Louis Zamperini, whose plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean forcing him and two other survivors to drift more than 2,000 miles during 47 days living on shark livers and raw albatross, will present an informational speech at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Hale Koa hotel in Waikiki.

Zamperini was invited to speak at the event hosted by Pacific Rim Chapter of the SAFE Association.

On the forty-seventh day after his B-24 crashed on May 27, 1943, Zamperini was close to death when captured by the Japanese. Thus began more than two years of torture and humiliation as a prisoner of war.

Zamperini survived and returned home a hero. The celebration was short-lived. He plunged into drinking and the depths of rage and despair, according to event organizers It would take years, but with the love of his wife and the power of faith, he was able to stop the nightmares that haunted him, overcome the drinking that imprisoned him, and lay to rest the ghosts of war.

A stirring memoir from one of the greatest of "the Greatest Generation," here is a living document about the brutality of war, the tenacity of the human spirit, and the power of forgiveness, event sponsors said.