Vietnam POW Jeremiah Denton Jr. dies in Va. Beach

[unhappycamper]

http://hamptonroads.com/2014/03/vietnam-pow-jeremiah-denton-jr-dies-va-beach



Rear Admiral Jeremiah Denton Jr. at his home in Williamsburg on Monday, Aug. 11, 2008.

Vietnam POW Jeremiah Denton Jr. dies in Va. Beach
By Bill Sizemore
The Virginian-Pilot
© March 29, 2014

Jeremiah Denton Jr., who as an American prisoner of war in Vietnam made the world aware of the abuse POWs were suffering, died Friday at 89 in a Virginia Beach hospice.

He was a naval aviator based at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach when his A6 Intruder was shot down over Vietnam in 1965. He subsequently endured seven years and seven months of confinement.

Denton was incarcerated in several prisons including the infamous Hoa Lo complex, which became known among U.S. servicemen as the Hanoi Hilton. A commander at the time, he was one of the highest-ranking American officers to be captured in Vietnam and became known for his defiant attitude toward his captors.

He wrote a book about his POW experience, "When Hell Was in Session," co-written by Ed Brandt, a former editor of The Virginian-Pilot, and published in 1975. It includes a well-known episode in which Denton, in a TV propaganda interview, spelled "torture" in Morse code by blinking.

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RIP Jeremiah.

[DinahMoeHum]

1. He may have sucked big time as a US Senator, however, his

leadership and heroism during that difficult period in our nation's history is undeniable.

I've read his book When Hell Was In Session, and in it, he gave (to my mind) the best interpretation of the "Code of Conduct" as a POW.

He even pointed out a major fallacy of this Code when taken "stand-alone": what should a prisoner do when he/she has reached the limit of endurance under torture? Then what?

He devised the tactic called "Bounce Back", meaning: after they've broken you, don't stay broken. Collect yourself and bounce back to a hard line as soon as possible.

That tactic is now taught at all US military SERE ("survival&quot schools.

Rest Your Oars, Admiral. Well Done.

[MADem]

2. He had guts.

[DashOneBravo]

3. T O R T U R E

That's what he blinked in Morse code.

RIP Sir

[denbot]

4. R.I.P. Commander

Non sibi sed patriae.