On 18 July 1965, Commander Jeremiah Denton of attack squadron VA-75 was leading a strike over North Vietnam in a Grumman A-6A Intruder when his aircraft was hit near Thanh Hoa. He and his bombardier-navigator, Bill Tschudy, ejected and were captured almost at once. Denton, a 41-year-old from Mobile, Alabama, would not see freedom again until February 1973.

Shot Down Near Thanh Hoa

VA-75 was the first US Navy squadron to take the all-weather A-6A Intruder into combat, flying from the carrier USS Independence in 1965. On 18 July, as Denton pulled off a target near Thanh Hoa, the area later famous for its heavily defended Dragon’s Jaw bridge, his Intruder was crippled. He and Tschudy ejected over enemy territory and were captured.

Seven and a Half Years

Denton was held at the Hoa Lo prison, the “Hanoi Hilton”, and other camps, much of the time in solitary confinement in tiny, windowless cells, and was repeatedly tortured. As one of the senior officers among the prisoners, he helped organise their resistance.

Blinking in Morse Code

On 2 May 1966, his captors put him in front of a Japanese television reporter for a propaganda film meant to show that American prisoners were well treated. Asked about his treatment, Denton said he was getting adequate food, clothing and medical care. As he spoke, he blinked in Morse code, spelling out T-O-R-T-U-R-E. The film reached US naval intelligence, which decoded the message. It was among the first clear evidence that American prisoners in North Vietnam were being tortured. Denton received the Navy Cross in 1974.

“God Bless America”

Denton was released in February 1973 in Operation Homecoming and was the first prisoner to step off the first C-141 at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. Speaking for the returning men, he said they were honoured to have served their country under difficult circumstances and profoundly grateful to their commander-in-chief and their nation, ending with “God bless America.” We tell the story of those flights in Operation Homecoming 1973: The Hanoi Taxi Flies the POWs Home.

He was promoted to rear admiral and retired in 1977. In 1980 he was elected to the US Senate from Alabama, the first Republican elected to the Senate from the state since Reconstruction, and served one term. He died in Virginia Beach on 28 March 2014, aged 89.

USS Jeremiah Denton

The Navy named a Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, DDG 129, after him. The future USS Jeremiah Denton was christened at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, on 28 June 2025, with his daughters Madeleine Denton Doak and Mary Denton Lewis as sponsors.

What the Popular Version Gets Right

The story as usually told is accurate: the A-6 Intruder from USS Independence, the strike near Thanh Hoa, Tschudy, seven years and seven months in captivity, the 1966 interview with a Japanese reporter and the blinked T-O-R-T-U-R-E, the Clark Air Base speech, the Navy Cross, retirement as a rear admiral, his death at 89 and the destroyer named after him. Two notes: it leaves out his term as a US senator, and the exact length of his solitary confinement, often given as four years, comes from his own account rather than official records.

Sources: CBS News / Associated Press obituary (28 March 2014); POW Network, Jeremiah A. Denton biography; HII, “HII Christens Guided Missile Destroyer Jeremiah Denton (DDG 129)” (28 June 2025); US Navy press release on the christening (2025).