A story of survival and escape: US Navy pilot Dieter Dengler
US Navy pilot Dieter Dengler was a German-born United States Navy aviator. He served in Attack Squadron 145, VA on the USS Ranger and flew A-1H Skyraiders. While flying missions near the North Vietnam-Laos border during the Vietnam War in 1966 Dengler was shot down and taken prisoner by the group called the Pathet Lao.
His father was drafted into the German Army and died in WWll. Dengler’s mother struggled to feed her children. During that war, a bomber flew over head and the small boy saw an airplane for the first time. At that moment Dengler’s dream was to fly.
During his six months of captivity in a Laos POW camp, Dengler suffered months of torture. He endured large bamboo slivers pushed under his fingernails and being hung upside down over a nest of hungry ants and almost drowned in a well.
Along with five other prisoners Dengler escaped and were rescued by US forces on August 11, 1966 and became only the second captured airman to escape during the war.
After the war, he became a test pilot for private aircraft and a commercial airline pilot.
Dengler’s story of survival and escape from a POW camp in Laos during the Vietnam War has become an inspiration to many.
Photo: Dieter Dengler with his squadron from VA-145 following his rescue
Dieter Dengler’s book about his escape: “Escape From Laos”.
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