![]() Denton epitomized the military spirit as he spoke for the returning soldiers: "We are honored to have had the opportunity to serve our country under difficult circumstances. During the interview, Denton blinked the word ?T-O-R-T-U-R-E? in Morse code, giving the first clear confirmation that American POWs were being tortured.(National Archives, records of the CIA) Denton was the senior officer among former POWs who stepped off a plane into freedom at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. Jeremiah Denton Jr had been a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for nearly 10 months when he was interviewed by a Japanese television reporter on May 2, 1966, as part of a propaganda campaign. But with the war's end drawing closer, he was released in February 1973. He said his captors never brought him out for another interview. But Denton theorized later that his captors likely figured it out only after he was awarded the Navy Cross - the second-highest decoration for valor - for the blinks in 1974. ![]() intelligence experts had picked up the Morse Code message. I couldn't even give in to their demands, because there were none. "In the early morning hours, I prayed that I could keep my sanity until they released me. ![]() government, "and I will support it as long as I live." Some of the most severe torture came after the 1966 interview, in which he confounded his captors by saying that he continued to fully support the U.S. ![]() Then they really got serious and gave you something called the rope trick." The use of ropes - to cut off circulation in his limbs - left him with no feeling in his fingertips and intense muscle spasms, he said. "They warmed you up and threatened you with death. "They beat you with fists and fan belts," he told the Los Angeles Times in 1979. ![]()
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