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Dieter Dengler | |
|---|---|
 Dieter Dengler tours the aircraft carrierUSSConstellation in San Diego, California, on December 1, 1996. | |
| Birth name | Dieter Dengler |
| Born | (1938-05-22)May 22, 1938 Wildberg,Württemberg,Germany |
| Died | February 7, 2001(2001-02-07) (aged 62) Mill Valley, California, United States |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Service |  United States Air Force United States Navy |
| Years of service | 1957–1968 |
| Rank |  Lieutenant |
| Unit | Attack Squadron 145,USS Ranger (CV-61) |
| Battles / wars | Vietnam War |
| Awards | Navy Cross Distinguished Flying Cross Bronze Star Purple Heart Air Medal Navy Unit Commendation Prisoner of War Medal |
Dieter Dengler (May 22, 1938 – February 7, 2001) was a German-bornUnited States Navyaviator who was shot down over Laos and captured during theVietnam War. After six months of imprisonment and torture, and 23 days on the run, he became only the second captured US airman to escape during the war. Of the sevenprisoners of war who escaped together from thePathet Lao prison camp inLaos, only he andThai citizenPhisit Intharathat survived.[1] After the war, he worked as a test pilot for private aircraft and as a commercial airline pilot.
Dengler was born and raised in the small town ofWildberg, in theBlack Forest region of the German state ofWürttemberg. His father was drafted into theGerman Army in 1939 and was killed on theEastern Front during the winter of 1943/1944.[2] The family lived in extreme poverty; to survive, Dengler and his brothers scavenged scraps and leftovers from slaughtered sheep after neighbors' meals, and pulled down wallpaper adhered withwheatpaste from bombed-out buildings so their mother could boil it for nutrients. He became a blacksmith's apprentice at age 14 and was regularly beaten by the blacksmith and the other apprentices. Dengler later thanked the blacksmith for "his disciplined training," which taught him to be "more capable, self-reliant and... 'tough enough to survive'."[3]
Dengler's maternal grandfather, Hermann Schnürle, refused to vote forAdolf Hitler and was subsequently paraded around town with a placard around his neck, was spat upon, and was sent to a rockmine to work as a labourer for a year.[4] Dengler later credited his grandfather's resolve as a major inspiration while he was imprisoned inLaos and a factor in his refusal to sign a document penned byNorth Vietnam condemning American aggression inSoutheast Asia.[5][failed verification]
DuringWorld War II, Dengler saw anAllied fighter plane firing its guns as it flew through Wildberg; he credited this as the moment he knew he wanted to be a pilot.[6] Years later, after seeing a call for pilots in an American magazine, he decided to travel to the United States. A family friend agreed to sponsor him and he salvaged brass and other metals to sell so he could pay for the rest of the passage. In 1956, upon turning 18 and completing his apprenticeship, Dengler hitchhiked toHamburg and spent two weeksliving on the street before leaving by ship toNew York City. In the US, he spent a week homeless inManhattan before finding anAir Force recruiter.
He enlisted in June 1957 and attendedbasic training atLackland AFB inSan Antonio, Texas. He spent the next two years peeling potatoes, then working as a mechanic for amotor pool. His qualifications as a machinist led to an assignment as agunsmith. He passed the test for aviation cadets but was told that only college graduates were selected to be pilots and his enlistment expired before he was selected for pilot training. After his discharge, Dengler worked with his brother at a bakery nearSan Francisco. He enrolled inSan Francisco City College, then transferred to theCollege of San Mateo to studyaeronautics. After two years of college, he was accepted to theUS Navy'sAviation Cadet Training Program. After finishing flight training, he trained as an attack pilot in aDouglas AD Skyraider at theNaval Air Station inCorpus Christi, Texas. He joined the VA-145 squadron while they were on shore duty at theNaval Air Station inAlameda, California. In 1965, the squadron joined thecarrierUSS Ranger, which left forVietnam that December. Dengler was initially stationed atDixie Station inSouth Vietnam before moving north toYankee Station.[citation needed]
Part of his training was aSurvival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape program, where he escaped twice from the mockPOW camp and was planning a third when the training ended.[3] Because of his experience living in poverty, he knew how to scavenge for food and ate scraps and garbage from the instructors' meals. He reportedly set a record as the only student to gain weight during the course.[citation needed]
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On February 1, 1966, the day after the carrier began flying missions from Yankee Station,Lieutenant, Junior Grade Dengler left the Ranger with three other aircraft on aninterdiction mission against a North Vietnamese truck convoy. The pilots were forced to divert to their secondary target, a road intersection located west of theMu Gia Pass inLaos, due to thunderstorms. US air operations in Laos at this time were classified. Visibility was poor due to smoke from burning fields and Dengler quickly lost sight of the other planes. After two-and-a-half hours of flying into enemy territory, the right wing was blown off his plane byanti-aircraft fire.[7][8]
Immediately after being shot down, Dengler smashed hissurvival radio and hid most of his other survival equipment to keep Vietnamese and Lao search parties from finding it. He was apprehended the next day byPathet Lao troops. He attempted to escape but was quickly recaptured while drinking from a spring. He was tortured as a punishment for escaping: he was hung upside down by his ankles with a nest of biting ants over his face until he lost consciousness, then suspended in a well overnight so he would drown if he fell asleep. He was also dragged through villages by awater buffalo. When he refused to sign a Pathet Lao document condemning the United States, slivers of bamboo were inserted under his fingernails and into incisions on his body.
Dengler was handed over to the Vietnamese and brought to a prison camp near the village of Par Kung. There, he met Thai prisoners of warPhisit Intharathat, Prasit Promsuwan, and Prasit Thanee; Chinese prisoner Y.C. To; and AmericansEugene DeBruin andDuane W. Martin. Except for Martin, a helicopter pilot in the US Air Force, the other prisoners were civilians employed byAir America, a civilian airline owned by theCentral Intelligence Agency. The civilians had all been held by the Pathet Lao for two and a half years by the time Dengler joined them. At night, the men were handcuffed together and shackled to wooden foot blocks, and suffered chronicdysentery.
The other prisoners initially regarded Dengler's thick German accent and American allegiance with suspicion but eventually clued him in on their plans to escape.[9][1] Shortly after, the group was moved to a new camp ten miles away at Hoi Het. There, the prisoners argued over whether they should attempt escape, with Dengler, Martin, and one of the Thai prisoners in favor of it and Intharathat initially opposed. After several months, during which they survived largely on a single handful of rice a day among the six of them, one of the Thai prisoners overheard the guards talking about shooting the group in the jungle and making it look like an escape attempt. As a result, the men unanimously agreed to try to escape. Their plan was to take over the camp and signal aC-130 Hercules flare ship that made nightly visits to the area. Dengler loosened logs under the hut to allow enough room for them to squeeze through.
On June 29, 1966, while the guards were eating, the prisoners slipped out of their restraints and seized the guards' unattended weapons, which includedM1 rifles, Chinese automatic rifles, an Americancarbine, at least onesubmachine gun, and an early version of theAK-47. The men split into three groups: Dengler and Martin, DeBruin and To, and Intharathat, Promsuwan, and Thanee. They encountered at least five guards upon escaping the cell. Dengler and Martin began heading towards theMekong River.[10] With the exception of Intharathat, who was recaptured and later rescued, and DeBruin, who was reportedly recaptured before disappearing in 1968, none of the other prisoners wereever seen again.[citation needed]
Dengler and Martin found a fast-flowing river they believed fed into the Mekong and built a raft to escape. They stopped in the evening to rest and tied themselves to trees to avoid being washed away by the torrential water. The next morning, they realized that they had gone in a circle rather than towards the Mekong. They had spotted several villages but remained undetected and eventually set up camp in an abandoned village. Though they had brought rice and were able to scavenge for food, they were still on the verge of starvation and initially lacked the strength to start a fire. Dengler eventually managed to locate Martin's discarded carbine cartridges and used the powder to start the fire. When the C-130 flew overhead that evening, they waved lit torches to signal anSOS. The plane circled and droppedflares but no rescue team turned up. Not long after, Martin was killed by anAkha villager when he was spotted by a child. Dengler escaped when the villager called for backup and evaded capture despitehallucinating vividly due to starvation.[11][page needed] He returned to the abandoned village where he and Martin had camped and set the huts on fire to get the attention of the nightly C-130. The plane again dropped flares and though the crew reported their sighting to theUdorn Royal Thai Air Force Base, the fires were not recognized by intelligence as having been a signal from a survivor.[12]
On July 20, 1966, after 23 days in the jungle, Dengler managed to catch the attention of a US Air Force pilot by using a parachute from one of the flares.Eugene Peyton Deatrick, the pilot of the leadplane and commander of the1st Air Commando Squadron, spotted a flash of white while making a turn at the river's bend and backtracked. Deatrick and his wingman contacted rescue forces, but were told to ignore the sighting, as no airmen were known to be down in the area. He persisted and eventually managed to convince the command and control center to dispatch a rescue force.
Dengler was restrained by the helicopter crew as a precaution andstrip searched to ensure he wasn't armed or in possession of ahand grenade. Deatrick reported Dengler's claim to be a POW and his identity was confirmed when they reached a hospital inDa Nang. There, a conflict developed between the Air Force and Navy over who would control his debriefing and recovery. The Navy sent a team ofSEALs to steal Dengler from the Air Force recovery ward. A fight ensued between the SEALs andAir Force security police in which numerous air force personnel, including several patients, were badly beaten and injured. The SEAL team escaped unscathed and rushed Dengler to the air field on a gurney. He was returned to theUSS Ranger and eventuallyairlifted to the US for medical treatment.[citation needed] At the time of his rescue, he stood at 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) and weighed 98 pounds (44 kg).[13]
Dengler remained in the Navy for a year after his rescue. He was promoted toLieutenant and was trained to fly jets before his resignation from the military.
As a civilian, he became an airline pilot forTrans World Airlines and survived four crashes as atest pilot.[14] He returned to Laos in 1977, where the Pathet Lao welcomed him and took him to visit the camp from which he had escaped. Dengler retired as a commercial pilot sometime prior to 1985.[citation needed]
After his retirement, Dengler continued flying for leisure in his restoredCessna 195 and became involved in air shows.[citation needed] In 2000, he was inducted into theGathering of Eagles program and told the story of his escape to groups of young military officers.[15] Dengler struggled withPTSD for the rest of his life.[14] On February 7, 2001, after being diagnosed withALS, he rolled his wheelchair from his house to a nearby fire station, where he shot himself.[8] He was buried atArlington National Cemetery[16] and a Navy honor guard and a fly-over by NavyF-14 Tomcats were present at his burial.[17]
Dengler was married three times: to Marina Adamich (1966–1970), to Irene Lam (1980–1984),[18] and to Yukiko Dengler (1998–2001). Dengler is survived by three sons, Rolf, Alexander, and Ryan, and three grandsons.[citation needed]
Dengler was a contestant on the January 30, 1967 episode ofI've Got a Secret, where his secret was that he escaped from a POW camp in Laos.[citation needed] The following year, he appeared onHollywood Squares.[19] He discussed issues pertaining to prisoners of war and soldiersmissing in action in Christopher Olgiati's 1988 documentaryWe Can Keep You Forever. Dengler was the subject ofWerner Herzog's 1997 documentaryLittle Dieter Needs to Fly. Herzog also directedRescue Dawn, which starredChristian Bale as Dengler. It was shown at festivals at the end of 2006 and received a limited theatrical release in the USA on July 4, 2007, before the general release later that month.[citation needed] The film received criticism from members ofEugene DeBruin's family and fromPhisit Intharathat, the other surviving member of the group.[1] The film showed Dengler to be the primary mastermind behind the escape, meaning the roles of the rest of the prisoners were downplayed, despite the reality that Dengler was brought into the escape plans at least a month after his arrival in the prison camp. The portrayal of DeBruin was specifically criticized, as the film showed him to be delusional, unstable, and "sociopath[ic]," when friends, family, and the other prisoners characterized him as kind, intelligent, and a strong leader.[20][21][22] Herzog later acknowledged that DeBruin acted heroically during his imprisonment but defended his choices, saying he took "artistic liberty" based in part on conversations with Dengler years before about the "antagonistic relationships among the prisoners when under extreme duress."[21][23]
Dengler documented his experiences inEscape From Laos, a book published withPresidio Press in 1979.[24]Nigel Cawthorne's 1990 bookThe Bamboo Cage: The Full Story of the American Servicemen Still Missing in Vietnam expanded on the information inWe Can Keep You Forever.[citation needed] Dengler was the focus ofBruce Henderson's 2010 bookHero Found: The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam War. Henderson had served on the same aircraft carrier as Dengler at the time he was shot down.[3]
Dengler was the recipient of the following medals and decorations:
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