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Me#1You#10
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Joined: 06 May 2004
Posts: 6503
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 Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 2:43 am Post subject: RADM Jeremiah A. Denton Jr. 1924-2014 |
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With deep regret we note the passing of RADM Jeremiah A. Denton Jr., former POW and Senator.
We are profoundly grateful for his personal sacrifices and commitment of service to our nation...
| Quote: | Jeremiah Denton
Editorial of The New York Sun | March 28, 2014
The death of Jeremiah Denton, coming amid a vast American retreat overseas, is being marked this afternoon by hundreds of thousands who are watching the video taken of him when he was a captive of the North Vietnamese communists. It is one of the most astonishing film clips in American history. Denton, then a commander in the United States Navy, had been shot down in Vietnam on July 18, 1965, and thrown into a communist dungeon. The following May, the Communists tried to use him in a propaganda exercise, and arranged for him to be interviewed on camera by a Japanese correspondent. It became the broadcast that confirmed what everyone feared.
What the youtube.com video above shows is Denton stating that he gets “adequate food” and “adequate clothing” and “medical care when I require it.” The Japanese reporter can be heard acknowledging what Denton is saying. Feature, though, Denton’s eyes. He is blinking. Is it exhaustion? Or an old tic? Or the camera lights? Or just general awkwardness? It turns out that the crafty commander is blinking out in Morse code a one-word message: T-o-r-t-u-r-e. It mayn’t have been a surprise. It was, though, a stunning report. The United States Archives call it the “first clear confirmation received by U.S. Intelligence that American POWs were, in fact, being tortured.”
The video clip above is but part of a longer clip that can be viewed at a Web portal of the U.S. Archives. Click to the contents page. Then, under “Scenes From Hell,” there is the link for Denton, where clicking the icon of the motion picture camera will bring up the full clipping. It doesn’t display a URL, which is why we take the trouble to describe how to get to it; the clipping is not to be missed in full. The Archive explains that the motion picture and the words are, as in the original, somewhat out of sync. Today the taped interview is in the Special Media Archives of the CIA.
Denton’s is one of the magnificent stories handed up by the American Navy, into which he was commissioned after graduating from the Naval Academy at Annapolis. He had a stellar Navy career before he was shot down. In seven years, seven months of captivity, he was unbroken. He was not released until the rest of the POWs came home. Denton had been promoted during his captivity, and retired from the Navy as a rear admiral, eventually to be elected by Alabama to the Senate, where he served a term between 1981 and 1987. He and his wife, Jane, were married for 61 years, until she died in 2007. Denton’s was an inspiring, heroic life.
New York Sun |
Rest in eternal peace Admiral...and well done. |
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Schadow
Vice Admiral
Joined: 30 Sep 2004
Posts: 936
Location: Huntsville, Alabama
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| Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2014 10:56 pm Post subject: |
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From the Huntsville, Alabama "Times" this morning:
| Quote: | Denton gained more fame Feb. 12, 1973, when he spoke on TV on behalf of the first group of American POWs released from North Vietnam and flown to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines.
After he stepped from the C-141 jet transport, Denton said, “We are honored to have had the opportunity to serve our country under difficult circumstances. We are profoundly grateful to our commander- in-chief and to our nation for this day. God bless America.” Reagan in his State of the Union address in 1982 recalled Denton’s actions and words that day and called Denton a hero.
“We don’t have to turn to our history books for heroes,” Reagan said in his speech to Congress. “They are all around us. One who sits among you here tonight epitomized that heroism.” |
Schadow
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Capt, 8th U.S. Army, Korea '53 - '54 |
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TEWSPilot
Admiral
Joined: 26 Aug 2004
Posts: 1235
Location: Kansas (Transplanted Texan)
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| Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2014 8:45 pm Post subject: |
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I was flying a combat mission over Laos the day the Freedom Birds started coming out. Our backenders contacted them and offered them our sincere thanks and a hearty "Welcome Home." We had lost a crew of 8 on February 4th on a night mission in the area we were working. We wondered what would happen to us if we went down and survived. Our fearless leaders apparently thought the war was over and no more POWs would have to be accounted for or retrieved. Nothing has changed to this day.
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