If they were able to hold the camp and make air contact and set up a rescue operation from here, Y. But if they had to head for Thailand and evade enemy trackers en route, there was no way he could keep up. It was a terrible thought to condemn a fellow prisoner to certain death, and they struggled with the dilemma.
Yet everyone knew that they would be at a distinct disadvantage carrying a sick man who had trouble walking. Finally, Gene said he and Y. Now, even though he understood it lessened his own chance for rescue, Gene would not leave behind his Air America crewman, who had become a good friend during their interment.
When they divvied up the sacks of dried rice, Dieter and Duane made sure Gene and Y. Already there had been one aborted effort. The day before, after Dieter had crawled out the back of the hut and was ready to slip under the fence, Phisit had called it off from the other hut because two of the guards were unaccounted for in the kitchen. Dieter had to put everything back into place, and get back inside. Recalling how opposed to the escape Phisit had long been, Dieter thought he might now be playing mind games.
As the hour approached 4 p. He passed the information to Y. In English, Y. Dieter pulled out the loosened pole and logs, and climbed out the opening. Burrowing under the fence like a crazed groundhog, Dieter squeezed through and headed for the nearest guard hut. He leapt onto the porch, and crept across the bamboo flooring that creaked with his every step. Inside, he found two Chinese-made rifles and a U. M-1 carbine with a full round magazine.
While with the Air Force shooting team he had spent many hours on the range firing M-1s; he would keep this lightweight, semi-automatic weapon for himself. On the way out, he picked up a full ammunition belt with extra magazines.
As he came off the porch, other prisoners were emerging from under the fence. Gene was already making his way down the fence line toward the rear of the compound. Phisit and Prasit came toward Dieter, who gave them the loaded Chinese rifles and some ammo. The two Thais headed off in the direction of the kitchen with Duane following. Dieter caught up with Gene.
As they rounded the corner under the now-empty gun tower, Gene peeled off for the hut where the guard on tower duty routinely left the Thompson submachine gun before going for food. As soon as Dieter rounded the far corner of the stockade, he could see the guards milling about inside the open-walled kitchen hut. They did not run toward the front of the stockade—the direction from which the Thais should have been coming—but toward Dieter.
He pressed the butt of the M-1 tightly between his chest muscle and the front ball of his shoulder, tilting his head so that his closest eye looked straight down the top of the barrel.
His index finger rested lightly on the trigger. At that moment a shot rang out. Dieter felt the speeding bullet whiz past his head. He spotted a guard in the kitchen with a rifle pointed his way.
So much for the theory that the guards had no weapons! Dieter squeezed the trigger and dropped the guard with one shot. Running for Dieter at full speed with a machete held menacingly over his head was Moron. The force of the blast lifted Moron off the ground, threw him back several feet and spun him around. Dieter swung around to see another guard with a machete trying to outflank him. Although the M-1 fired only once each time the trigger was pulled, by rapidly squeezing and releasing the trigger he got off a fast-rate of fire.
The guard collapsed on the ground, holding his side and shrieking. Then, like a backwoods Kentuckian on a squirrel hunt, he steadied himself and opened fire. He hit one more guard through the neck as he ran away. Needing to reload, Dieter slammed home a new magazine. He shot another guard just as he entered the jungle. The guard dropped from sight, then sprang up holding one arm.
Duane came running up carrying a carbine he had found in a guard hut. The plane that flew by that he said made a lasting impression was a single-engine fighter. His childhood close encounter would not be the last time Dieter exchanged meaningful glances with death. The film begins in , when Dieter and his battalion are sent on a secret bombing raid over Laos. After his plane is shot down, Dieter endures a few days of torture at the hands of Pathet Lao soldiers.
Some of them have languished in the camp for more than two years. In different hands, this extraordinary story of survival might have played like a catalog of action tropes.
None of the usual consolations is offered here -- no soaring violins, or quivering nostrils, or righteous killings or platitudes about faith in God and government. If anything, he seeks to do the opposite.
He places three people in one harrowing situation and watches them react. Bale, Zahn and Davies disappear completely into their roles -- for that matter, they nearly disappear altogether -- as three men with wildly different approaches to life. A docile company man, Gene remains convinced until the end that the Army is planning his rescue -- even though the Army prefers not to admit he exists.
The day he arrived in the camp, Dengler advised the other prisoners that he intended to escape and invited them to join him.
They advised that he wait until the monsoon season when there would be plenty of water. Shortly after Dengler arrived, the prisoners were moved to a new camp ten miles away at Hoi Het. After the move, a strong debate ensued among the prisoners, with Dengler, Martin and Prasit arguing for escape which the other prisoners, particularly Indradat, initially opposed. One of the Thais heard the guards discussing the possibility of shooting them in the jungle and making it look like an escape attempt.
With that revelation, everyone agreed and a date to escape was set. Their plan was to take over the camp and signal a C Hercules flareship that made nightly visits to the vicinity. Dengler loosened logs under the hut that allowed the prisoners to squeeze through. The plan was for him to go out when the guards were eating and seize their weapons and pass them to Indradat and Promsuwan while Martin and DeBruin procured others from other locations.
On June 29, , while the guards were eating, the group slipped out of their hand and foot restraints and grabbed the guards' unattended weapons, which included M1 rifles, Chinese automatic rifles, an American carbine and at least one submachinegun, as well as an early version of the AK47 automatic rifle, which he used during the escape from the POW camp.
Dengler went out first followed by Duane. He went to the guard hut and seized an M1 for himself, and passed the American Carbine to Duane. The guards realized the prisoners had escaped and five of them rushed toward Dengler, who shot at least three with the AK Duane shot a popular guard in the leg. Two others ran off, presumably to get help, although at least one had been wounded. The seven prisoners split into three groups.
DeBruin was originally supposed to go with Dengler and Martin but decided to go with To, who was recovering from a fever and unable to keep up. They intended to get over the nearest ridge and wait for rescue. Dengler and Martin went off by themselves with the intention of heading for the Mekong River to escape to Thailand, but they never got more than a few miles from the camp from which they had escaped.
With the exception of Indradat, who was recaptured and later rescued by Laotian troops, none of the other prisoners was ever seen again. DeBruin was reportedly captured and placed in another camp, then disappeared in Dengler and Martin found themselves in a jungle filled with leeches, insects and other creatures that made life miserable. They made their way down a creek and found a river, but when they thought they were on their way to the Mekong, they discovered that they had gone around in a circle.
They had spotted several villages but had not been detected. They set up camp in an abandoned village where they found shelter from the nearly incessant rain. They had brought rice with them and found other food, but were still on the verge of starvation.
Their intent had been to signal a C but at first lacked the energy to build a fire using primitive methods of rubbing bamboo together. Dengler finally managed to locate carbine cartridges that Martin had thrown away and used the powder from them to enhance the tinder, and got a fire going.
That night they lit torches and waved them in the shape of an S and O when a C came over. The airplane circled and dropped a couple of flares and they were overjoyed, believing they had been spotted. They woke up the next morning to find the landscape covered by fog and drizzle, but when it lifted, no rescue force appeared. The following day, they were demoralized after a rescue force did not appear in response to their signal of the C flareship. Martin, who was weak from starvation and was suffering from malaria, wanted to approach a nearby Akha village to steal some food.
Dengler knew it was not a good idea, but refused to let his friend go near the village alone. They saw a little boy playing with a dog, and the child ran into the village calling out "American! He swung again and hit him behind the neck, killing him. Dengler jumped to his feet and rushed toward the villager, who turned and ran into the village to get help. Dengler managed to evade the searchers who went out after him and escaped back into the jungle.
He returned to the abandoned village where the two had been spending their time and where he and Martin had signaled the C That night when a C flareship came over, Dengler set fire to the huts and burned the village down.
The C crew spotted the fires and dropped flares, but even though the crew reported their sighting when they returned to their base at Ubon , Thailand, the fires were not recognized by intelligence as having been a signal from a survivor. Deatrick has long marveled at the fact that had he stuck to his original flight schedule on the morning of July 20, , Dieter would not have been at the river to be sighted at that earlier hour.
Photo taken of Dengler in the hospital after his rescue. At 5 feet nine inches cm , Dengler weighed only 98 pounds When a rescue force again failed to materialize, Dengler decided to find one of the parachutes from a flare for use as a possible signal. He found one on a bush and placed it in his rucksack. On July 20, , after 23 days in the jungle, Dengler managed to signal an Air Force pilot with the parachute. Eugene Peyton Deatrick , the pilot of the lead plane and the squadron commander, spotted a flash of white while making a turn at the river's bend and came back and spotted a man waving something white.
Deatrick and his wingman contacted rescue forces but were told to ignore the sighting, as no airmen were known to be down in the area.
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