I've always been called Lucky Louie. It's no mystery why.

To persevere, I think, is important for everybody. Don't give up, don't give in. There's always an answer to everything.

Yet a part of you still believes you can fight and survive no matter what your mind knows. It's not so strange. Where there's still life, there's still hope. What happens is up to God.

All I knew was that hate was so deadly as any poison and did no one any good. You had to control and eliminate it, if you could.

I ended up in the Army Air Corps in the Pacific, operating out of Ayuka field in Hawaii.

People tell me, "You're such an optimist". Am I an optimist? An optimist says the glass is half full. A pessimist says the glass is half empty. A survivalist is practical. He says, "Call it what you want, but just fill the glass." I believe in filling the glass.

Every soldier should learn survival on land, sea, and in the air.