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Title details for Hero Found by Bruce Henderson - Available

Hero Found

The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam War

by Bruce Henderson
Todd McLaren
Audiobook
3 of 3 copies available
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3 of 3 copies available
In February 1966, U.S. Navy pilot Dieter Dengler was shot down over "neutral Laos." He crashed deep in territory controlled by North Vietnamese army regulars and the communist Pathet Lao, who would eventually capture him and hold him prisoner in a fortified jungle prisoner-of-war camp.


But German-born Dengler was no ordinary prisoner. Already a legend in the Navy for his escape and evasion skills—amply demonstrated during training in the California desert—he would initiate, plan, and lead an organized escape from the POW camp, becoming the longest-held American to escape captivity during the Vietnam War. Caught in a most desperate situation, imprisoned not only by the enemy but by the jungle itself, Dengler's heroic impulse was to not only get himself out but to free all the other POWs—Americans, Thai, and Chinese—some of whom had been held for years.


In a surreal scene of brotherhood and celebration, Dengler returned to his aircraft carrier, the USS Ranger, six months after being shot down—emaciated and ravaged with strange tropical illnesses, but very much alive and joyous to be so—only two weeks before the ship was due to leave the Gulf of Tonkin and return home.


Bruce Henderson served with Dengler aboard Ranger off the coast of Vietnam and here tells Dengler's complete story for the first time, drawing on extensive interviews with the intrepid pilot, his squadron mates, friends, and family, as well as declassified military archival materials, some now available for the first time, and personal letters and journals. Henderson's riveting account amply demonstrates why Dengler's story of unending optimism, innate courage, loyalty, and survival against overwhelming odds remains for his fellow flyers and shipmates the best and brightest memory of their generation's war.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 30, 2010

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781400197026
      • File size: 310648 KB
      • Duration: 10:47:10

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Listeners may recognize the story of captured Vietnam War pilot Dieter Dengler from the 2006 film RESCUE DAWN. Dengler's 1978 memoir, ESCAPE FROM LAOS, forms the basis of Henderson's book, to which he has added information supplied by fellow pilots, friends, and family. The German-American Dengler led a lifestyle of derring-do typical of military pilots, always pushing the edge with alcohol, society's rules, and women. As becomes apparent, his survival in post-WWII Germany prepared him well for a Laotian POW camp, where he ate maggots, live snakes, and raw fish eyes. Narrator Todd McLaren delivers the many scenes of aerial action and combat with enthusiasm and excitement. His animated involvement adds a special spark to a work already compelling from beginning to end. J.A.H. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 26, 2010
      Only a handful of Vietnam War POWs escaped captivity. One of those was Dieter Dengler, a German-born navy Skyraider pilot shot down on his first mission over Laos in 1966 and taken prisoner by the Pathet Lao in a remote jungle camp. Tortured and nearly starved to death, Dengler led his fellow prisoners in a daring escape, and he miraculously survived 23 days in the jungle before an inexperienced pilot spotted him frantically signaling from the dense jungle just over the border in North Vietnam. Dengler’s harrowing and amazing story has been told before : in his 1978 memoir, Escape from Laos, and in two films, Werner Herzog’s documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly and a feature film, Rescue Dawn. Henderson, who served as a navy weatherman aboard Dengler’s aircraft carrier, has crafted a worthy narrative that adds new material based on interviews with Dengler (who died in 2001) and his navy comrades, friends. and family, along with newly unearthed archival records. These include the official 78-page military “Dengler Debriefing,” which Henderson (coauthor, And the Sea Will Tell) obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. This often riveting account sheds new light on an oft-told true story.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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