Hero Found: The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam War - Hardcover

Henderson, Bruce

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061571369 ISBN 13: 9780061571367

Publisher: Harper, 2010

Synopsis

From the #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of And the Sea Will Tell comes Hero Found: the incredible but true story of Dieter Dengler, the only pilot to escape captivity from a POW camp in the Laotian jungle during the Vietnam War. This amazing story of triumph over seemingly insurmountable odds has been filmed by Werner Herzog as both a documentary (Little Dieter Needs to Fly) and a motion picture (Rescue Dawn, starring Christian Bale), and now receives its book treatment from Bruce Henderson, who served with Dengler in Vietnam.

About this title

From the Author:

I grew up believing in heroes. For me, they were always pilots. I joined the U.S. Navy reserve while still in high school so I could go out to Alameda (Calif.) Naval Air Station for monthly drills and be around airplanes and pilots. After a restless year in college, I volunteered for two years of active duty. That is what brought me in June 1965 to the aircraft carrier Ranger (CVA-61). And while I was serving aboard ship as a weatherman -- taking observations, plotting maps, and launching weather balloons -- another pilot came into my life.
Things started off badly for Ranger pilot Ltjg. Dieter Dengler, however: shot down over Laos; a violent crash in the jungle; the wreckage of his plane found deep in enemy territory, but there was no sign of his whereabouts. For long months, we heard nothing of him. In 1966, off the steamy coast of North Vietnam, there were many pilots who went missing. Most did not return.
The fate of Dieter Dengler was to be different. In a surreal scene of brotherhood and celebration, he returned to Ranger six months after being shot down -- emaciated, ravaged with tropical illnesses but very much alive and joyous to be so. True, Dieter Dengler was but one lost pilot and hero found. Yet for his fellow fliers and shipmates, and for me personally, his story of unending optimism, innate courage, loyalty, and survival against overwhelming odds, remains our best and brightest memory of our generation's war.

From the Back Cover:

In February 1966, Dieter Dengler was shot down over “neutral” Laos in territory controlled by Pathet Lao guerrillas and North Vietnamese regulars. After his capture, the German-born Dengler proved to be no ordinary prisoner. Already a legend in the navy for his unique escape skills, which he had demonstrated during survival training in the California desert, he found himself caught in a desperate situation, imprisoned by the enemy and by the jungle itself. Dengler's heroic impulse was to free not only himself but also other POWs—American, Thai, and Chinese—some of whom had been held for years. In a surreal scene of brotherhood and celebration, Dengler, nearly six months after being shot down, returned to his ship in the Gulf of Tonkin—emaciated and ravaged with tropical maladies, but alive and free.

Bruce Henderson served with Dengler aboard USS Ranger. In this gripping book, he tells the complete story for the first time, drawing on personal interviews with the intrepid pilot, his squadron mates, and his friends and family, as well as military archival materials—some never before made public—and letters and journals. Henderson's riveting account 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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0061571369
• ISBN 13: 9780061571367
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320