Remembering Admiral Jeremiah Denton

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• published: 10 Apr 2014
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Even His Torturers Recognized Him As A Good Man A MAN WHO ENDURED THE UNSPEAKABLE FOR HIS COUNTRY Jeremiah Denton was shot down over North Vietnam on July 18, 1965. He spent the next seven and a half years at the infamous Hanoi Hilton and its even harsher adjunct, dubbed Alcatraz. As one of the Four Wise Men, the ranking officers among the POWs, he devised means of communication between the men, and established a Code of Conduct for the prisoners. Especially in the early years of captivity, he was beaten, physically and psychologically tortured. In one of the most heroic efforts of the war, the North Vietnamese had him interviewed for the world press and he blinked out the word TORTURE in Morse Code, so that the world would know what was happening. On his final debriefing before he was released, his captors acknowledged his integrity and valor. In February 1973, he ordered his men to march in military formation as they left the Hanoi Hilton and boarded a plane out. When the plane touched down in friendly territory in the Philippines, he was the first man out, thanked the crowd, and said "God Bless America". Jeremiah Andrew Denton, Jr. (July 15, 1924 -- March 28, 2014) was a Rear Admiral and Naval Aviator in the United States Navy and, following his retirement from naval service, was a United States Senator from the state of Alabama. He spent almost eight years as a prisoner of war (POW) in North Vietnam and later wrote a book that became a film about those experiences. Denton is best known from this period of his life for the 1966 televised press conference in which he was forced to participate as an American POW by his North Vietnamese captors. He used the opportunity to communicate successfully and to confirm for the first time to the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence and Americans that American POWs were being tortured in North Vietnam. He repeatedly blinked his eyes in Morse code during the interview, spelling out the word, "T-O-R-T-U-R-E". They ejected when their jet was shot down over the city of Thanh Hoa in North Vietnam, and they were captured and taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese. Denton and Tschudy were both held as prisoners of war for almost eight years, four of which were spent in solitary confinement. Denton is best known from this period of his life for the 1966 televised press conference in which he was forced to participate as an American POW by his North Vietnamese captors. He used the opportunity to communicate successfully and to confirm for the first time to the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence and Americans that American POWs were being tortured in North Vietnam. He repeatedly blinked his eyes in Morse code during the interview, spelling out the word, "T-O-R-T-U-R-E". He was also questioned about his support for the U.S. war in Vietnam, to which he replied: "I don't know what is happening, but whatever the position of my government is, I support it fully. Whatever the position of my government, I believe in it, yes sir. I am a member of that government, and it is my job to support it, and I will as long as I live."[4] While a prisoner, he was promoted to the rank of Captain. Denton was later awarded the Navy Cross and several other decorations, mostly for heroism while a prisoner of war. Denton was put in the "Hanoi Hilton" and the "Zoo" prison and prison camp and "Little Vegas" and "Alcatraz" prisons. In "Alcatraz", he became part of a group of American POWs known as the "Alcatraz Gang". The group consisted of James Mulligan, George Thomas Coker, George McKnight, James Stockdale, Harry Jenkins, Sam Johnson, Howard Rutledge, Robert Shumaker, Ronald Storz and Nels Tanner. They were put in "Alcatraz" and solitary confinement to separate them from other POWs because their strong resistance led other POWs in resisting their captors. "Alcatraz" was a special facility in a courtyard behind the North Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense, located about one mile away from Hoa Lo Prison. Each of the American POWs spent day and night in windowless 3-by-9-foot (0.91 m × 2.74 m) cells mostly in irons.[5][6][7][8][9] Navy Captain Denton at Clark Air Base, Philippines, shortly after his release from Hanoi in February 1973. On February 12, 1973, both Denton and Tschudy were released in Hanoi by the North Vietnamese along with numerous other American POWs during Operation Homecoming. Stepping off the jet back home in uniform, Denton said: "We are honored to have had the opportunity to serve our country under difficult circumstances. We are profoundly grateful to our Commander-in-Chief and to our nation for this day. God bless America." The speech has a prominent place in the 1987 documentary, Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam.