Real Stories, Real People

Forty-five years ago today — June 29, 1966 — U.S. Navy pilot Dieter Dengler led a mass escape from the Ban Hoeui Het POW camp deep in Laos and began a 21-day odyssey through the jungle to freedom, becoming the longest-held U.S. pilot to escape captivity during the Vietnam War. The complete story — one of the most incredible stories of survival from any war — is told by Bruce Henderson, his former shipmate and friend, in HERO FOUND: The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam War.

Dear Bruce,

Never before have I been so emotionally hit with a true story. Once I started reading I could do nothing except finish the book! You are an amazing writer. It was wonderful to learn that Dieter Dengler survived the POW camp. You made me feel as though I knew him and was with him in the jungle. Needless to say I was on the edge of my seat getting through the story.

Judith Davies
Black Point CA

Evan Fenn, the last surviving sailor from the destroyer Monaghan (DD-354), which sank in a deadly typhoon in the Pacific on Dec. 18, 1944, died at age 84. Evan was one of the Greatest Generation that I felt honored to have talked to during my research for DOWN TO THE SEA. A rough-and-tumble cowboy from Arizona, Evan somehow made it off the capsized ship that horrible morning when 256 of his shipmates perished. Evan was one of only six Monaghan survivors to be pulled from the storm-tossed sea two days later.

Between Memorial Day and Independence Day, post a picture of your military hero to HERO FOUND’s Facebook page, along with a few words as to why you so admire him or her. On July 4th, 10 “My Hero” submissions will be selected to receive a copy of HERO FOUND: The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam War, signed by Bruce Henderson, who wrote about his own hero, U.S. Navy pilot and former POW Dieter Dengler.

Howard "Hutch" Korth: Notre Dame "Fighting Irish," circa 1940

U.S. Navy Lieutenant Howard J. Korth, of Saginaw, Michigan, was the gunnery officer aboard the destroyer escort Tabberer (DE-418) in December 1944 when Haley’s 3rd Fleet was hit by a typhoon in the western Pacific. After three destroyers sank — with 761 men lost at sea — Korth, then twenty-four, repeatedly dove into the treacherous seas to pull struggling survivors aboard his badly-damaged ship. His own shipmates were in awe of his strength and endurance. For Howard, who had been a lineman for the Notre Dame “Fighting Irish” football team prior to his 1941 graduation, it just seemed like a job that had to be done.

At the Tattered Cover bookstore in Denver, Colorado, it was heartwarming to have Dieter Dengler’s eldest son, Rolf, in attendance, with his lovely wife, Jennifer, and their baby boy, Tayden. Rolf, who lives in Denver, looks like Dieter; every bit as handsome and charming as his father. Also, Rolf has inherited something else from his Dad: he teaches survival and “self-reliance” training, and is an expert in the mountains and woods. Check out his web site: www.RolfDengler.com. I love his tag line (an old Mongolian proverb): “If you’re afraid, don’t do it. If you do it, don’t be afraid.” Dieter could not have said it better himself. Also joining us that special night was Dr. David Garfield, a Denver oncologist, who as a young Navy doctor on duty at a field hospital in Da Nang treated Dieter after he was brought in by the rescue helicopter. That night, David spent hours listening to Dieter tell his story, which seemed more important to the escaped (and starving) POW than even eating the food placed in front of him. It all made such an impression on David that he wrote a letter home to his wife, Myrna, the following day, detailing Dieter’s remarkable story. She thought the missive important enough to save. After all these years, David and Myrna brought with them to the bookstore the original letter, and he read it to a captivated audience. (Note: The 7/18 edition of the Denver Post listed HERO FOUND as the #3 nonfiction bestseller.)

From John Riise in Lake Isabella, California:
“Just read your book DOWN TO THE SEA and was compelled to scribble a few lines. My father was in Halsey’s Typhoon. He was aboard the light carrier Monterey. His recollection is just what you noted: planes breaking loose from their lashings and sliding all over into other planes and the sides of the hangar deck starting fires. I don’t recall him saying anyone was killed, but there were certainly injuries when trying to fight a fire in a heavily rolling ship with all sorts of heavy things slamming around. The smoke from the fires got sucked into ventilators which distributed it into living spaces below deck. The captain eventually ordered all stop on the engines and dropped both his bow anchors as drogues to keep the ship’s head into the wind and seas, which is how she rode it out. Dad always felt that Halsey’s conceit was mostly to blame. His impression was that Halsey DID know that he was sailing into a typhoon, but did it anyway. Your book certainly shed new light on that aspect for me…Great book.”

Hollywood has long taken liberties when it comes to telling true stories and depicting real lives, but in Werner Herzog’s film, “Rescue Dawn,” his over-the-top depiction of a Wisconsin-bred American POW held captive in Laos was egregious.

In early 1966, on the aircraft carrier Ranger in the Gulf of Tonkin off the steamy coast of North Vietnam, I was a 19-year-old aerographer’s mate, taking weather observations, plotting weather maps, and launching weather balloons. 

On February 1 of that year, two Ranger pilots were lost at almost the same time when their planes were shot down by enemy fire. One of them was Lieutenant (j.g.) Dieter Dengler. I well remember one of Dengler’s squadron mates coming into the weather service office, located one level below the flight deck, and saying, “If anyone can get out, our guy Dieter can.”