Jeremiah+Denton+Jr.+jtm

JEREMIAH A. DENTON JR. Jack Middleton

Jeremiah Denton Jr. was born on July 15, 1924 in Mobile Alabama. He was a Roman Catholic. On June 6, 1946 he married Kathryn Maury. As his marriage grew he had seven children. February 12, 1973, Jeremiah Andrew Denton Jr. was the first Prisoner of War returned from captivity. He was in North Vietnamese torture prisons for seven and a half years. As Rear Admiral Denton once said in When Hell Was in Session, “I missed six Super Bowls and a moon landing.” Jeremiah Andrew Denton Jr. was shot down over the Ma River in 1966; he snapped a tendon in his leg during the botched mission that cost him his freedom for over seven years. Surprisingly, he got decent treatment by the locals before he was shipped off to his first POW camp, the most well known, the Hanoi Hilton. He got poor medical treatment for his snapped tendon, but it was medical treatment nonetheless. There was no beatings or torture before he was shipped off to the Hoa Lo Prison, the Hanoi Hilton. He arrived in the putrid and noisy place in July of 1965. The cells were very “cozy” with concrete bunks. The only toilet was a small pail that was emptied once a week. There was only one meal a day and it was not very helpful to quell the hunger building up inside you. One man dropped down to 90 pounds during his stay at the Hanoi Hilton. Also the cells were infested with roaches, rats, and other vermin. Quizzes were also common, the guards would take you to a room were you would be questioned. If you did not answer the questions consequences would include starvation and rope torture. Severe beatings were a favorite among guards. Also solitary confinement was a punishment. Guards would tie you ropes around your elbows and pull on them. The ropes would dislocate your shoulders, then the guards would tie the ropes so your shoulders would stay dislocated. Then they would tie your neck around your knees and leave you in this position. This hell was rope torture.

One of the things that kept POW’s going was the ability to communicate. They had a tap chart: A B C D E F G H I J (K) L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

“K” is not in the chart, “C” was used for the letter “K”, if “K” had to be used it would be in row two, column 6, just after “J”, ** ******. They used this chart to communicate. The first tap indicated the row. The second indicated the column. For example: the word “Be” is * **** *** ***** (1 tap, 2 taps, 1 tap, 5 taps). The most common way to use this was tapping, but other ways consisted of whistling, sweeping, or coughing, hacking, sniffing, or sneezing. Since most prisoners had respiratory problems, it was hard to tell if they were communicating or not. If the POWs were caught communicating they would be beaten. Propaganda was what the Vietnamese were shooting for. They would try to coerce you into saying that the US was committing war crimes, the Vietnamese were treating you well, and that you thought the US was a horrible country. Vietnamese cameramen would film you and broadcast it to the world, including the US Generals. Now, Admiral Denton knew this, so when he was coerced into talking he acted crazy and blinked TORTURE in Morse code several times. The American Generals saw this and figured out that the American POWs were being tortured. After Ho Chi Minh died the conditions became considerably better. Now no punishments were given for communicating and the guards were less physical. Breakfast was then served with bread and sugar, and medical checks were given weekly. They were even allowed to see each other briefly. The guards said it was an “accident”, but the POWs knew it was not. On February 12, 1973, Jeremiah Andrew Denton Jr. was the first Prisoner of War returned from captivity.

Sources When Hell Was in Session Biography Resource Center Ebsco Host