EDITOR’S NOTE: On July 18, 1965, Adm. Jeremiah Denton of the U.S. Navy was shot down during a combat mission over North Vietnam. A prisoner of war for seven and a half years, Denton provided the first direct evidence of torture by the North Vietnamese. The following is an excerpt of his book, When Hell Was in Session, a special edition of which commemorated the 25th anniversary of his experience.
My wife knew what was up the moment twelve-year-old Billy, our fourth child, came halfway up the stairs and called out that Captain Nelson was there to see her.
As Jane recounted to me years later, Captain Stu Nelson had called on a neighbor, Bobi Boecker, a few days before to tell her that her husband, Don, had gone down over Laos. Don had been rescued, and on that pleasant, warm Sunday afternoon in July, Captain Nelson held out hope that I would also be rescued.
“It’s all right, it’s all right, we’re trying to get him out,” Nelson called up the stairs.
Even now I relive the moments as though I had been there. Jane was silent as she came down to face the stocky, crew-cut Nelson and his pretty blond wife. There was really little to say as Nelson, ordinarily gruff and outspoken, mumbled the details. A parachute had been seen; my comrades had flown cover and had seen me fall into a river and then get safely to shore. A rescue effort was under way. That was about all.
Jane listened in stunned silence and thought back to the night before, when she had taken the children to a drive-in to see
Mary Poppins. For the first time since I had left home three months previously, she had felt apprehension about my safety. In the middle of the movie she had begun to cry, silently. That Sunday morning she had written me a letter and then the family had gone to Mass.
Now Billy was staring at her, and she didn’t know what to do. Finally she asked him to go and take care of Mary Beth, one and a half, our youngest. Michael and Madeleine, five and seven years old, were playing outside. Mrs. Nelson took them across the street to a neighbor.
Because of the time difference, it was now Monday, July 19 in Vietnam. Jane did what her character and background told her to do; she went to church and prayed. Later she would take care of her family.
People made things easier. As the news spread, friends came to offer assistance, and Jane’s sister began making plane reservations for the trip to Virginia Beach. Our close friend Kitty Clark came down from Washington immediately.
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