Jerry Denton: POW, Admiral, Senator, Hero: Column
When I first met Jeremiah Denton, I greeted him as "Senator Denton."
"Alvin," he replied gently, "I was a senator. I'll always be an admiral." And he was.
Far more than politics, naval service forever defined POW, admiral, and U.S. Senator Jerry Denton, who passed away Friday at age 89.
Along with future-admiral Jim Stockdale and future-general Robbie Risner, Jerry Denton courageously led hundreds of American POWs through nearly eight years of torture, hardship, and imprisonment in North Vietnam. Shot down on July 18, 1965, Navy A-6 pilot Denton assumed leadership of the POWs in the infamous Hanoi Hilton, a role he would share with fellow Class of 1947 Naval Academy graduate Stockdale and Air Force ace Risner. No POW would prove any tougher or more irritating to the North Vietnamese than Jerry Denton.
After being tortured for weeks in preparation for a televised 1966 interview, Denton still refused to parrot his captors' script. Instead he supported his government with his boldfaced statements – and managed to blink T-O-R-T-U-R-E in Morse Code, sending the first indication of the rampant mistreatment of American POWs in Hanoi. For his bravery, he received the Navy Cross.
In 1967, the North Vietnamese authorities removed Denton and ten other highly subversive POW ringleaders from the Hanoi Hilton and exiled them to an infamous prison nicknamed Alcatraz. For two years, they survived in solitary 4' x 9' concrete cells for roughly 23 hours and 50 minutes per day. Only the encouraging, encoded taps they sent each other through their walls sustained them amidst isolation, torture, and near-starvation. These indomitable leaders became the legendary Alcatraz Eleven. Also among them were Medal of Honor recipient Jim Stockdale, current Congressman Sam Johnson, and Rear Admiral Bob Shumaker.
When the POWs were finally released in 1973, after up to eight years of captivity, their homecoming captivated the world. Millions of viewers watched Jerry Denton become the first POW to emerge from a C-141 transport at Clark Air Base in the Philippines and speak on behalf of the freed prisoners.
"We are honored to have had the opportunity to serve our country under difficult circumstances," he said. "We are profoundly grateful to our commander-in-chief and to our nation for this day." With his voice breaking, he concluded, "God bless America." America wept with happiness, and for a brief moment, a polarized nation came together to honor these returning veterans.
Denton was reunited with his wife Jane and seven children several days later in Norfolk, Virginia. He reached the rank of rear admiral and returned to his home state of Alabama where he served as United States Senator from 1981 until 1987. President Ronald Reagan recognized Denton during his 1982 State of the Union address, saying, "The plane door opened and Jeremiah Denton came slowly down the ramp. He caught sight of our flag, saluted it, said, 'God bless America,' and then thanked us for bringing him home."
At the end of the James Mischener's The Bridges at Toko-Ri, after the death of brave naval aviator Harry Brubaker, Admiral Tarrant asks the heavens, "Where do we get such men?" This morning, I asked the same question.
Naval aviator Jeremiah Denton leaves a proud legacy that reminds us how America's finest virtues can carry us through even the darkest of times.
In Hanoi, American captives used their "tap code" to send messages of support to one another and the phrase "God Bless You" became their most special. It meant far more than the literal and was always abbreviated in POW short-hand. So, Admiral Denton, "GBU."
Alvin Townley is the author of DEFIANT: The POWs Who Survived Vietnam's Most Infamous Prison, the Women Who Fought for Them, and the One Who Never Returned.