Jeremiah Andrew Denton Jr. (July 15, 1924 -
March 28, 2014)
... was an American politician and military officer who
served as a U.S. Senator representing Alabama from 1981 to
1987. He was the first Republican since the 1960s to win a
Senate seat in Alabama. Denton was previously United States
Navy Rear Admiral and Naval Aviator taken captive during the
Vietnam War.
Denton was widely known for enduring almost eight years of
grueling conditions as an American prisoner of war (POW) in
North Vietnam after the A-6 Intruder he was piloting was
shot down in 1965. He was the first of all American POWs
held captive and released by Hanoi to step off an American
plane during Operation Homecoming in February 1973. As one
of the earliest and highest-ranking officers to be taken
prisoner in North Vietnam, Denton was forced by his captors
to participate in a 1966 televised propaganda interview
which was broadcast in the United States. While answering
questions and feigning trouble with the blinding television
lights, Denton blinked his eyes in Morse code, spelling the
word "T-O-R-T-U-R-E" - and confirming for the first time to
U.S. Naval Intelligence that American POWs were being
tortured.
In 1976, Denton wrote When Hell Was in Session about his
experience in captivity, which was made into the 1979 film
with Hal Holbrook. Denton was also the subject of the 2015
documentary Jeremiah produced by Alabama Public Television.
In 1980, Denton was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he
focused mainly on family issues and national security,
helping pass the Adolescent Family Life Act (the so-called
"Chastity Bill") in 1981 and heading the Judiciary
Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism.
Early life and education:
Denton was born July 15, 1924, in Mobile, Alabama, the
oldest of three brothers, and the son of Jeremiah Sr. and
Irene (Steele) Denton. He attended McGill-Toolen Catholic
High School (Class of 1942) and Spring Hill College in
Mobile, Alabama. His grandmother, Irene Claudia Jackson, was
the grand-daughter of Roxana Virginia Hollinger, the
daughter of Alexander Hollinger. Alexander Hollinger was the
brother-in-law of Congressman George Washington Owen, the
first member of Congress elected from Mobile in a district
containing Mobile. Alexander Hollinger was the brother of
Owen's wife Sarah Louise Hollinger.
In June 1943, he entered the United States Naval Academy in
Annapolis, Maryland, and graduated three years later in the
accelerated Class of 1947 on June 5, 1946, with a Bachelor
of Science degree, the same class as future President Jimmy
Carter.
Career:
His 34-year naval career included service on a variety of
ships and on aircraft, including airships (blimps). His
principal field of endeavor was naval operations. He also
served as a test pilot, flight instructor, and commanding
officer of an attack squadron flying the A-6 Intruder.
In 1957, he was credited with revolutionizing naval strategy
and tactics for nuclear war as architect of the "Haystack
Concept." This strategy called for concealing aircraft
carriers from radar by intermingling with commercial
shipping and avoiding formations suggestive of a naval
fleet. The strategy was simulated in maneuvers and
demonstrated effectiveness, allowing two aircraft carrier
fleets thirty-five simulated atomic launches before
aggressor aircraft and submarines could repel them. He went
on to serve on the staff of the Commander, U.S. Sixth Fleet
at the rank of Commander (O-5) as Fleet Air Defense Officer.
Denton graduated from the Armed Forces Staff College and the
Naval War College, where his thesis on international affairs
received top honors by earning the prestigious President's
Award. In 1964, he received the degree of Master of Arts in
International Affairs from George Washington University's
School of Public and International Affairs in Washington,
D.C.
Vietnam War:
Denton served as a United States Naval Aviator during the
Vietnam War. In February 1965, he became the Prospective
Commanding Officer of Attack Squadron Seventy-Five serving
aboard aircraft carrier USS Independence (CV-62).
On July 18, 1965, Commander Denton was piloting his A-6A
Intruder jet (BUNO 151577) while leading a twenty-eight
aircraft bombing mission over North Vietnam off the
Independence which was stationed in the South China Sea. He
and LTJG Bill Tschudy, his bombardier/navigator, were forced
to eject from their plane was damaged by one of their own
Mark 82 bombs exploding shortly after its release after
which it went down out of control near the city of Thanh Hoa
in North Vietnam. Both men were quickly captured and taken
prisoner.
Denton and Tschudy were held as prisoners of war for almost
eight years, four of which were spent in solitary
confinement. Denton was notable for his leadership during
the Hanoi March in July 1966, when he and over 50 American
prisoners were paraded through the streets of Hanoi and
beaten by North Vietnamese civilians. Denton is best known
from this period of his life for the 1966 televised press
conference in which he was forced to participate as an
American POW by his North Vietnamese captors. He used the
opportunity to send a distress message confirming for the
first time to the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence and
Americans that American POWs were being tortured in North
Vietnam. He repeatedly blinked his eyes in Morse code during
the interview, spelling out "T-O-R-T-U-R-E". He was also
questioned about his support for the U.S. war effort in
Vietnam, to which he replied: "I don't know what is
happening, but whatever the position of my government is, I
support it fully. Whatever the position of my government, I
believe in it, yes, sir. I am a member of that government,
and it is my job to support it, and I will as long as I
live." While a prisoner, he was promoted to the rank of
captain. Denton was later awarded the Navy Cross and other
decorations for heroism while a prisoner of war.
Denton was first sent to the Hỏa Lò Prison, nicknamed the
"Hanoi Hilton", and was later transferred to the Cu Loc
Detention Center, nicknamed the "Zoo". In 1967 he was
transferred to a prison nicknamed "Alcatraz". Here, he
became part of a group of American POWs known as the
"Alcatraz Gang". The group consisted of George Coker, Harry
Jenkins, Sam Johnson, George McKnight, James Mulligan,
Howard Rutledge, Robert Shumaker, James Stockdale (who had
graduated with Denton from the Naval Academy), Ronald Storz,
and Nels Tanner. They were put in "Alcatraz" and solitary
confinement to separate them from other POWs because their
strong resistance led other POWs in resisting their captors.
"Alcatraz" was a special facility in a courtyard behind the
North Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense, located about
one mile away from Hoa Lo Prison. Each of the American POWs
spent day and night in windowless 3-by-9-foot (0.91 m x 2.74
m) cells mostly in legcuffs.
On February 12, 1973, both Denton and Tschudy were released
in Hanoi by the North Vietnamese along with numerous other
American POWs during Operation Homecoming. Stepping off the
jet back home in uniform, Denton said: "We are honored to
have had the opportunity to serve our country under
difficult circumstances. We are profoundly grateful to our
Commander-in-Chief and to our nation for this day. God bless
America." The speech has a prominent place in the 1987
documentary, Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam.
Denton was briefly hospitalized at the Naval Hospital
Portsmouth, Virginia, and then was assigned to the
Commander, Naval Air Forces, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, from
February to December 1973. In January 1974, Denton became
the commandant of the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk
(now known as the Joint Forces Staff College), to June 1977.
His final assignment was as special assistant to the Chief
of Naval Education and Training at Naval Air Station
Pensacola, Florida, from June 1977 until his retirement from
the Navy on November 1, 1977 with the rank of Rear Admiral.
He wrote his book in 1976, When Hell was in Session,
detailing his detention as an American POW in North Vietnam,
which was made into a television movie of the same title in
1979, starring Hal Holbrook as Denton.
After retirement:
Denton accepted a position with the Christian Broadcasting
Network (CBN) as a consultant to CBN founder and friend, Pat
Robertson, from 1978 to 1980. During his time with CBN, both
Denton and Robertson repeatedly expressed support for the
Contra forces in Nicaragua. In 1981, he founded and chaired
the National Forum Foundation. Through his National Forum
Foundation, Denton arranged shipments of donated goods to
countries in need of aid.
Denton founded the Coalition for Decency, which tried to
clean up television by urging boycotts of sponsors that
promoted sexual promiscuity.
Political career:
In 1980, Denton ran as a Republican for a U.S. Senate seat
from his home state of Alabama, and was supported by Jerry
Falwell's Moral Majority. In the primary election, he easily
defeated former U.S. Congressman Armistead Selden, who was
the candidate of choice of the Republican establishment in
the state. He then achieved a surprise victory with 50.2
percent of the vote in November over Democratic candidate
Jim Folsom Jr., who himself had defeated the incumbent,
Donald W. Stewart, in the Democratic primary election. In
doing so, Denton became the first retired Navy admiral
elected to the United States Senate. He was the second
retired Navy admiral to serve in the U.S. Senate, as Admiral
Thomas C. Hart, U.S. Navy (ret.) of Connecticut was
appointed to fill a vacant Senate seat and served from
November 15, 1945 to November 5, 1946.
He was the first Republican to be popularly elected in
Alabama since the direct election of U.S. Senators began in
1913, the first Republican senator since Reconstruction to
represent Alabama in the U.S. Senate, and the first Catholic
to be elected to statewide office in Alabama.
As a Senator, Denton was most outspoken on issues related to
the regulation of sexual promiscuity and the preservation of
the nuclear family, a goal that he sought to pursue through
a $30 million bill to push chastity among teenagers. In 1981
he was able to pass the Adolescent Family Life Act
(nicknamed the "Chastity Bill") as a part of the 1981
omnibus.
Denton was a hawk on national security issues, particularly
with regards to the Soviet Union. By the mid-1980s, he told
Time magazine at the outset of the decade, "We will have
less national security than we had proportionately when
George Washington's troops were walking around barefoot at
Valley Forge." Along with Republican Senators Orrin Hatch
and John East, Denton set up and later chaired the Senate
Judiciary Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism, which
focused on communist and Soviet threats. Citing testimonies
from journalist Claire Sterling, former CIA director William
Colby, neoconservative writer Michael Ledeen and journalist
and spy thriller writer Arnaud de Borchgrave, the committee
alleged that left-wing activist groups, publications and
think tanks had been infiltrated by Soviet agents of the
KGB. Media at the time referred to committee's role and its
accusations bearing similarity to the Red Scare tactics used
by Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1940s and 1950s.
In 1986, Denton narrowly lost his bid for reelection to the
U.S. Senate, receiving 49.7 percent of the vote against U.S.
Congressman Richard Shelby, a conservative Democrat.
Personal life:
In 2007, Denton's first wife and the mother of his seven
children, the former Kathryn Jane Maury, died after
sixty-one years of marriage. He married Mary Belle Bordone
in 2010.
His children included James S. Denton, publisher and editor
of World Affairs and the director of the World Affairs
Institute.
Denton died of complications from a heart ailment at a
hospice in Virginia Beach on March 28, 2014, at age 89. He
is buried at Arlington National Cemetery with his wife Jane.
source: wikipedia
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2009
with President Ronald Reagan - 1986
Senator Jeremiah Denton
Captain Jeremiah Andrew Denton speaking to a crowd at his
welcome home ceremony at Clark Air Base, Philippines - 1973
CDR Jeremiah Denton - 1965
CDR Jeremiah Denton with his Grumman A-6A Intruder aboard
USS Independence (CVA 62) - 1965
decorations + awards
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