Time came for Jerry to call home. An operator patched him through to Watergate Lane in Virginia Beach. He heard Jane’s voice. It still dripped with Southern warmth and abiding love. It seemed as if no time had passed. They were as in love as ever. Jerry and Jane were lucky; many POWs received unsettling or tragic news on that first phone call home. Eight years brings many changes to families and relationships.
Grateful for his good fortune and exhausted from an emotional day, Jerry slipped between the crisp sheets of a soft hospital bed. He laid his head on a fresh down pillow and fell fast asleep. His dreams were those of a free man.
The US military’s physicians weren’t ready to declare him entirely free, however. Jerry’s doctor explained that POWs needed further psychological evaluation before being released. The medical teams worried that after so long in captivity, POWs might be flat-out crazy. Jerry revolted. The only thing that would make him crazy was staying one more day in the hospital. The doctors relented. Jerry put himself on the first flight home. His old cellmate Jim Mulligan joined him for a nearly nine-thousand-mile journey home.
They were returning to a much-changed country, one needing closure after a decadelong war with few real victories. The United States had lost 58,000 sons and daughters in Vietnam; hundreds of thousands more suffered wounds both physical and emotional. Many returning troops never received thanks, appreciation, or even a simple “welcome home.” An increasingly ugly and unpopular war had divided and disillusioned the public while fueling social upheaval. The citizenry had grown weary of stalemate and loss, of disheartening news from abroad. The return of POWs held in both North and South Vietnam gave the conflict a sorely needed final chapter. It gave the nation a common cause to celebrate. It allowed the country to unite and claim a victory at last. From coast to coast, jubilant Americans turned out to welcome home more than five hundred returning prisoners of war.
In the predawn hours of Thursday, February 15, 1973, Jerry Denton watched the twinkling lights of Norfolk and Virginia Beach shimmer below him. He saw swaths covered by the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. He tried to see the lights of Watergate Lane, where he’d bid Jane goodbye in May of 1965. He heard the airliner’s engines change pitch, and the plane gently nosed toward Chambers Field at Naval Station Norfolk. The wheels touched down with a bump and the airliner taxied toward a wall of floodlights. The bright lights met Jerry and Jim Mulligan when they stepped out of the plane. Cheers washed over them. At Clark Air Base, they’d heard cheers from caring strangers. Now, they listened to the outpouring from dear family, friends, and colleagues who’d spent long years worrying and praying on their behalf. In a way, they had all brought Jerry Denton home.
Jerry walked down the stairs onto the tarmac, his head held high. He listened to the band. He absorbed the happy faces, the colorful banners, the American flags. He saw Jane and his family in the crowd. He wanted to rush straight to them, but he stepped to a microphone to perform his final duty. He thanked everyone for their love and for never forgetting the POWs. His words said, his mission ended at last. He stepped toward his family.
The eight of them met him with joyous hugs. He embraced Jane first. Then the children piled around him, each trying to wrap him in their arms, each trying to get close to their father. At times, each of them had doubted he’d ever return. Now, they could hold him, hear his laugh, and see his tears. His eldest son, Jerry III, was eighteen in 1965; his daughter Mary was age one. Now they were twenty-six and nine. To Jerry, Jane had never looked more beautiful.
Together, the family walked to the caravan that would take them to Portsmouth Naval Hospital, where they could visit away from the lights and media. There, Jerry would share a special, unique memory of each child that he’d treasured in Hanoi. Those memories, Jerry told his children, had seen him through his most difficult times. For a moment before the caravan left Naval Station Norfolk, Jerry and Jane had a car to themselves. Alone in the back seat, they held each other in an embrace for which both had waited nearly eight years.
Jerry Denton had kept his promise to Jane, his family, his men, and himself. He had returned with honor.
WHEN I FIRST MET JERRY DENTON at his Virginia home, I introduced myself and said, “Hello, Senator.” He smiled and answered, “Alvin, I was a senator. I will always be an admiral.”
To Jerry Denton, no other duty outranked his command in the prison camps of North Vietnam. Even the six years he served his home state of Alabama in the United States Senate did not compare. Never had he served with such devoted, duty-bound men as the members of the Fourth Allied POW Wing, and especially the brothers who carried one another through their ordeal in Alcatraz.
Jerry received his promotion to captain upon his release and his promotion to rear admiral shortly thereafter. He also received the Navy Cross for his leadership and heroism in Hanoi. He returned to duty not long after his homecoming. He continued serving in the navy until retiring in 1977. He mounted a successful US Senate campaign in 1980 and entered the Senate when Ronald Reagan entered the White House: January 1981. He remains the only navy admiral to serve in that body. The next year, 1982, President Reagan honored him in the annual State of the Union address. “We don’t have to turn to our history books for heroes,” said the fortieth president to his national audience. “They’re all around us. One who sits among you here tonight epitomized that heroism at the end of the longest imprisonment ever inflicted on men of our armed forces. Who can ever forget that night when we waited for television to bring us the scene of that first plane landing at Clark Field in the Philippines—bringing our POWs home. The plane door opened and Jeremiah Denton came slowly down the ramp. He caught sight of our flag, saluted, and said, ‘God bless America,’ then thanked us for bringing him home.”
Jerry served one term in the Senate and narrowly lost reelection. Perhaps that was for the best. He brought to Washington an idealism that often clashed with the tactical and ever-political machinations of Capitol Hill. In 1987, he returned home to be with his family and devote time to the causes and people he held most dear—including his wife, Jane, who passed away in 2007. He and Jane had fourteen grandchildren.
On July 22, 2014, I sat in a hushed Old Post Chapel at Arlington National Cemetery alongside Jerry Denton’s fellow Alcatraz prisoners US Congressman Sam Johnson, Admiral Bob Shumaker, Captain Jim Mulligan, and Commander George Coker. The flag-draped casket of Admiral Jeremiah A. Denton Jr. lay before us.
Jerry Denton III delivered a moving eulogy and recalled a line from my book Defiant. When the cards were down, I’d written, “Some POWs felt nobody but Jerry Denton had the guts to take over.”
I thought how true that was. Jerry had guts. He defined leadership with a fearless sense of bold, almost unthinking self-sacrifice. In him, I met the rare individual who believes in duty. He went through the fire himself because his position, his code, and his oath all demanded it. He took the punches and the ropes first. If he didn’t, how could he expect others to follow his orders?
The service ended with the singing of “God Bless America.” I thought back to when Jerry Denton had first arrived in the Philippines and closed his brief remarks with those three words. By using them, he sparked a rebirth of the phrase. Still today, presidents, elected officials, and others often close their remarks with those words. It’s important to remember that while their closings are often scripted, Jerry Denton’s words at Clark Air Base were not.
The service ended, but the ceremony had only begun. Eight pallbearers carried the casket to a waiting caisson drawn by white mules. A band, resplendent in white navy uniforms, played hymns as the caisson and mules bore Jerry Denton’s casket into the deep green of Arlington. More than fifty sailors in white dress marched before and behind Admiral Denton’s casket. It was a beautiful pageant to watch.
I stood alongside the surviving members of the Alcatraz Gang as they watched the US Navy bury another one of their brothers beneath Arlington’s shady oaks; Ron Storz lay nearby. Seven riflemen crack
ed the silence with three shots each, a twenty-one-gun salute. A military jet roared high overhead, paying tribute to a rare leader who showed others how to do their duty, be an example, and never surrender faith, hope, or love.
Alvarez, Everett, Jr., and Anthony S. Pitch. Chained Eagle: The Heroic Story of the First American Shot Down over North Vietnam. Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2005.
Associated Press. “Hanoi Claims Photo Shows Downed Fliers.” July 23, 1965.
——. “U.S. Planes Raid North Vietnam.” New York Times, November 21, 1970: 1, 11.
——. “POW Return Near.” Victoria Advocate, February 5, 1973: 1.
Atta, Dale Van. With Honor: Melvin Laird in War, Peace, and Politics. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, 2008.
Austin, Anthony. The President’s War: The Story of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution and How the Nation Was Trapped in Vietnam. New York: J. B. Lippincott Co., February 1973.
Beech, Keyes. “POWs’ Welcome Simple, Heartfelt.” Chicago Daily News Service, February 1973.
Bruce, David K. “Violations of 1949 Geneva Convention by Democratic Republic of North Vietnam.” Commander’s Digest, January 16, 1971.
Central Committee of the Vietnamese Communist Party. “Politburo Resolution 194: The Policy regarding American Enemy Pilots Captured in Northern Vietnam.” Hanoi, November 20, 1969.
Central Intelligence Agency. Việt Cộng Policy toward and Exploitation of U.S. Prisoners of War. Declassified, Saigon: CIA, 1967.
Coffee, Gerald. Beyond Survival: Building on the Hard Times—a POW’s Inspiring Story. New York: Berkley, 1990.
Comptroller, Secretary of Defense. “Casualty Statistics on Southeast Asia, by Month.” http://www.americanwarlibrary.com/vietnam/vwc24.htm (accessed August 21, 2012).
Cronkite, Walter. “We Are Mired in a Stalemate” broadcast, February 27, 1968. https://facultystaff.richmond.edu/~ebolt/history398/cronkite_1968.html (accessed February 20, 2018).
Dalton, Anne Chancey. Jeremiah A. Denton, Jr.: Vietnam War Hero. Birmingham, AL: Seacoast, 2012.
Davis, Vernon E. The Long Road Home: U.S. Prisoner of War Policy and Planning in Southeast Asia. Washington, DC: Historical Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2000.
Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO). Personnel Missing, Southeast Asia (PMSEA). Washington, DC: Department of Defense, 2005.
Denton, Jeremiah A. When Hell Was in Session. Los Angeles: WND Books, 1998.
Denton, Jeremiah A., Jr. Letter to Jane Denton from Ha L Prison, Hanoi, North Vietnam, December 20, 1965.
Denton, Jeremiah A., III. Interview with Alvin Townley. Virginia Beach, VA. (September 23, 2017).
Department of the Air Force. Places and Dates of Confinement: Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps POWs, North Vietnam, 1964–1973. SEAsia PW Analysis Program Report, Washington, DC: Department of the Air Force, 1975.
Department of the Navy. American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics. https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room /title-list-alphabetically/a/american-war-and-military-operations-casualties .html#t7 (accessed June 9, 2018).
Destatte, Robert. Interview with Alvin Townley. Temecula, CA (March 5, 2012).
Foster, Gary. Interview with Alvin Townley. Phone interview (June 28, 2012).
Foster, Gary, and Michael McGrath. The Hanoi March, July 6, 1966. Mac’s Facts. Colorado Springs, CO: NAMPOW.
Fuller, Byron, with Mike McGrath and Paul Galanti. Incredible Room 7. November 17, 2001. http://www.nampows.org/room_7.html (accessed March 1, 2012).
Gallup, George H. The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion 1935–1971. http://www .digitalhistory.uh.edu/active_learning/explorations/vietnam/vietnam _pubopinion.cfm (accessed June 9, 2018).
Grubb, Evelyn, and Carol Jose. You Are Not Forgotten: A Family’s Quest for Truth and the Founding of the National League of Families. St. Petersburg, FL: Vandamere Press, 2008.
Guarino, Larry. A P.O.W.’s Story: 2801 Days in Hanoi. New York: Ivy Books, 1990.
Hiên, Nguyby Bern. Hiên, Prison Historic Vestige. Hanoi: The Sun Advertising & Trading Co., Ltd., 2010.
Hirsch, James S. Two Souls Indivisible: The Friendship That Saved Two POWs in Vietnam. Houghton Mifflin Company: New York, 2004.
Howes, Craig. Voices of the Vietnam POWs: Witnesses to Their Fight. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Hubbell, John G. P.O.W.: A Definitive History of the American Prisoner-of-War Experience in Vietnam, 1964–1973. New York: Reader’s Digest Press, 1976.
International Committee of the Red Cross. Convention (III) relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949. https://ihl-databases.icrc.org /applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/States.xsp?xp_viewStates=XPages_NORMStatesParties&xp _treatySelected=375 (accessed April 25, 2018).
Jeremiah (film). Directed by Mark Fastoso, 2016.
Johnson, Lyndon B. “President Johnson’s Television Report following Renewed Aggression in the Gulf of Tonkin.” University of Texas, School of Information. August 4, 1964. http://solstice.ischool.utexas.edu/projects/index.php/LBJ _Gulf_of_Tonkin_Speech (accessed June 5, 2012).
——. “Report on the Gulf of Tonkin Incident (August 4, 1964).” University of Virginia, Miller Center. https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/august-4-1964-report-gulf-tonkin-incident (accessed June 9, 2018).
——. “Speech at Johns Hopkins University: Peace without Conquest (April 7, 1965).” https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/april-7 -1965-address-johns-hopkins-university (accessed June 9, 2018).
——. “President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Address to the Nation (March 31, 1968).” University of Texas. http://www.lbjlibrary.net/collections/selected-speeches /1968-january-1969/03-31-1968.html (accessed February 25, 2018).
Johnson, Sam, and Jan Winebrenner. Captive Warriors: A Vietnam POW’s Story. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 1992.
Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam: A History. New York: Penguin, 1983.
Kiley, Frederick, and Stuart I. Rochester. Honor Bound: American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1999.
King, Martin Luther, Jr. “Beyond Vietnam.” Address delivered to the Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam, at Riverside Church, New York City, April 4, 1967.
Laird, Melvin R. “Statement by Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird.” Washington, DC: Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs), May 19, 1969.
McCain, John, with Mark Salter. Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir. New York: Perennial, 1999.
McDaniel, Eugene B. Scars and Stripes: The True Story of One Man’s Courage in Facing Death as a Vietnam POW. Alexandria, VA: American Defense Institute, 1981.
McGrath, Michael. Mac’s Facts 01—The Big Rooms—Camp Unity. Colorado Springs, CO: NAMPOW, 2012.
——. U.S. POWs in North Vietnam. Colorado Springs, CO: NAMPOW, 2013.
McNamara, Robert S. In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam. New York: Random House, 1995.
Mulligan, James A., Jr. The Hanoi Commitment. Virginia Beach, VA: RIF Marketing, 1981.
National Archives, Records of the Central Intelligence Agency (263.2589). CDR Jeremiah A. Denton, Jr.—Report from Inside a Hanoi Prison, 1966. Hanoi, May 2, 1966.
National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. Rescue Attempt: The Son Tay Raid. May 22, 2015. http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets /Display/Article/196019/rescue-attempt-the-son-tay-raid/ (accessed June 9, 2018).
Newsweek. “Home at Last!” February 26, 1973: 16–24.
——. Nixon’s “Peace with Honor” broadcast on Vietnam, January 23, 1973. http://watergate.info/1973/01/23/nixon-peace-with-honor-broadcast.html (accessed April 24, 2018).
Nguyen, Lien-Hang T. Hanoi’s War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2012.
Pepper, Thomas. “1st POWs Leave Hanoi on US Plane.” Sun, February 12, 1973: A1.
&nb
sp; Phng Viên. “American Air Power under the Eyes of the Victorious People of Hanoi.” People’s Army Newspaper, Issue 1874, July 7, 1966: 1, 4. Translated by Robert J. Destatte, July 6, 2009.
——. “The Streets of the Capital Overflow with Victorious Zeal, Resound with Shouts of Hatred for the American Aggressors.” Hanoi Capital, July 7, 1966: 1, 3.
Powers, Francis Gary, and Curt Gentry. Operation Overflight: A Memoir of the U-2 Incident. Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2004.
Prisoners of Hope (film). Directed by Bernie Hargis, 2001.
Return with Honor (film). Directed by Freida Lee Mock and Terry Sanders, 1998.
Reuters. “Pilot Captured by Hanoi Supports U.S. Policy.” Saturday Evening Post, May 8, 1966.
Risner, Robinson C. The Passing of the Night: My Seven Years as a Prisoner of the North Vietnamese. Old Saybrook, CT: Konecky & Konecky, 1973.
Rochester, Stuart I. The Battle Behind Bars: Navy and Marine POWs in the Vietnam War. Washington Navy Yard, DC: Naval History and Heritage Command and Naval Historical Foundation, 2010.
Rubel, Robert C. “The U.S. Navy’s Transition to Jets.” Naval War College Review, Spring 2010: 49–59.
Rutledge, Howard and Phyllis. In the Presence of Mine Enemies. Old Tappen, NJ: Spire Books, 1973.
Schemmer, Benjamin F. The Raid: The Son Tay Prison Rescue Mission. New York: Avon, 1976.
Shaffer, Ron. “Admiral Denton Decorated: ExPOW Used His Eyelids to Signal ‘Torture.’” Washington Post, November 20, 1974: C1.
Stockdale, Jim and Sybil. In Love and War: The Story of a Family’s Ordeal and Sacrifice during the Vietnam Years. New York: Bantam Books, 1984.
Time. “The War: Hanoi’s Pavlovicms.” April 14, 1967: 43.
——. “POWs Come Home.” February 26, 1973: 13–20.
U.S. House of Representatives. “Hearing on Servicemen Captured and Missing in Southeast Asia.” Washington, DC: Library of Congress, April 29, 1970.
Captured Page 16