Hero Found: The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam War (36 page)

Dieter Dengler’s
last thirty-five years were a gift.

He had no business surviving his ordeal as a POW. By rights, he should not have made it out of the Laotian jungle, and deep down, he knew this. That death-defying experience strongly shaped his later life. Although it was not the kind of thing he ruminated about, the proof is there: those who knew Dieter agree that no one stuffed as much living into every hour of every day as he did. “One thought is with me always,” he often said. “That I am alive and a free man.”

Alive and free
is how Dieter lived those extra thirty-five years.

ADAMICH, MARINA.
Fiancée and later wife (from 1966 to 1970) of Dieter Dengler. Marina received her MA from California State University, San Francisco, and her PhD, in 1976, from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she taught for several years in the department of biological sciences. Her thesis was a study of “how membranes are involved in telling time in an organism.” She later taught in the department of chemistry at Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University). The doctors treating Dieter in 1966 advised him to “get back to normal life and not dwell on what he had experienced,” but Marina believes he “probably had all the problems and even worse” of what is now routinely diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). “He didn’t suppress things, and tried to live with them. He was very outgoing, a social-type person, not one to sit and be reflective.” Marina had a happy second marriage to a fellow scientist, Dr. Robert Saltman, who died in 2003, after “some wonderful years together.” Marina is retired and lives in rural Oregon.

BUMGARNER, WALT “BUMMY.”
VA-145 Spad pilot. After the
Ranger
cruise, Bumgarner became a flight instructor. He ended up making four WestPac cruises, the last two as catapult and arresting officer on the carrier
Hancock
(CVA-19). After leaving the navy in 1974, he enrolled in crop-dusting school. He eventually owned five crop dusters, and made “good money as long as the environmentalists allowed us.” Harking back to the life insurance policy (with no war exclusion) proposed by Dieter that named five bachelors, two of whom—Gary Hopps and John Tunnell—were killed on the cruise, Bummy thinks the premium of $1,800 per man would
have been a very good investment; he, Dieter, and Dave Maples would have split $2 million, had the idea not been quashed by the wives of seniors officers who thought it “ghoulish.” Bummy sold his last aircraft in 1990. Since then he has been a real estate broker in Moses Lake, Washington, where he lives with his wife, Margaret. He misses flying.

COWELL, WILLIAM “SKIP.”
Captain, U.S. Air Force; Jolly Green Giant helicopter pilot. Five months after rescuing Dieter, Cowell was sent stateside to train other helicopter pilots and work with defense contractors in developing equipment for use in “the real world” of Vietnam. He retired in 1974 after twenty years in the air force, with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Thereafter he and his wife, Rita, moved to the state of Washington, where they bought an apple and pear orchard and became “instant farmers.” They are now coffee farmers on the island of Hawaii, where they own ten acres, along with eighty chickens “for bug control.” Cowell’s only helicopter crash occurred two years before he went to Vietnam, a short distance off Waikiki Beach.

DEATRICK, EUGENE P.
Lieutenant colonel, U.S. Air Force; commanding officer, 1st Air Commando Squadron, Pleiku Air Base, South Vietnam. The Spad pilot who spotted Dieter on the river in southern Laos retired from the air force in 1974 with the rank of colonel. Deatrick has long marveled at the fact that had he stuck to his original flight schedule on the morning of July 20, 1966, Dieter would not have been at the river to be sighted at that earlier hour. “If God put me on earth for one reason,” Deatrick says, “it was to find Dieter over there in the jungle.” As it was, Deatrick describes it as “a million-in-one chance.” As Dieter predicted even before meeting Deatrick, he and his rescuer became friends for life.

D
E
BRUIN, EUGENE “GENE.”
Air America cargo kicker, prisoner of war in Laos, former Montana smoke jumper. After escaping with his Chinese friend, To Yick Chiu (Y.C.), DeBruin was never seen again, although his family has long sought evidence of his survival. A transcript of a 1971 CIA interview with a source states that the two escapees were probably “killed in the area a few days” after their escape.

DENGLER, MARTIN.
Dieter’s younger brother. Designated at the age of five by their grandfather to become a baker even though he wanted to “drive trains,” Martin has worked as a baker since arriving in America a couple of years after Dieter. Martin owned his own bakery in Santa Rosa, California, for a number of years, and still bakes daily. His and Dieter’s older brother, Klaus, still lives in Germany; as a young boy, Klaus showed a talent for music and became a symphonic violinist. Their mother, Maria, died in 1992, at age seventy-two.

INTHARATHAT, PHISIT
(aka Pisidi Indradat). Two days after the escape from Ban Hoeui Het prison camp, Intharathat separated from the other two Thai prisoners, Prasit Promsuwan and Prasit Thanee, and continued on his own. The other two Thai were never seen again. After thirty-two days in the jungle, Intharathat was recaptured. He was taken to a Laotian prison camp that held a large number of Royalist Lao pro-western POWs, but no Americans or Thai. On January 7, 1967, a CIA-backed rescue plan succeeded in freeing fifty-three prisoners, including Intharathat. He resides today in Bangkok, Thailand.

JOHNS, MALCOLM “SPOOK.”
VA-145 Spad pilot. After being sent home from the
Ranger
cruise following his wheels-up emergency landing, Spook flew for the airlines. He admits he isn’t “real proud” of his record as a naval officer. Although he is proud of “the way I flew Spads,” it always bothered him that he was sent home early. Forty years later, his former CO, Hal Griffith, called to apologize. “I’m sorry about what happened. You were our best pilot.” Spook expressed his “heartfelt thanks” for Griffith’s “kind words.” Spook and his wife, Britt, live in Minnesota.

LESSARD, NORM “LIZARD.”
VA-145 Spad pilot. When Dieter returned to
Ranger,
Lizard informed him that he owed several hundred dollars for electronics, camera gear, and other items Lizard had bought for him in Japan and elsewhere. Dieter was delighted to make good on the purchases. After two wartime WestPac cruises and two others to the Mediterranean, Lizard retired from the navy in 1985 as a lieutenant commander. He worked for Hughes Aircraft, and later Raytheon, marketing flight simula
tors for training pilots. He remained a lifelong friend of Dieter’s. He lives in Sanford, Florida, with his wife, Cindy, and volunteers for hospice and raises funds for Habitat for Humanity.

MARTIN, DORCAS.
Widow of U.S. Air Force Captain Duane Martin. Shortly after his discharge from the naval hospital in San Diego, Dieter traveled to Denver, Colorado, and met with Dorcas, her parents, and Duane’s parents to tell them about Duane’s last months. The trauma of losing her husband—who had been her college sweetheart—in the war changed Dorcas’s life. She was able to remain “high functioning” in raising their two young daughters, Cheryl and Christine, through the formative years, but thereafter she “deteriorated,” according to her brother, Chuck Haines, and “fell deeper into psychotic states.” She went from a “vibrant, active, fun person on her wedding day,” her brother says, to what she is today: “institutionalized, and as much a casualty of the Vietnam War” as Duane, whose remains have never been identified. (The three other crew members of Duane’s downed helicopter, captured by North Vietnamese troops shortly after the crash, were taken to Hanoi where they were held as POWs until 1973, when they were returned to the U.S. with other American POWs under the terms of the Paris Peace Agreement. No Americans taken prisoners in Laos by the Pathet Lao were ever released.)

USS
RANGER
(CVA-61).
In the fall of 1966,
Ranger
was awarded a Navy Unit Commendation for “exceptional meritorious service” while participating in combat operations in Southeast Asia from January to August 1966, and the Arleigh Burke Fleet Trophy for having shown the most improvement in battle efficiency that year. The
Forrestal
-class supercarrier served in the U.S. Navy from 1957 to 1993. Currently docked in Bremerton, Washington, it is awaiting conversion into a museum ship to be located on the harbor of Portland, Oregon. Information about the USS
Ranger
Foundation, a nonprofit corporation, can be found at USSRanger.org, or by writing 1505 SE Gideon St., Portland, OR 97202, or calling (503) 558-8519. When it is opened to the public as a floating education center, museum, and memorial,
Ranger
will have on its broad deck a plaque honoring its most famous Spad pilot and former POW: Dieter Dengler.

Complete book publication details are supplied in the bibliography. U.S. Navy ship and unit records such as deck logs, action reports, and war diaries are available at the National Archives II, College Park, Maryland. Other naval documents, such as oral and command histories, communications, and debriefings, are collected at the Naval Historical Center’s Operational Archives, and documents relating to naval aviation (1911–present) are available at the Aviation History branch, both located in the Washington, D.C., Navy Yard. Vietnam-era MIA/POW files of the Central Intelligence Agency are located in the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress. Military personnel records are accessed at the National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis, Missouri. The “Dengler Debriefing,” a seventy-eight-page Pacific Fleet/Fleet Intelligence Center document, was obtained following the author’s Freedom of Information Act request to the commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Pearl Harbor. The author conducted interviews with Dieter Dengler in 1997 and 1998, and with other individuals from 2007 through 2009.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

“turning point of the war”: H. Griffin Mumford obituary,
San Francisco Chronicle
, July 20, 2007.

“most due to”: Bowden,
Tales to Noses over Berlin
, p. 17.

“for heroic or meritorious”: www.airmedal.org.

“deep regret”: Secretary of War telegram, March 16, 1944.

“Bob was missing”: Jack T. Bradley letter, April 12, 1944.

“oscillating more-or-less…at least 100 feet”: Statement of David B. O’Hara, March 4, 1944, in Missing Air Crew Report, March 10, 1944.

“made piloting a jet”: Grant,
Over the Beach
, p. 129.

CHAPTER 1 “BORN A GYPSY”

“under penalty of death”: Dieter Dengler interview.

Conversation between Maria Dengler and SS officer: Dieter and Martin Dengler interviews.

“born a Gypsy”…“an eye on”…“talked to all”: Martin Dengler interview.

Conversation between Maria Schnuerle and Reinhold Dengler: Ibid.

“Who the hell”…“rock refinery”…“Now I have”…“Since I only”…“I’m not fighting”…“I may not”…“Let’s take”…“now in God’s”…“there cannot”: Dieter and Martin Dengler interviews.

“tie the boys”…“like an Almighty”…“little Dieter”…“an entire cartridge”: Dengler interview.

“ground erupted”…“deafening booms”: Dengler,
Escape from Laos
, p. 3.

“Everything is gone”…“God’s gift”…“a million pieces”: Martin Dengler interview.

“You and the boys”…“resettled”: Dengler interview.

“like a conquering”…“wide-eyed and”: Dengler,
Escape from Laos
, p. 4.

“rolling down”…“a herd”…“Martin, you go”: Martin Dengler interview.

“nutrients in the”: Dengler interview.

“the most difficult”…“never give up”…“the hero of Calw”…“nothing getting past”…“hero to a”…“drive railroad”: Martin Dengler interview.

“Cold and hungry”…“first lesson”: Dengler,
Escape from Laos
, p. 5.

“calloused hands”…“We Need Men”…“interrupted a hundred”: Dieter Dengler,
Escape from Laos
, draft manuscript, c. 1977.

“nearly froze”…“America needs”…“all night long”…“slave labor”: Ibid.

“three times to”…“the biggest gangster”: Martin Dengler interview.

CHAPTER 2 AMERICA

“
Auf Wiedersehen
”…“had news”…“era had come”…“strange American”…“heaving for”…“the most beautiful”: Dengler,
Escape from Laos
, draft.

“You’ll end up”…“No food allowed”…“whole new world”…“Will I be”…“You will”: Dengler interview.

“conned”…“no way out”…“never saw a”…“deceiving pictures”: Dengler,
Escape from Laos
, draft.

“every airman should”…“surrounded by shooters”…“allowed and encouraged”: “Sharpshooters from the Wild Blue Yonder,”
American Rifle
, January 1985.

“more interested”…“like corned”: Dengler interview.

“indiscriminate eater”: Mike Grimes interview.

“fantastic shot”…“played survival games”…“Martin, what would”…“People are chasing”…“From Dieter”…“This must be”…“I like your”…“If you want”…“got really scared”…“If they had booked”…“More push-ups!”…“Don’t
ever
”…“I’ve been watching”…“dropped wires down”…“My brother is”…“This is the same”…“flunking to 100 percent”…“kind of saved”: Martin Dengler interview.

“Honorable Dismissal Granted”: Permanent Record, City College of San Francisco, February 13, 1963.

“full of life”…“a doctor or”…“maybe once”…“survived on his”…“people magnet”…“You couldn’t help”…“You can bring”…“We should be”: Grimes interview.

“My Volksy is”…“Volksy running good”: Ibid.

“lots of spirit”: James Love interview.

“popped his head”…“a nice icebreaker”…“break anything open”: Clifford Hoffman interview.

“gregarious and innovative”: Ann Ryan interview.

CHAPTER 3 TRAINING FOR FLIGHT

“screaming and yelling”…“get guys to”…“not one grain”…“no hardship”…“all fun”…“Made a hole”…“
Links
”…“anyone else would”: Dengler interview.

“shockingly uncomfortable”: Walt Bumgarner interview.

“loving every minute”: Dengler,
Escape from Laos
, draft.

“believe the instruments”…“calling the ball”: Bumgarner interview.

“violent collision”…“like a high-speed”: Hirschman and Hirschman,
She’s Just Another Navy Pilot
, p. 32.

“big choice”: Bumgarner interview.

“carry everything but”: Heinemann and Rausa,
Ed Heinemann
, p. 135.

“typically cocky Spad”…“sleek jets everyday”…“Hell, everyone drives”:
Navy Magazine
, December 1969.

“style and derring-do”: Dorr,
Skyraider
, p. 81.

“first come”…“made one beeline”: Dengler interview.

“taxi and abort”…“Now jam the”: Bumgarner interview.

“the right leg thing”…“That was scary”…“pure undisciplined behavior”…“good navy pilot”…“pretty sharp”: Doug Haines interview.

“the fastest roller”: Hirschman and Hirschmann,
She’s Just Another Navy Pilot
, p. 32.

“some of hers”…“167 degrees off”…“stable and steady”…“like the wild”…“Dieter’s mind”: Haines interview.

“go hunting for”: Ibid.

“pretty miserable”…“lumps of coal”…“Who’s that”…“Dieter Dengler”…“one size too”: Tom Dixon interview.

“I’ve got a knife”…“Okay”…“Take off your”: Ibid.

“such things to”: Harold Griffith interview.

“gained three pounds”…“everything the guards”: Dengler Debriefing, Pacific Fleet/Fleet Intelligence Center, October 5, 1966, p. 64.

“in a class”…“exasperating”…“loved his successes”…“astounded and amazed”: Dave Maples interview.

“make his name”: Dixon interview.

CHAPTER 4 THE SWORDSMEN

“too dangerous”…“Okay, you take”…“I’ll get rid”…“Get on my”…“buying the farm”: Bumgarner interview.

“three rounds to warn”: Robert J. Hanok, “Skunks, Bogies, Silent Hounds, and the Flying Fish: The Gulf of Tonkin Mystery, 2–4 August 1964,”
Cryptologic Quarterly
19, no. 4/20, no. 1 (Winter 2000/Spring 2001).

“fleet up”…“some problems”…“west coast war”…“water targets”: Griffith interview.

“wild evasive maneuvers”: Hanok, “Skunks, Bogies.”

“No boats”…“no boat wakes”: Stockdale and Stockdale,
In Love and War
, p. 23.

“
ENTIRE ACTION
”…“
COMPLETE EVALUATION
”…“over-eager”…“freak weather”: Hanok, “Skunks, Bogies.”

“non-incident”…“excuse to go”…“did not want”…“quietly removed”…“practically useless”…“very powerful”…“looked like World War”: Griffith interview.

“airborne and heading”…“
Four Eleven
”: Homecoming II Project, May 15, 1990.

“no target out”: Samuel Catterlin interview.

“go straight in”: Griffith interview.

“just what Johnson”:
New York Times
, July 7, 2009.

“Where’s Vietnam” and other dialogue: Dengler interview.

“Ensign Dengler has”: Report on the Fitness of Officers, VA-122, February 5, 1965.

“couldn’t shoot”…“still be fighting”: Griffith interview.

“I don’t care”: Dengler interview.

“everyone wanting”…“planning for the”: Dengler,
Escape from Laos
, draft.

“bombing is quite”: Malcolm Johns interview.

“find women and”…“Spad drivers”…“loud and clear”…“jet jocks”…“give up the”: Norm Lessard interview.

“did something wrong”…“damn good pilot”…“you can’t make”: Griffith interview.

“very sobering”: Daniel Farkas interview.

“lots of demanding”…“a capable pilot”…“a mix of ideal”: Clarence Armstrong interview.

“unbuckling and getting”…“square peg”…“I’m in the”…“a band of”…“wild man”…“like a bunch”: Johns interview.

“sweated everything”: Frank Schelling interview.

“find Soviet”…“wasn’t the greatest”: Johns interview.

“not be captured”…“shoot it out”: Dengler Debriefing, p. 11.

“the best one”: Dengler,
Escape from Laos
, draft.

“a wild guy”…“started sobering up”…“better have fun”: Lessard interview.

“wear out”…“all the hooligans”: Don Martin interview.

“Why not?”…“ghoulish”…“kibosh on it”: Bumgarner interview.

“we didn’t believe”…“too violent”…“Who are they”…“liked just fine”…“You’ll get us”…“Come on, Spook”…“Goddammit, Dieter”: Wayne Bennett interview.

“import women”…“young Elizabeth Taylor”: Farkas interview.

“in one category”: Johns interview.

“never stopped pursuing”: Marina Adamich Saltman interview.

“I’ve wanted to” and other dialogue: Johns interview.

CHAPTER 5 GRAY EAGLE GOES TO WAR

“about a foot”: Dengler Debriefing, p. 11.

“Dieter, are you”…“I never miss”…“wasn’t into getting”…“they wouldn’t kill”…“gear for survival”: Farkas interview.

“independent, stubborn”…“talking or playing”…“many hours”: Dennis Enstam interview.

“managed by fear”: Gary Heck interview.

“misused and abused”: John Moore interview.

“famous red MG”…“winning many races”:
Daily Shield
, June 5, 1966.

“in the tank”…“new guy was”…“really caught on”…“lots of ideas”: Michael McCuddin interview.

“like Dear Abby”: Sharon McCuddin Henke interview.

“The same leopard”:
Navy News Magazine
, February 1966.

“unexcelled morale”: Legion of Merit Citation, Pacific Fleet, 1966.

“had the conn”: Ship’s log, January 12, 1966.

“very close watch”…“What’s the gun”…“Pirates”: Stewart Hunter interview.

“scopes and radios”…“electric ozone smell”: Robert Montgomery interview.

“Call the ball”…“
Nine Zero One
, no ball”…“You’re low”…“
Nine Zero One
, ball”: Radio message from USS
Ranger
, January 16, 1966.

“pickle the trigger”…“bright and steady”: Bumgarner interview.

“high and fast”…“Bolter!”: Radio message, January 16, 1966.

“nightmare”…“no moon”…“just dropping out”…“steel hitting steel”…“sucking of metal parts”: Lawrence Petersen interview.

“failed to climb”: Bumgarner interview.

“Eject, eject!”: Radio message, January 16, 1966.

“Airplane in the”: Bumgarner interview.

“nice guy”…“Let’s have a”…“Blow the seats”: Petersen interview.

“all military in”: Lessard interview.

“methodical and a”: Arthur Windsor interview.

“loose cannons”: Dixon interview.

“went to hell”…“fired a pod”: Dieter Dengler letter, January 27, 1966.

“chicken shitting bombs”: Farkas interview.

“container full of”…“frightened of being”…“tumble and tumble”: Dengler interview.

“find some action”: Johns interview.

“enormous bang”…“shake and shake”…“couldn’t hold them”: Dengler interview.

“to work over”…“infected with VC”…“straight scoop”…“white shirts”: Norman Lessard journal, 1966.

“restock and reload”…“get ready to”: Lessard interview.

“shooting like gangbusters”…“without saying”…“had it out”…“I’m not flying”: Dengler letter, January 27, 1966.

“If you want”: Windsor interview.

“red-faced”…“I could kill”…“more of a”: Farkas interview.

“restricted to the”…“sneak out”: Dengler letter, January 27, 1966.

“not one”…“a little reckless”: Griffith interview.

“led with his”: Bumgarner interview.

CHAPTER 6 SHOOTDOWN

“armed reconnaissance”…“bridges, truck parks”: Operational Briefing Items for Monday, January 31, 1966.

“non-incident”: Griffith interview.

“
We shouldn’t even
”…“could take hits”…“firing back good”…“all kinds of”…“no fluid”…“I’m going in”…“whole world below”…
Electron Lead
…“Skipper, why don’t”…“just hanging on”…“bigger than a”…“might snap”…“Let’s take it”…“really stupid”: Bumgarner interview.

“superb airmanship”: Silver Star Medal citation (Harold F. Griffith).

“lucky to have”: Farkas interview.

“like an explosion”…“just about had”…“I have your”: Dieter Dengler letter, January 31, 1966.

“scared shitless”: Lessard interview.

“thought that was”…“They caught us”: Lessard journal.

“Low ceilings and”: Daily operations briefing, February 1, 1966.

“not sublime conditions”…“two football fields”…“quietly went into the”…“swimming toward California”: Sylvester Chumley interview.

“seemed endless”…“easy”: Dengler,
Escape from Laos
, draft.

“the V.C. were”…“got a couple”…“all the way”…“Like the LSO”…“The public in”: Lessard journal.

“worth their weight”: Lessard interview.

“Secure loose”: Dengler,
Escape from Laos
, draft.

“700 feet in”…“impenetrable”: Dengler,
Escape from Laos
, p. 9.

“deepest green”…“murky and yellow”…“great flier”: Dengler,
Escape from Laos
, draft.

“not making career”…“pretty well tuned”…“Wild animal”: Johns interview.

“knew something was”: Bumgarner interview.

“The heck with”: Johns interview.