Jerry Denton

Jerry Denton attended at least 13 different schools growing up in the South, his family being forced to move by his alcoholic, gambling-addicted father’s inability to hold a job. But Jerry was ambitious, hardworking, and determined and he accomplished his boyhood goal of getting an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1946. Over the next twenty years, Denton earned three graduate degrees, was promoted to commander, and was credited with important innovations in naval aviation tactics and strategy.

In 1965 Denton was commanding a squadron of A-6 Intruders on a bombing mission over North Vietnam when his plane went down. He was quickly captured—the beginning of a nearly eight-year ordeal he would later describe as “when Hell was in session.”

During his captivity, Denton was repeatedly beaten, tortured, and starved. For approximately four years he was kept in solitary confinement, often in a cramped pitch-black cell infested with rats and roaches, and rank with sewage. In an effort to compel him to confess to war crimes and reveal confidential information, he was brutally beaten and tortured for days on end, often in a device his captors had created that was designed to maximize pain without causing a loss of consciousness.

Despite the torture and horrific conditions, Denton helped organize a system of communication among the other prisoners (who usually could not see each other), using coughs, throat-clearing, spitting, and other sounds, each of which was keyed to a letter in the alphabet. When he and another prisoner were caught communicating by tapping on their cell walls, both were beaten and tortured for several days. To end the pain, Jerry Denton prayed that he would die.

In May 1966 a Japanese television reporter had requested permission to interview an American POW on camera. His North Vietnamese captors believed Jerry Denton has been broken sufficiently to use him for propaganda purposes, so they allowed the interview.

“I get adequate food, and adequate clothing, and medical care when I require it,” Denton haltingly told the reporter. As he spoke, Denton made it appear that the bright lights were causing him to blink. When asked about alleged American atrocities, Denton answered “Well, I don’t know what is happening, but whatever the position of my government is, I support it fully. Whatever the position of my government is, I believe in it -- yes, sir. I am a member of that government and it is my job to support it, and I will as long as I live.” For that answer Denton was beaten savagely.

When the interview was broadcast, American intelligence authorities noticed Denton’s odd way of blinking while talking. Soon they figured it out. Denton’s blinking pattern was Morse Code. He was repeatedly blinking out the letters “T-O-R-T-U-R-E.” It was the first confirmation that American POWs were being tortured by the North Vietnamese.

In February 1973, Jerry Denton was among the first group of U.S. prisoners of war released during Operation Homecoming. After stepping off a plane at Clark Airfield in the Philippines he said to waiting reporters, “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.”

Denton retired from the Navy in 1977, with the rank of rear admiral. He wrote a book about his experience as a POW titled “When Hell was in Session,” and he served one term as a United States senator from Alabama. The father of seven children, Jeremiah Andrew “Jerry” Denton, Jr. died in March 2014 at age 89. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Jerry Denton’s television interview, in which he cleverly and at great risk informed the world that American POWs were being tortured, occurred on May 2, 1966, fifty seven years ago today.

The image a still shot from the interview video, which can be found online.