The day before the POWs planned to escape, and be “alive and free-or dead,” Dieter received a beating from the Pathet Lao. The following is from Hero Found: The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam War, copyright 2010 by Bruce Henderson, published by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publisher. In mid-June, however, after the prisoners overheard the guards planning to kill all of them and return to their villages because a drought had caused a severe shortage of food and water, the POWs decided they could not wait any longer to make their breakout. Some four months later, after being relocated to another camp and following meticulous preparation, Dengler and the others were ready, targeting July 4 for their mass escape. Duane Martin, a rescue helicopter pilot shot down in September 1965 another American, Eugene “Gene” DeBruin, an Air America crewman who had bailed out of a burning cargo plane in September 1963 and four other Air America crewmen from the flight, Thai civilians Prasit Promsuwan, Prasit Thanee and Phisit Intharathat, and To Yick Chiu, a Hong Kong native the men called Y.C.ĭengler, who had learned survival skills as a youth in wartime and postwar Germany and who was a Navy legend for his extraordinary escape and evasion skills, immediately began planning an escape. Six other prisoners were already there: Air Force 1st Lt. After he was marched over several days from village to village-managing to escape once before being recaptured-he was finally imprisoned in a jungle-shrouded POW camp guarded by Pathet Lao on February 14. A day later, while attempting to signal rescuers flying above heavy jungle territory controlled by the Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese Army regulars, Dengler was captured. Navy pilot Lieutenant (j.g.) Dieter Dengler’s A-1 Skyraider was shot down over Laos during a secret bombing mission. Dieter Dengler's Great Escape from Laotian POW Camp Closeĭuring the Vietnam War, Skyraider Dieter Dengler-who had learned survival skills as a youth in Germany and who was a Navy legend for his extraordinary escape and evasion skills-began planning an escape from Laotian prison immediately.
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