When Hell Was in Session is a 1975 memoir by U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Jeremiah Denton, recounting his experiences as an American prisoner of war (POW) during the Vietnam War.
When Hell Was in Session is a 1975 memoir by U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Jeremiah Denton, recounting his experiences as an American prisoner of war (POW) during the Vietnam War.
A Navy pilot, Denton's jet was shot down over North Vietnam in July 1965. Denton and his navigator, Bill Tschudy, parachuted down and were soon taken prisoner. Both men spent seven years and seven months in North Vietnam as often-tortured POWs. [1] In May 1966, the North Vietnamese allowed a Japanese TV reporter to interview him, where he blinked out the word "torture" in Morse code, confirming the United States suspicions that prisoners were being mistreated during the Vietnam War. [2]
In 1979, the book was made into a television movie starring Hal Holbrook. It was adapted by screenwriter Jake Justiz, also known as Lee Pogostin. [3]
Denton, James Stockdale, Larry Guarino, and James Robinson Risner, distinguished themselves as members of the American POW resistance movement from 1965 to 1973, helping POWs accomplish their sworn goal to "return with honor". [4] Return with Honor was later used as the title of a documentary film released in 2000 about American POWs during the Vietnam War, narrated and produced by actor Tom Hanks. [4] In November 2009, an updated version of the book was released with the following epilogue from Denton: [5]
There was the shock at the difference between 1965 and 1973 in terms of cultural standards, I saw the appearance of X-rated movies, adult magazines, massage parlors, the proliferation of drugs, promiscuity, premarital sex and unwed mothers.
— Jeremiah Denton [3]
The Library Journal said that "while the nature of the material is well calculated to hold the reader's interest, the narrative skips and jumps in a disruptive manner". They also noted that "the author at time becomes overbearingly righteous in his presentation, and the overall impression is one of haste". [1]
Hỏa Lò Prison was a prison in Hanoi originally used by the French colonists in Indochina for political prisoners, and later by North Vietnam for U.S. prisoners of war during the Vietnam War. During this later period, it was known to American POWs as the "Hanoi Hilton". Following Operation Homecoming, the prison was used to incarcerate Vietnamese dissidents and other political prisoners, including the poet Nguyễn Chí Thiện. The prison was demolished during the 1990s, although its gatehouse remains a museum.
James Bond "Jim" Stockdale was a United States Navy vice admiral and aviator who was awarded the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War, during which he was a prisoner of war for over seven years.
Jeremiah Andrew Denton Jr. was an American politician and military officer who served as a U.S. Senator representing Alabama from 1981 to 1987. He was the first Republican to be popularly elected to a Senate seat in Alabama. Denton was previously a United States Navy rear admiral and naval aviator taken captive during the Vietnam War.
Sybil Elizabeth Stockdale was an American campaigner for families of Americans missing in South East Asia.
Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) is a training program, best known by its military acronym, that prepares U.S. military personnel, U.S. Department of Defense civilians, and private military contractors to survive and "return with honor" in survival scenarios. The curriculum includes survival skills, evading capture, application of the military code of conduct, and techniques for escape from captivity. Formally established by the U.S. Air Force at the end of World War II and the start of the Cold War, it was extended to the Navy and United States Marine Corps and consolidated within the Air Force during the Korean War (1950–1953) with greater focus on "resistance training".
Brigadier General James Robinson "Robbie" Risner was a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force, and a senior leader among U.S. prisoners of war during the Vietnam War.
Dieter Dengler was a German-born United States Navy aviator who was shot down over Laos and captured during the Vietnam 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 seven prisoners of war who escaped together from the Pathet Lao prison camp in Laos, only he and Thai citizen Phisit Intharathat survived. After the war, he worked as a test pilot for private aircraft and as a commercial airline pilot.
George Thomas Coker is a retired United States Navy commander who was awarded the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism as a prisoner of war (POW) during the Vietnam War. An Eagle Scout, he is noted for his devotion to Scouting.
The early life and military career of John Sidney McCain III spans the first forty-five years of his life (1936–1981). McCain's father and grandfather were admirals in the United States Navy. McCain was born on August 29, 1936, in the Panama Canal Zone, and attended many schools growing up as his family moved among naval facilities. McCain graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1958. He married the former Carol Shepp in 1965; he adopted two children from her previous marriage and they had another child together.
John Arthur Dramesi was a United States Air Force (USAF) colonel who was held as a prisoner of war from 2 April 1967 to 4 March 1973 in both Hoa Lo Prison, known as "The Hanoi Hilton", and Cu Loc Prison, "The Zoo", during the Vietnam War.
Lawrence Nicholas "Larry" Guarino was a United States Air Force officer, and veteran of three wars. Shot down on his 50th combat mission, he spent more than eight years as a prisoner of war (POW) during the Vietnam War and earned the Air Force Cross.
John Heaphy "Jack" Fellowes was a U.S. Navy captain, pilot who became a prisoner of war (POW) during the Vietnam War. He was known as "Happy Jack" because of his infectious sense of humor, which he maintained even while a POW. He was awarded the Silver Star for his "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity" while a POW, credited with "contributed significantly toward the eventual abandonment of harsh treatment by the North Vietnamese".
Fred Vann Cherry was a colonel and command pilot in the U.S. Air Force. A career fighter pilot, he served in the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
The Alcatraz Gang was a group of eleven American prisoners of war (POW) held separately in Hanoi, North Vietnam during the Vietnam War because of their particular resistance to their North-Vietnamese military captors. These eleven POWs were: George Thomas Coker, USN; Jeremiah Denton, USN; Harry Jenkins, USN; Sam Johnson, USAF; George McKnight, USAF; James Mulligan, USN; Howard Rutledge, USN; Robert Shumaker, USN; James Stockdale, USN; Ron Storz, USAF; and Nels Tanner, USN.
The Hanoi March was a propaganda event held on July 6, 1966, involving U.S. prisoners of war during the Vietnam War. During the march, members of the North Vietnamese Army paraded 52 American POWs through the streets of Hanoi before tens of thousands of North Vietnamese civilians. The march soon deteriorated into near riot conditions, with North Vietnamese civilians beating the POWs along the 2 miles (3.2 km) route and their guards allowed the attack to happen along the March.
Members of the United States armed forces were held as prisoners of war (POWs) in significant numbers during the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1973. Unlike U.S. service members captured in World War II and the Korean War, who were mostly enlisted troops, the overwhelming majority of Vietnam-era POWs were officers, most of them Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps airmen; a relatively small number of Army enlisted personnel were also captured, as well as one enlisted Navy seaman, Petty Officer Doug Hegdahl, who fell overboard from a naval vessel. Most U.S. prisoners were captured and held in North Vietnam by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN); a much smaller number were captured in the south and held by the Việt Cộng (VC). A handful of U.S. civilians were also held captive during the war.
Hayden James Lockhart is a retired United States Air Force officer who is best known for being the first U.S. Air Force pilot to be shot down in North Vietnam.
USS Jeremiah Denton (DDG-129) is a planned Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer of the United States Navy, the 79th overall for the class. She will be named in honor of former U.S. Senator for Alabama, Admiral Jeremiah Denton (USN), a Vietnam War veteran and prisoner of war, who was a recipient of the Navy Cross. Jeremiah Denton will be the fourth ship of the Flight III series.
Phillip Neal "Phil" Butler is a retired United States Navy officer and pilot. He was the eighth-longest-held U.S. prisoner of war (POW) held in North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Butler, who was forced to eject after a mid-air explosion on April 20, 1965, was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam until his release as part of Operation Homecoming in 1973. Butler was one of the five POWs credited with establishing the tap code. The code enabled the prisoners to communicate with each other.
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