Dieter Dengler

Dieter Dengler was born on May 22, 1938 in Wildberg, in the Black Forest region of Baden-Württemberg, Germany and was raised by his mother alongside his brothers. He did not know his father, who was forced to join the German army when he was an infant and was killed during World War II on the Eastern Front during the winter of 1943-44.

Growing up in extreme poverty, he and his brothers used to collect wallpapers from bombed-out buildings to extract the little nutrients left in the paste and also scavenged the nearby Moroccan camp for leftover food. He also scavenged for scraps and had built a bicycle for himself, becoming the first in the town to own one.

At the age of 14, he started working as an apprentice to a blacksmith, working six days a week building giant clocks and clock faces to repair German cathedrals. Despite the fact that he was regularly beaten by the other boys and the blacksmith was harsh and strict, he thanked him later for teaching him to be “tough enough to survive”.

As a boy, he had determined to become a pilot after witnessing an Allied fighter plane firing its guns and flying very close to the window he was watching from in his hometown. After he saw an advertisement for pilots in an American magazine, he started salvaging scrap metals to sell, and completing his apprenticeship at 18, hitchhiked to Hamburg to set sail for New York City.

Dieter Dengler lived on the streets of Manhattan for over a week, and eventually contacted an Air Force recruiter, who enlisted him at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas in June 1957. Despite being promised a piloting job, he was assigned the duty of a motor pool mechanic after completing the basic training, and later got an assignment to work as a gunsmith.

During this time, he had passed the test for aviation cadets, but was not selected for pilot training as he was not a college graduate. He worked with his brother at a bakery shop near San Francisco for some time, and then enrolled into San Francisco City College, but later transferred to the College of San Mateo to study aeronautics.

Upon graduation, he successfully applied for the US Navy aviation cadet program, completed his flight training, and trained as an attack pilot in the Douglas AD Skyraider at the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas.

He joined the VA-145 squadron while it was on shore duty at Naval Air Station Alameda, California, and in 1965, joined the carrier USS Ranger with his squadron to sail for the coast of Vietnam.

After spending some time at Dixie Station, off South Vietnam, Dieter Dengler moved to Yankee Station for operations against North Vietnam, and on February 1, 1966, flew on an interdiction mission with three other aircrafts. They lost sight of one another as smoke rising from the burning fields blocked their visibility, following which Lieutenant, Junior Grade Dengle,r flew for two-and-a-half hours into enemy territory before being hit by anti-aircraft fire.

As soon as he gained consciousness following the 100ft jump, he ran into the jungle for cover and hid his survival equipments so that enemy troops cannot find those. Despite, he was apprehended the next day by Pathet Lao troops, who marched him through the jungle and tied him to four stakes spread-eagled.

Following a failed escape attempt, he was tortured by being hung upside down with a nest of biting ants over his face and was suspended in a freezing well at night. Once after he refused to sign a document condemning the United States, tiny wedges of bamboo were inserted under his fingernails.

He was later brought to a prison camp near the village of Par Kung, where he planned to escape, but the other prisoners could not agree on a date. After being shifted to Hoi Het, the Thai prisoners overheard the guards talking about shooting them and making it look like an escape attempt, following which the prisoners fixed an escape date.

On June 29, 1966, the seven prisoners freed themselves while the guards were eating, and seizing their weapons, escaped from the POW camp. The group split to avoid detection, with Dengler accompanying American Air Force helicopter pilot Duane W. Martin.