February 12, 1973

Navy Captain Jeremiah Denton Jr. was the first to disembark from the first planeload of U.S. POWs released after the Vietnam War. Denton was captured by the North Vietnamese after being shot down during a bombing mission in July 1965 and spent 91 months as a POW, 48 of which were in solitary confinement. In 1966, Denton earned national attention by blinking T-O-R-T-U-R-E in Morse code during an interview for a North Vietnamese propaganda film, confirming American fears that POWs were being subjected to torture. In 1981, Denton became the first Republican senator elected from Alabama since the end of Reconstruction.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

U.S. Navy Captain Jeremiah Denton at his welcome home ceremony at Clark Air Base, Philippines, shortly after his release as a POW in Hanoi, February 1973. (Wikimedia, U.S. Military/Department of Defense)

Official photo of Senator Jeremiah Denton (R-AL). (Wikimedia, U.S. Congress)

President Ronald Reagan walking and talking with republican senator Jeremiah Denton of Alabama. Washington, D.C., 1987. (Library of Congress)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.