In 1979, former President Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, established the National POW/MIA Recognition Day. Since its inception, the third Friday in September has served as a day to honor our nation’s military veterans who were once held as prisoners of war and those who remain listed as missing in action.
The Vietnam War brought on some of the most extreme physical and psychological methods of torture by the North Vietnamese against American POWs. From one form of extreme torture to another, day after day and hour by hour, unity among the prisoners was essential.
Many ground troops and naval aviators experienced the horrors of being in North Vietnamese prison camps firsthand, and some survived to return home and tell their stories, such as the late Jeremiah A. Denton, a former U.S. Congressman and retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral.
Denton was a native of Mobile, Alabama, and a 1946 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He attended aviation indoctrination at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida, and after his training, he served with various units and squadrons.
In 1965, Denton assumed command of Attack Squadron 75. While operating from the USS Independence (CVA 62), he was shot down during a combat mission over North Vietnam. He went down about 70 miles south of Hanoi near Thanh Hoa and was captured by the local Vietnamese army shortly after. His seven-year nightmare as a POW had just begun.
In 1966, the North Vietnamese had Denton appear on television for an interview, part of a propaganda campaign. While on camera, Denton outwitted his captors by blinking his eyes and spelling out the word “T-O-R-T-U-R-E” in Morse Code. His tactic served to confirm that the Vietnamese were inflicting torture on American POWs.
During a 2010 ribbon-cutting ceremony to inaugurate a new Navy Survivor School that carries his namesake at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in New Hampshire, Denton passionately shared his experience as a POW during his remarks as the guest speaker.
“Once, I was tortured for three days and three nights,” said Denton. “I overheard the camp commander tell my tormentor, ‘Break his legs,’ and I knew my body could no longer take the punishment. I literally thought I was going to die at any moment. That’s when I prayed to the man upstairs, telling him I could no longer resist on my own and that I needed him to intervene.”
Denton further shared that it was at that moment the tormenting pain in his body was suddenly gone, and the guard who the camp commander ordered to break Denton’s legs refused the order of his superior.
“I stand here today telling you that if it were not for God, I would have washed out,” said Denton.
Denton also commented on the torment endured by the families of prisoners of war and those listed as missing in action and, in some cases, the endless suffering of not knowing what has happened to their loved ones.
Last year, according to the U.S. Department of Defense website, nearly 81,000 American service members remained missing after serving in conflicts involving the United States since World War II.
During the 2023 National POW/MIA Recognition Day commemoration at the Pentagon, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks reassured families of missing service members that the Defense Department remembers them and would not give up on its mission to account for them.
Today, the U.S. Navy provides specialized training to personnel who, due to the nature of their military duties, are designated as high-risk for capture. The training, known as Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) dates to the 1950s when it began as an Arctic survival course.
Navy SERE is a 14-day Code of Conduct course designed to teach Sailors the vital skills necessary to survive and evade capture behind enemy lines and, if captured, resist exploitation and escape, if possible. The Navy has two SERE schools, one on the east coast in Kittery, Maine, and the other on the west coast in San Diego, California.
In March 2014, Denton died at 89 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. In 2019, the Secretary of the Navy named a future Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer in Denton’s honor. The USS Jeremiah Denton (DDG 129) was ceremonially laid at Huntington Ingalls Industries in August 2022.
The Center for Security Forces provides specialized training to more than 20,000 students annually in Force Protection, Expeditionary Warfare, Code of Conduct, Law Enforcement, and Small Craft Operations. It has 14 training locations across the United States and around the world—Where Training Breeds Confidence.