie: *Laughs* Yeah. Really accurate actually.

Nick: My family isn't exactly normal, though we do our best to be. We belong to a certain race, you might say, and we're a bit different than other people.

Charlie: We have magic.

Bri: Charlie!

Charlie: Well you're beating around the bush, you might as well tell them.

Sam: Be quiet Charlie. *turns to the brothers* You're jobs sound pretty cool. Have you ever found anything?

Jamie: I knew it. Warewolf hunters

Grant: You did not know it. You don't even believe in warewolves

Jamie: No, but the legends had to start somewhere. And you know how true legends turn out to be.

Grant: Fine. Maybe there is some truth to the old legends, but a man turning into a wolf is still weird.

Jamie: So are you. Oh, question, right, sorry. *Smiles his charming British smile* Magic. That is great. Wizard magic?

Grant: We have found a good many things. We found a dinosaur egg in Nevada recently. We haven't found anything big yet, though right now we are searching for the lost city of El Dorado. 

Jamie: We have to find it before our arch enemy, Basal Sands. He's a gangster lord, drug lord - whatever they are called - in Chicago. At least that is what he does when he's not chasing after us. And there, I found my next question. Do you have an arch enemy?

Bri: We're not werewolf hunters, and we're not wizards. Why is that always the first thing people jump to?

Nick: *Shrugs* I don't know.

Bri: Our history is complicated, to say the least. We're not really magical, in the ordinary sense of spells and enchantments and things like that. It's more like we're gifted with the unnatural.

Sam: For example, we're able to bend reality. Matter. Energy. And we're able to use things other people don't even know exist. There are a bunch other people that are like this, but not all of us are the same.

Nick: Right. There are different groups with different abilities. They're called Families.

Sam: That doesn't mean you have to be blood related or anything like that. It's more like a gang, to be honest. A group of people that all share the same talents.

Bri: You're confusing them.

Sam: *looks apologetic* it is confusing. I'm sorry. We don't exactly have an arch enemy, but we do have enemies. Our Family is a pretty peaceful group as far as it goes, which isn't to say we haven't made some people angry. There is one family  though, which is an enemy to anyone with the Gift.

Charlie: They're the type of people you just don't touch. You stay away from them.

Bri: ANYWAY. For pity's sake. you shouldn't do so much at at time. *Smiles at the boys* It's a lot to take in. Tell us how you got into your business.

Jamie: We believe in Atlantis and Loch Ness Monsters, we can handle gang families and bending matter.

Grant: Even though I make it a point not to agree with my brother more than I can help it, I agree. We're far from normal ourselves, so your life doesn't sound that odd to us.

Jamie: Anyways though. We got into the business because our father had retired. The organization wanted him but he turned them down and suggested us in his place. We're been working for them for a year.

Grant: We work for a man known to us only as Director. We never see him or talk to him but he is at the head of this whole thing. He is the one who sends us on missions. He believes there is truth behind every legend and the truth can be found if you only look hard enough. He also believes the truths of these legends need to be saved and preserved for the world when it is ready to receive them.

Jamie: Until the world is ready the things we find our kept safely hidden away, where Sands can't steal them from us. Because, let's be honest, things like King Arthur's sword could be deadly if it got into the wrong hands.

Grant: And that is basically what we do. Just with a lot of running and getting shot at mixed into it.

Jamie: Are you the only four siblings in your family?


Bri: We are the only four Baxters, yes. With our parents there is six of us. We also have this really good friend that usually hangs around with us, but she hasn't come today. She wasn't able to.

Charlie: Her name is Jessica. Jessica is new to our family. We've adopted her.

Sam: Which is something else we aren't supposed to talk about. *looks at Nick* I told you we should have left Charlie at home.

Charlie: *Sticks out his tongue* I'd like to see you try.

Bri: We're getting off topic again. As I said, there really are only four of us blood-related kids. Jess though, she is pretty much family. She's a complicated story too.

Sam: So, do you believe in Robin Hood? the Round Table? Stuff like that?

Grant: We won't ask then, but added family members are always nice. And yes, we do believe in Robin Hood and the round table. 

Jamie: Dragons, dinosaurs....

Grant: Just about anything you can think of.

Jamie: Even chupacabras!

Grant: I suppose you might feel the same way about legends?

Nick: There is always truth to legends. I think there is a lot of truth to all fairytales.

Bri: With the way we live and what we work with we believe in a lot of things normal people don't. We've seen a lot of things most people haven't. There's things in this world that ordinary people just never see. Magic and it's qualities are some of them. Ordinary people, they blind themselves to truths. Truths that the Gifted know are real.

Charlie: Like Dragons. You're right about those.

Sam: Yeah. In our element Dragons are real. Hard to find though. Harder to understand.

Bri: Dragons aren't like you'd think though. they're dangerous. You never know if you can trust them and you never should. they're not evil, but they're not really good either. They're just dragons.

Charlie: We're running out of time, ask them the real questions!

Sam: Charlie. Be quiet. *takes a breath.* So, what is it like to work together as brothers? do you get along pretty well?

Jamie: Everything about dragons I agree with. I plan to find one someday too.

Grant: We do get along well, and I wouldn't want to work with anyone besides Jamie. We have our fights of course, and we do torment each other a lot, but we're brothers, if we didn't have each other's backs no one would

Jamie: And I would be dead by now if it wasn't for Grant. He's not too bad, as far as big brothers go. What about you? Do you enjoy working together?

Nick: We do like working together, usually. Siblings are sibling so we drive each other crazy a lot, but I think all good familes do that. We take care of each other and that's what matters.

Bri: Yeah. Most of us own normal jobs. My dad fixes clocks and makes stuffed animals and my brothers fix cars. We do other little work on the side that isn't quite so normal and we get by quite well with it.

Charlie: *looks at his watch* We're out of times guys. Time to wrap it up.

Sam: We really should have left him at home. *reaches out to Shake Grant's hand* well this was fun. I'm glad we go to meet you. Thank you for coming and I'm sorry we didn't get to stay long.

Grant: *Shakes hands* It was nice to meet you. Thank you as well

Jamie: Yes. We should do it again. Have fun with the not hunting warewolves

Bri: And you have fun finding King Arthur. *waves* goodbye! *looks at Readers* GOODBYE! Thank you for joining us!!





*This post was authorized by Ben the Robot and Jim the Space Adventurer