DENTON, JEREMIAH ANDREW
Name: Jeremiah Andrew Denton
Rank/Branch: O5/United States Navy, pilot
Unit: VA 75
Date of Birth: 15 July 1924
Home City of Record: Mobile AL
Date of Loss: 18 July 1965
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 195000N 1054800E
Status (in 1973): Returnee
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: A6A
Missions: 12
Other Personnel in Incident: Bill Tschudy, returnee, GIB
Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK 06 September 1996 from one or more of the
following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with
POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.
REMARKS:021273 RELEASED BY DRV
SOURCE: WE CAME HOME copyright 1977
Captain and Mrs. Frederic A Wyatt (USNR Ret), Barbara Powers Wyatt, Editor
P.O.W. Publications, 10250 Moorpark St., Toluca Lake, CA 91602
Text is reproduced as found in the original publication (including date and
spelling errors).
JEREMIAH A. DENTON, JR.
Rear Admiral - United States Navy
Shot Down : July 18, 1965
Released: February 12, 1973
To Our Readers:
The return of the Prisoners of War from Hanoi has given rise to a great
sense of relief in the hearts and souls of the American people. Justifiably
so, and we welcome it. But the fate of those killed in action, and those
still missing is one which must give us pause. In this hour of celebration
and joy, and reunion with our families, we must never cease to remember
those who will never return, and their families.
I ask all of you who have seen the POW's return, all of you who have heard
us over the past several months, and all of you who have prayed so long and
hard for our release, to continue to pray, even harder than before, for
those still missing and their families.
For your kind thoughts and warm wishes, expressed in countless ways, and for
those sustaining prayers during our captivity, let me thank you-on my
behalf, on that of my family, and for all of us who fought the Battle of
Hanoi.
(signed)
Jeremiah A. Denton Jr. Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy
November 1996
The Hon. Jeremiah Denton retired from the United States Navy as a Rear
Admiral. He went on to be elected to the United States Senate as a Democrat
from Alabama. He and Jane reside in Alabama.
Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer-Times
Monday, March 30, 1998
Ex-POW Denton finds will to ease others' pains
By Tanya S. Biank
Staff writer
Before his captivity, Jeremiah Denton believed in God. But after surviving
nearly eight years of torture, beatings, isolation and starvation at the hands
of the North Vietnamese, Denton knew there was a God.
Denton, a retired Navy rear admiral, former Alabama senator and ex-prisoner of
war, was in Fayetteville this week, where he met with an international
humanitarian aid advisory group that bears his name. He toured Fort Bragg and
Pope Air Force Base and talked with groups about the principles he believes
made America great.
An unbreakable, unshakable belief in those principles -- patriotism, love of
country, belief in God -- allowed Denton to endure the unendurable.
"War is violence. War is hell," he said. "But when the alternative is worse,
we must go to war." Liberating people from enslavement is worth the price of
war, to Denton. He has paid dearly for his beliefs.
Thursday evening, Denton, who is 73, retired to his quarters on post and tried
to rest up before leaving for a dinner party. Denton is a stately man, with
prominent eyebrows and a ready smile. He had been battling a touch of the flu
all week. But it takes more than the flu bug to crumble Jerry Denton.
Life's inconveniences are gravy, he says.
Here is why. On July 18, 1965, Denton, then 41, was leading a group of 28
aircraft from the USS Independence on an attack on enemy installations near
Thanh Hoa. He was shot down into the Ma River and captured by the North
Vietnamese.
He wouldn't see his wife, Jane, his seven children or his homeland for the
next seven years and eight months. Four of those years he spent in solitary
confinement.
"They tortured us from '65 to October of '69," Denton said in a tone most
people use when talking about the weather. "Four full years. That was a tough
time."
During a 1966 televised interview, 10 months after his capture, millions of
Americans watched as Denton, who had refused to give in to threats of torture,
looked into the camera and said he would support whatever the position his
government took. "I support it, and I will as long as I live," Denton had
said.
Denton's captors didn't take kindly to losing face. Denton would pay for his
remarks with his blood.
During the same interview, Denton blinked his eyes in Morse code and spelled
out the word "torture." It was the first time U.S. intelligence was able to
confirm suspicions that American POWs were being mistreated in Vietnam.
The "Hanoi Hilton"
During his captivity, Denton stayed in prisons and prison camps nicknamed the
"The Hanoi Hilton" and "The Zoo." The worst place Denton stayed was a prison
named "Alcatraz." It was reserved for American captives who were considered
rebels and instigators, dangerous because of their strong will and ability to
influence others. In the eyes of the North Vietnamese, strong men like Denton
needed to be broken.
When Denton recalls his trials in Vietnam, his eyes are often closed. For two
and a half years, he spent 17 to 18 hours a day in irons. Alone, in a coffin-
sized cell, he had to remain on a 47-inch-by-47-inch square during the day. It
was just long enough to walk two paces. At night, he slept on a stone slab.
"It wasn't the Hilton," Denton said. There were no windows. Just a 10-watt
bulb, roaches and spiders the size of tarantulas.
"Jesus was with me all the time," said Denton, who is a devout Catholic. His
proudest moment was conquering his claustrophobia.
Denton said during that time, he was in an "extremely intellectual and
spiritual state."
He said it is amazing what the mind can accomplish, if given the opportunity.
He once derived the formula for centrifugal force in his head, something he
couldn’t do with pencil and paper at the U.S. Naval Academy. Although the
other captives had designated Denton "president of the optimist club," there
were times he prayed to die. He didn't want to -- couldn't -- endure another
minute of despair.
Once, when Denton refused to tell guards how the Americans communicated with
each other, he was tortured for 10 days and nights. By the 10th night, he
couldn't think anymore. He couldn’t pray anymore.
Denton surrendered. Not to the guards, but to God. "It was a total
surrender," he said.
"If there was anymore to do, you will do it," he told God.
"That instant, I felt zero pain," he said. "I felt the greatest comfort and
reassurance in life that I haven’t felt since."
When Denton talks to groups around the country, he tells them that patriotism
can motivate men to perform for their country, but only prayer can provide the
strength for the kind of performance required in prison camps.
Denton also found strength in his fellow captives. The Americans were
forbidden to communicate with each other. But that didn’t stop them. They
communicated in Morse code and other number-based codes they devised and
transmitted through blinks, coughs, sneezes, taps on the wall and even sweeps
of a broom.
"I experienced what I couldn't imagine human nature was capable of," Denton
said. "I witnessed what my comrades could rise to. Self-discipline,
compassion, a realization there is a God."
He also experienced periodic compassion from the North Vietnamese. Sometimes
the guards would weep as they tortured him.
One experience, he will never forget. Denton kept a cross, fashioned out of
broom straws, hidden in a propaganda booklet in his cell. The cross was a gift
from another prisoner. When a guard found the cross, he shredded it. Spat on
it. Struck Denton in the face. Threw what was left of the cross on the floor
and ground his heel into it.
"It was the only thing I owned," Denton said.
Later, when Denton returned to his cell, he began to tear up the propaganda
booklet. He felt a lump in the book. He opened it. "Inside there was another
cross, made infinitely better than the other one my buddy had made," Denton
said.
When the guard tore up the cross, two Vietnamese workers saw what happened and
fashioned him a new cross. "They could have been tortured for what they
did," Denton said.
Accepting the past
Although Denton is able to fully embrace his past, he doesn't live in it. He
and his wife reside in Bellefontine, Ala., 21 miles south of Mobile. He golfs,
plays tennis and is an avid reader. He calls fishing his "primitive
joy."
Denton spends much of his time now as chairman of the National Forum
Foundation, which he founded in 1981. Through projects and forums, the
foundation addresses issues such as welfare reform, national security, peace-
keeping issues and humanitarian aid.
Denton also founded the Joint Relief International Denton Operations, a
humanitarian aid program that provided 2.8 million pounds of donated cargo to
35 countries last year. One shipment went to Vietnam.
Denton hasn't returned to Vietnam since his captivity, but wouldn't mind going
back.
He lives daily with the physical reminders of those days. He suffers from back
problems, a damaged disc, migraine headaches, nerve damage in his hands, and
muscle twitches in his legs. He is 60 percent disabled.
"But I'm pretty lucky," Denton said. "I'm the oldest Denton male to live this
long. I don't act old. I don't feel old. Life stimulates. If I'd live a
thousand times, I'd never learn everything there is to learn.
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