1
00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000
Downloaded from
YTS.MX

2
00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000
Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

3
00:00:20,125 --> 00:00:24,166
[ Traffic going by ]

4
00:00:30,875 --> 00:00:31,541
Come in.

5
00:00:31,625 --> 00:00:32,875
-Nice to see you.
-Yeah, good seeing you.

6
00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:35,041
Listen, take off your jacket
and your shirt,

7
00:00:35,125 --> 00:00:36,750
and we'll see
what it looks like.

8
00:00:36,833 --> 00:00:39,750
We can put it on your back or
your chest, wherever you want.

9
00:00:39,833 --> 00:00:43,041
Well, actually I... you know,
I couldn't have that on my body,

10
00:00:43,125 --> 00:00:45,375
because I hate to tell you,
but it was somewhat different.

11
00:00:45,458 --> 00:00:47,500
In fact,
it was quite a big difference.

12
00:00:47,583 --> 00:00:48,625
You have to understand,

13
00:00:48,708 --> 00:00:50,750
I was just crawling along,
I had one day to live.

14
00:00:50,833 --> 00:00:53,291
I was on my knees,
and I was hallucinating.

15
00:00:53,375 --> 00:00:56,208
And then, those
enormous doors opened up.

16
00:00:56,291 --> 00:00:58,291
Lots of horses
kept galloping out,

17
00:00:58,375 --> 00:00:59,541
and there wasn't death,
there was...

18
00:00:59,625 --> 00:01:02,125
driving those horses,
it was the angels.

19
00:01:02,208 --> 00:01:03,500
And I had this vision.

20
00:01:03,541 --> 00:01:06,541
Death didn't want me.
Death didn't really want me.

21
00:01:07,250 --> 00:01:09,500
[ Music plays ]

22
00:01:44,291 --> 00:01:46,416
DIETER: Men are
often haunted by things

23
00:01:46,500 --> 00:01:48,500
that happen to them in life,

24
00:01:48,541 --> 00:01:52,333
especially in war or other
periods of great intensity.

25
00:01:52,416 --> 00:01:55,416
Sometimes, you see these men
walking the streets

26
00:01:55,500 --> 00:01:57,500
or driving in a car.

27
00:01:57,541 --> 00:02:02,500
Their lives seem to be normal,
but they are not.

28
00:02:04,041 --> 00:02:05,666
When I'm driving my car,

29
00:02:05,750 --> 00:02:08,666
I often hear the voices
of my dead friends.

30
00:02:08,750 --> 00:02:12,166
Sometimes, my friend
Duane Martin calls me

31
00:02:12,250 --> 00:02:14,291
and tells me
that his feet are cold.

32
00:02:14,375 --> 00:02:16,000
Because of this,

33
00:02:16,083 --> 00:02:21,000
even on a warm sunny day,
I keep my convertible top up.

34
00:02:21,833 --> 00:02:24,583
I was shot down
over Laos in 1966,

35
00:02:24,666 --> 00:02:27,916
in the early phase
of the Vietnam War.

36
00:02:28,500 --> 00:02:30,833
I never wanted to go to war.

37
00:02:30,916 --> 00:02:34,125
I only got into this because
I had one burning desire,

38
00:02:34,208 --> 00:02:36,500
and that was to fly.

39
00:02:48,250 --> 00:02:51,500
But that there were people
down there who suffered

40
00:02:51,541 --> 00:02:55,083
and who died only became
clear to me much later...

41
00:02:55,166 --> 00:02:58,166
when I was their prisoner.

42
00:03:52,708 --> 00:03:54,708
This is Dieter Dengler.

43
00:03:54,791 --> 00:03:57,458
He came to America
40 years ago,

44
00:03:57,500 --> 00:03:59,250
and for the last 15 years,

45
00:03:59,416 --> 00:04:01,583
he has lived
on Mount Tamalpais,

46
00:04:01,666 --> 00:04:04,833
north of San Francisco.

47
00:04:07,416 --> 00:04:10,500
Yeah, this is a lot of fun.

48
00:04:18,541 --> 00:04:21,041
You see, this really seems
strange to most people,

49
00:04:21,125 --> 00:04:23,166
but to me, it's very important.

50
00:04:23,250 --> 00:04:26,375
It denotes freedom to be able
to open or close a door.

51
00:04:26,458 --> 00:04:29,291
When I was a prisoner,
I couldn't open the door,

52
00:04:29,375 --> 00:04:30,750
and later on, when I was dying,

53
00:04:30,833 --> 00:04:33,791
those big doors in the sky
would open up.

54
00:04:33,875 --> 00:04:35,375
And so...

55
00:04:35,458 --> 00:04:37,500
most people don't realize
how important it is,

56
00:04:37,541 --> 00:04:38,541
and the privilege
that we have

57
00:04:38,625 --> 00:04:41,000
to be able to open
or close a door.

58
00:04:41,083 --> 00:04:46,458
So... anyway, that's a habit
I got into and... so be it!

59
00:04:47,708 --> 00:04:49,791
Well, this is the inside
of my home.

60
00:04:49,875 --> 00:04:52,458
But you see, when you come
into my house, right away,

61
00:04:52,500 --> 00:04:55,083
there are pictures
of open doors.

62
00:04:55,166 --> 00:04:57,125
That's been always
very important to me,

63
00:04:57,208 --> 00:04:59,833
and... it gives me
a sense of freedom.

64
00:04:59,916 --> 00:05:02,500
Walk into my house, when I built
this house 15 years ago,

65
00:05:02,583 --> 00:05:04,916
I focused on having
this open feeling.

66
00:05:05,041 --> 00:05:06,291
This was very important to me

67
00:05:06,375 --> 00:05:08,000
that I am on top
of the mountain,

68
00:05:08,083 --> 00:05:11,458
I needed to find
some kind of canyon.

69
00:05:11,500 --> 00:05:15,500
Well, looking out here, you see
a B-51 Mus... uh, Spitfire.

70
00:05:15,541 --> 00:05:18,416
Flying was always very important
to me as a child.

71
00:05:18,500 --> 00:05:21,166
Got little motors in there,
don't know if they still work.

72
00:05:21,250 --> 00:05:24,208
I can climb up there and see.

73
00:05:25,791 --> 00:05:26,833
[ Motors start ]

74
00:05:26,916 --> 00:05:28,291
Yes, they do.

75
00:05:28,375 --> 00:05:31,583
Anyway, again,
just standing here, you see

76
00:05:31,666 --> 00:05:34,125
that I do have an open feeling
in this house.

77
00:05:34,208 --> 00:05:37,000
There's a... large stove.
I really enjoy to cook.

78
00:05:37,083 --> 00:05:39,250
Food is very, very,
very important to me.

79
00:05:39,333 --> 00:05:40,666
As you see,
there's a lot of food.

80
00:05:40,750 --> 00:05:43,666
The refrigerator is always
packed full with food.

81
00:05:43,750 --> 00:05:45,291
The cupboard is full of food.

82
00:05:45,375 --> 00:05:48,916
In fact, as I look in there,
it's half empty.

83
00:05:49,041 --> 00:05:51,083
Not only that, below the house,

84
00:05:51,166 --> 00:05:54,166
I have emergency provisions
that I put in there years ago,

85
00:05:54,250 --> 00:05:55,833
that I'm kind of hoarding
down there.

86
00:05:55,916 --> 00:05:58,666
Well, I'm really
curious myself now

87
00:05:58,750 --> 00:06:02,458
to see if everything is still
in good shape down here.

88
00:06:02,500 --> 00:06:06,583
Tear up this carpet here.

89
00:06:07,875 --> 00:06:11,875
And those...
those five-gallon containers.

90
00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:16,750
Yeah, everything seems to be...
still in good shape down here.

91
00:06:18,250 --> 00:06:21,500
There is a 1,000 pounds of rice.

92
00:06:21,750 --> 00:06:24,750
There is a 1,200 pounds
of flour and wheat.

93
00:06:24,833 --> 00:06:27,541
There's 300 pounds of honey.

94
00:06:27,750 --> 00:06:29,291
There's sugar down there.

95
00:06:29,375 --> 00:06:31,666
I tell you, I'll probably
never need...

96
00:06:31,750 --> 00:06:32,833
any of this food,

97
00:06:32,916 --> 00:06:36,666
but I can sleep so much better
knowing that it's down there.

98
00:06:38,583 --> 00:06:42,291
Well, while I was in prison,
all we did talk about was food.

99
00:06:42,375 --> 00:06:44,125
We talked about deep freezers,

100
00:06:44,208 --> 00:06:47,000
and... refrigerators,
stacking 'em up,

101
00:06:47,083 --> 00:06:48,875
and I decided
I'm coming back home,

102
00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:50,791
and I'm gonna build
a restaurant.

103
00:06:50,875 --> 00:06:52,333
A German-type restaurant,

104
00:06:52,416 --> 00:06:54,791
and I'm gonna stack it up
and never be hungry again.

105
00:06:54,875 --> 00:06:55,541
[ Laughter ]

106
00:06:56,333 --> 00:06:58,666
This is my mother.

107
00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:00,541
She arrived in America

108
00:07:00,625 --> 00:07:02,875
after I had gained
about 30 or 40 pounds.

109
00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:05,875
I was in San Diego,
in a hospital.

110
00:07:06,041 --> 00:07:07,375
She...

111
00:07:07,458 --> 00:07:11,000
came on an airplane
with... boxes full of apples...

112
00:07:11,083 --> 00:07:12,291
that she was passing around

113
00:07:12,375 --> 00:07:14,041
to all the passengers
around her.

114
00:07:14,125 --> 00:07:16,500
She turned the meal down,
in the airplanes,

115
00:07:16,541 --> 00:07:19,041
because she thought
it'd cost her a lot of money.

116
00:07:19,125 --> 00:07:21,375
And she was truly starved.

117
00:07:25,875 --> 00:07:27,375
This is my father.

118
00:07:27,458 --> 00:07:29,583
I only know my father
from pictures.

119
00:07:29,666 --> 00:07:31,666
He was killed in the war.

120
00:07:32,250 --> 00:07:35,666
I missed not having a father.
It was just then, later on...

121
00:07:35,750 --> 00:07:37,208
when I was in Vietnam,

122
00:07:37,291 --> 00:07:40,541
and my friend Duane's head
was... cut off,

123
00:07:40,625 --> 00:07:42,416
and the Vietcongs
were all around me,

124
00:07:42,500 --> 00:07:44,125
there was just shooting
and yelling,

125
00:07:44,208 --> 00:07:47,291
and... yeah, I was just running
along down this trail.

126
00:07:47,375 --> 00:07:49,833
And then I came
to this river fork and...

127
00:07:49,916 --> 00:07:51,000
Here was my father,

128
00:07:51,083 --> 00:07:53,500
clear as a picture in the middle
of the river standing

129
00:07:53,583 --> 00:07:56,625
and pointing with his arm, and
just pointing and pointing...

130
00:07:56,708 --> 00:07:59,000
for me, for the direction to go.

131
00:07:59,083 --> 00:08:00,375
And I went behind the rocks,

132
00:08:00,458 --> 00:08:02,208
and I worked
my way up that riverbed.

133
00:08:02,291 --> 00:08:04,333
I heard the Vietcongs
come by up the other side.

134
00:08:04,416 --> 00:08:05,583
They went up the other side,

135
00:08:05,666 --> 00:08:07,708
and then later on,
about five days later,

136
00:08:07,791 --> 00:08:10,166
I was rescued
going up this other side.

137
00:08:10,250 --> 00:08:11,500
So...

138
00:08:11,541 --> 00:08:14,000
That was truly a miracle.

139
00:08:14,083 --> 00:08:18,625
[ Music plays ]

140
00:08:28,500 --> 00:08:31,625
Below me, you see my home town,
Wildberg.

141
00:08:31,708 --> 00:08:35,291
I was born there. My childhood
years were... spent right here.

142
00:08:35,375 --> 00:08:36,666
Down here you see
the church

143
00:08:36,750 --> 00:08:38,791
and a few houses to the left,
with my house.

144
00:08:38,875 --> 00:08:41,458
It's not there anymore,
the bombers came and...

145
00:08:41,500 --> 00:08:43,375
and wiped out this town.

146
00:08:43,458 --> 00:08:44,541
The first airplane...

147
00:08:44,625 --> 00:08:46,375
The first airplanes
that I ever saw in my life,

148
00:08:46,458 --> 00:08:47,750
they came right over here.

149
00:08:47,833 --> 00:08:49,166
They were fighters.
They were...

150
00:08:49,250 --> 00:08:51,125
They dove down
onto this small town.

151
00:08:51,208 --> 00:08:52,500
They made senseless attacks

152
00:08:52,583 --> 00:08:55,208
on this small village
just like this.

153
00:08:55,583 --> 00:08:57,916
[ Heavy fire ]

154
00:08:59,458 --> 00:09:03,041
And behind me...up there.
That's kind of how it looked.

155
00:09:03,125 --> 00:09:04,291
I had two brothers then,

156
00:09:04,375 --> 00:09:06,833
we were out on the top window,
and we looked out.

157
00:09:06,916 --> 00:09:08,291
And we watched all this,

158
00:09:08,375 --> 00:09:11,500
and I clearly remember
one of the airplanes...

159
00:09:11,583 --> 00:09:13,250
came diving at our house,

160
00:09:13,333 --> 00:09:15,916
and it was so unusual,
because the cockpit was open.

161
00:09:16,041 --> 00:09:17,458
The pilot had black goggles

162
00:09:17,500 --> 00:09:18,916
that were sitting
on his forehead.

163
00:09:19,041 --> 00:09:20,000
He was looking.

164
00:09:20,083 --> 00:09:22,833
He had actually turned around.
He was looking in the window.

165
00:09:22,916 --> 00:09:24,875
And the machine guns
were just firing,

166
00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:26,500
because the... the flashes...

167
00:09:26,583 --> 00:09:28,708
I keep seeing them coming out.

168
00:09:28,791 --> 00:09:29,875
And the left wing tip

169
00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:31,625
just missed the house
by two or three feet.

170
00:09:31,708 --> 00:09:32,583
I seen it rip by!

171
00:09:32,666 --> 00:09:34,500
It was just a fraction
of a second.

172
00:09:34,541 --> 00:09:36,458
It was like a... vision for me!

173
00:09:36,500 --> 00:09:39,541
It was like an Almighty being...
that came out.

174
00:09:39,625 --> 00:09:40,916
It was just something else

175
00:09:41,041 --> 00:09:42,916
that's very difficult
to describe.

176
00:09:43,041 --> 00:09:44,250
But I knew
from that moment on

177
00:09:44,333 --> 00:09:46,625
that I wanted to be a pilot,
I wanted to be a flier.

178
00:09:46,708 --> 00:09:50,666
From that moment on,
little Dieter needed to fly.

179
00:09:50,750 --> 00:09:52,625
♪♪

180
00:10:25,333 --> 00:10:28,208
I have a few medals
that I received.

181
00:10:28,291 --> 00:10:31,541
That's an American
Fighter Ace medal.

182
00:10:31,625 --> 00:10:34,833
Right over here is
the Purple Heart, Air Medal...

183
00:10:34,916 --> 00:10:39,583
Distinguished Flying Cross,
and the Navy Cross.

184
00:10:40,125 --> 00:10:41,375
Up here in the corner,

185
00:10:41,458 --> 00:10:43,458
this sword is called
the Sword of Loyola.

186
00:10:43,500 --> 00:10:44,750
It was blessed by the Pope,

187
00:10:44,833 --> 00:10:47,041
it was brought over here
by a bishop.

188
00:10:47,125 --> 00:10:48,250
Just two in existence.

189
00:10:48,333 --> 00:10:51,375
J. Edgar Hoover got one, and I
was lucky to get the other one.

190
00:10:54,458 --> 00:10:57,916
What does it mean for you
to be a war hero?

191
00:10:58,250 --> 00:10:59,791
Oh, I'm not a hero.

192
00:10:59,875 --> 00:11:01,833
Only people who are dead
who are heroes.

193
00:11:01,916 --> 00:11:03,500
And that's not a thing
I want to be,

194
00:11:03,541 --> 00:11:05,750
and I don't think of myself
as a hero.

195
00:11:05,833 --> 00:11:07,750
No, only dead people are heroes.

196
00:11:08,541 --> 00:11:10,125
If I start over here...

197
00:11:10,208 --> 00:11:14,333
This picture was sent to me
recently by a friend.

198
00:11:14,416 --> 00:11:16,875
This is the last shot
of my airplane after I took...

199
00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:19,458
when I took off for Vietnam.

200
00:11:20,750 --> 00:11:26,916
And this is how the airplane
looked two hours later.

201
00:11:27,875 --> 00:11:29,583
And this is Dieter Dengler,

202
00:11:29,666 --> 00:11:32,500
six months later,
after his rescue.

203
00:11:32,541 --> 00:11:36,708
He was down to 85 pounds.

204
00:11:41,125 --> 00:11:44,041
DIETER:
I knew hunger as a child.

205
00:11:44,416 --> 00:11:46,375
I grew up in post-war Germany.

206
00:11:46,458 --> 00:11:49,833
We lived in great poverty
and I remember, as children,

207
00:11:49,916 --> 00:11:53,833
going to bombed out buildings,
where we tore off wallpaper.

208
00:11:53,916 --> 00:11:55,625
My mother would cook
the wallpaper,

209
00:11:55,708 --> 00:11:56,833
and we would eat it...

210
00:11:56,916 --> 00:12:00,333
because there were nutrients
in the glue.

211
00:12:01,250 --> 00:12:04,708
♪♪

212
00:12:16,125 --> 00:12:19,000
As a child,
Dieter saw things around him

213
00:12:19,083 --> 00:12:22,416
that just made
no earthly sense at all.

214
00:12:23,083 --> 00:12:28,250
♪♪

215
00:12:29,708 --> 00:12:31,500
Germany had been
transformed

216
00:12:31,583 --> 00:12:34,333
into a dreamscape
of the surreal.

217
00:12:34,416 --> 00:12:38,583
♪♪

218
00:12:50,041 --> 00:12:52,500
And then things got better.

219
00:12:53,083 --> 00:12:56,541
Dieter remembers the first
sausage in a display window.

220
00:12:56,708 --> 00:12:58,708
It was the first one in years,

221
00:12:58,875 --> 00:13:01,791
and he stopped
and stared at it.

222
00:13:03,166 --> 00:13:08,625
Everyone else stopped too, but
nobody could afford to buy it.

223
00:13:09,166 --> 00:13:12,500
♪♪

224
00:13:27,625 --> 00:13:30,708
In post-war Germany,
there was no aviation.

225
00:13:30,791 --> 00:13:31,875
And, therefore,

226
00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:35,541
it remained Dieter's dream
to become a pilot.

227
00:13:36,041 --> 00:13:40,333
This is a very, very,
very old... rare clock.

228
00:13:42,833 --> 00:13:43,833
From age 14,

229
00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:47,500
Dengler apprenticed
as a tool and dye maker.

230
00:13:47,541 --> 00:13:50,666
He learned how to build
church clocks.

231
00:13:59,000 --> 00:14:01,708
Not only did I learn to be
a ...church clock builder,

232
00:14:01,791 --> 00:14:03,583
I learned to be a blacksmith.

233
00:14:06,458 --> 00:14:08,375
God! What a tough
apprenticeship I had!

234
00:14:08,458 --> 00:14:10,375
How many hours
did I stand right here?

235
00:14:10,458 --> 00:14:13,125
How many times did I have
that hammer on my side?

236
00:14:13,208 --> 00:14:15,791
...an old man...

237
00:14:15,875 --> 00:14:17,583
He was a blacksmith,
he had hands like that.

238
00:14:17,666 --> 00:14:20,541
Many times he would come up
and hit me in the face.

239
00:14:20,625 --> 00:14:22,250
I would be just...
I would be passing out.

240
00:14:22,333 --> 00:14:25,708
We worked from seven in
the morning till late at night.

241
00:14:25,791 --> 00:14:29,333
Including weekends.
We made 50 cents a month.

242
00:14:29,416 --> 00:14:32,000
It was truly horrible,
but we stuck with it.

243
00:14:32,083 --> 00:14:34,375
And then, later on in Vietnam...

244
00:14:34,458 --> 00:14:36,166
That's the first time
I recognized it.

245
00:14:36,250 --> 00:14:37,500
What it meant really to me,

246
00:14:37,583 --> 00:14:40,083
and without this tough, tough,
tough man

247
00:14:40,166 --> 00:14:43,916
that beat us many, many times,
I could have never made it.

248
00:14:45,708 --> 00:14:48,791
He finished his apprenticeship
at age 18.

249
00:14:48,875 --> 00:14:51,000
30 minutes
after his final exam,

250
00:14:51,083 --> 00:14:53,458
Dieter was already
en route to America,

251
00:14:53,500 --> 00:14:57,000
because his dream of being
a pilot had never died.

252
00:14:57,083 --> 00:14:59,708
This photo was taken
the moment he left.

253
00:15:00,500 --> 00:15:02,291
I left from right down here
for America.

254
00:15:02,375 --> 00:15:04,875
I had 30 cents in my pocket.

255
00:15:05,333 --> 00:15:07,666
I was two hours out of town,
I was hungry.

256
00:15:08,208 --> 00:15:10,166
I had two weeks to wait
for my ship to leave,

257
00:15:10,250 --> 00:15:11,416
and I hitchhiked...

258
00:15:11,500 --> 00:15:14,833
via Hamburg, to Bremerhaven,
where the boat left.

259
00:15:14,916 --> 00:15:17,416
I was climbing up the ladder,
I got seasick right away.

260
00:15:17,500 --> 00:15:18,500
In the back of the ship,

261
00:15:18,541 --> 00:15:20,708
they were playing
a German national song:

262
00:15:20,791 --> 00:15:22,875
"Auf Wiedersehen",
"Auf Wiedersehen".

263
00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:25,416
Tears were rolling down my eyes.

264
00:15:25,500 --> 00:15:26,875
I stepped on the ship
and got seasick.

265
00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:29,250
I was violently sick
for 2 1/2 weeks.

266
00:15:29,333 --> 00:15:32,500
But I managed to go up in
the kitchen or in living room...

267
00:15:32,541 --> 00:15:34,583
Not the living room,
but where people were eating,

268
00:15:34,666 --> 00:15:37,041
and there I got sandwiches,
and I got oranges.

269
00:15:37,125 --> 00:15:38,750
And I hoarded it all in my room.

270
00:15:38,833 --> 00:15:40,583
And then, early in the morning,
there was an announcement

271
00:15:40,666 --> 00:15:42,833
that the Statue of Liberty
was going to come in sight.

272
00:15:42,916 --> 00:15:44,291
I went in my room.

273
00:15:44,375 --> 00:15:46,000
I took this large shirt
from my grandfather,

274
00:15:46,083 --> 00:15:47,708
tied it with string
below my knees,

275
00:15:47,791 --> 00:15:49,000
and filled it up
with sandwiches,

276
00:15:49,083 --> 00:15:50,625
with oranges, all this food.

277
00:15:50,708 --> 00:15:52,500
And I thought,
we're just going to arrive,

278
00:15:52,583 --> 00:15:53,541
I'll walk off the ship.

279
00:15:53,625 --> 00:15:54,791
But we had to go
through customs.

280
00:15:54,875 --> 00:15:56,375
Well, I never heard of customs.

281
00:15:56,458 --> 00:15:58,125
I was this little
18-year-old boy,

282
00:15:58,208 --> 00:15:59,458
I never was out
of my hometown.

283
00:15:59,500 --> 00:16:01,833
One time for one day we went
to a castle somewhere.

284
00:16:01,916 --> 00:16:04,500
We were extremely poor.

285
00:16:04,583 --> 00:16:07,000
So, anyway,
I went through customs.

286
00:16:07,083 --> 00:16:09,583
A lot of people were lined up.
This customs agent came over.

287
00:16:09,666 --> 00:16:11,125
The first thing,
he grabbed my shirt.

288
00:16:11,208 --> 00:16:12,208
Pulled my shirt up,

289
00:16:12,291 --> 00:16:14,083
and all the sandwiches
and all those oranges

290
00:16:14,166 --> 00:16:15,291
fell on the floor.

291
00:16:15,375 --> 00:16:17,875
I got beet red because
when I left my hometown,

292
00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:19,083
people were laughing, they said,

293
00:16:19,166 --> 00:16:20,916
"He's going to America.
Money's gonna...

294
00:16:21,041 --> 00:16:23,750
He thinks money
grows on the trees!"

295
00:16:23,833 --> 00:16:26,250
They thought I'm gonna end up
in jail, and now I knew.

296
00:16:26,333 --> 00:16:28,250
I went, "They're right,
I'm gonna end up in jail."

297
00:16:28,375 --> 00:16:31,458
♪♪

298
00:16:35,541 --> 00:16:37,333
I didn't speak any English,
I knew a few words.

299
00:16:37,416 --> 00:16:39,541
Timmy Square...
Times Square.

300
00:16:39,625 --> 00:16:42,750
The highest house, two-storey
houses that I saw in Germany.

301
00:16:42,833 --> 00:16:44,500
Here, I'm in New York.
Manhattan.

302
00:16:44,583 --> 00:16:46,791
Walking around, it was just
a whole new world for me.

303
00:16:46,875 --> 00:16:49,208
But again, of course,
I was extremely hungry.

304
00:16:49,291 --> 00:16:51,000
So, I lived in the streets
for about ten days,

305
00:16:51,083 --> 00:16:52,458
and I met a couple of people.

306
00:16:52,500 --> 00:16:54,750
And then finally,
I joined the Air Force.

307
00:16:54,833 --> 00:16:57,500
Because I really left Germany
to become a pilot.

308
00:16:57,541 --> 00:16:58,916
And I couldn't do it
in Germany.

309
00:16:59,041 --> 00:17:00,583
Germany didn't have
an Air Force.

310
00:17:00,666 --> 00:17:01,833
They didn't have an airline,

311
00:17:01,916 --> 00:17:03,500
they had no schooling
whatsoever.

312
00:17:03,583 --> 00:17:06,875
We had to work to help
our parents just to survive

313
00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:08,500
and to live.

314
00:17:08,583 --> 00:17:10,625
And so, I went to the recruiter
in New Jersey, and he said,

315
00:17:10,750 --> 00:17:12,000
"Of course,
if you join the Air Force,

316
00:17:12,083 --> 00:17:13,458
you're going to be a pilot."

317
00:17:13,500 --> 00:17:16,125
I signed up, two hours later,
I was in San Antonio, Texas.

318
00:17:16,208 --> 00:17:17,375
They cut my hair off.

319
00:17:17,458 --> 00:17:20,083
But instead of becoming a pilot,
they put me in the kitchen.

320
00:17:20,166 --> 00:17:23,166
There were 5,000 recruits there.
7,000 recruits!

321
00:17:23,250 --> 00:17:25,416
I peeled potatoes
for 2 1/2 years.

322
00:17:25,500 --> 00:17:27,458
And then finally,
they put me in the motor pool.

323
00:17:27,500 --> 00:17:30,458
I changed tires, but I never
got near an airplane.

324
00:17:30,500 --> 00:17:32,916
I went to night school.
I became a citizen.

325
00:17:33,041 --> 00:17:34,500
And then I left for California,

326
00:17:34,583 --> 00:17:36,333
because I knew by then
what I had to do.

327
00:17:36,416 --> 00:17:37,291
I had to go to college,

328
00:17:37,375 --> 00:17:39,500
get a college degree
to join the Navy.

329
00:17:39,583 --> 00:17:42,500
And that's what I did. I bought
a car, an old VW Bus.

330
00:17:42,583 --> 00:17:43,916
There was a big hole
in the side.

331
00:17:44,041 --> 00:17:45,166
I parked
in the parking lot.

332
00:17:45,250 --> 00:17:47,250
I had my surfboard in there,
my skis in there.

333
00:17:47,333 --> 00:17:49,166
That's where I lived
for 2 1/2 years.

334
00:17:49,250 --> 00:17:51,166
Worked at night,
went to school.

335
00:17:51,250 --> 00:17:53,166
And after that I joined
the Navy.

336
00:17:53,250 --> 00:17:55,041
And then
I was based in Alameda.

337
00:17:55,125 --> 00:17:56,041
And from there we left

338
00:17:56,125 --> 00:17:58,000
on the aircraft carrier
for Vietnam.

339
00:17:58,625 --> 00:17:59,500
♪♪

340
00:17:59,583 --> 00:18:03,375
But from the air, Vietnam
didn't seem real at all.

341
00:18:03,458 --> 00:18:06,125
For Dengler, it was like
a grid on a map.

342
00:18:06,208 --> 00:18:09,375
He had suddenly found himself
not only a pilot,

343
00:18:09,458 --> 00:18:12,625
but a soldier
caught up in a real war.

344
00:18:12,708 --> 00:18:14,708
But even though
it was all very real,

345
00:18:14,791 --> 00:18:20,333
everything down there seemed
to be so alien and so abstract.

346
00:18:23,791 --> 00:18:28,000
♪♪

347
00:18:28,083 --> 00:18:32,833
It all looked strange, like
a distant, barbaric dream.

348
00:20:41,291 --> 00:20:44,208
Also, I...
I flew the Skyraider...

349
00:20:44,291 --> 00:20:47,125
over Vietnam...
I had just left the carrier.

350
00:20:47,208 --> 00:20:49,625
I had flown 2 1/2 hours
through heavy flak.

351
00:20:49,708 --> 00:20:51,833
I was coming near my target.

352
00:20:51,916 --> 00:20:54,333
And I clearly remember
my target was disappearing

353
00:20:54,416 --> 00:20:57,125
right at the wing root,
where the wing meets the body.

354
00:20:57,208 --> 00:20:59,875
And I rolled the airplane
on its back.

355
00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:02,291
And then, of course I would
see the target above me,

356
00:21:02,375 --> 00:21:03,625
and I was coming straight down,

357
00:21:03,750 --> 00:21:05,000
and just when I was inverted,

358
00:21:05,083 --> 00:21:07,583
there was this loud explosion
off the right side,

359
00:21:07,666 --> 00:21:09,125
half my wing was gone.

360
00:21:09,208 --> 00:21:11,041
And I remember
the brightness of it

361
00:21:11,125 --> 00:21:12,625
was just like
a lightning striking.

362
00:21:12,708 --> 00:21:15,916
The airplane then tumbled
through the air.

363
00:21:16,041 --> 00:21:18,458
I reached down,
and I dropped my tanks,

364
00:21:18,500 --> 00:21:21,458
and I thought I'll belly the
airplane down in this valley.

365
00:21:21,500 --> 00:21:26,041
But then more explosions
went off, off my right wing.

366
00:21:26,125 --> 00:21:27,625
Boom! Boom! Boom!

367
00:21:27,708 --> 00:21:29,791
The brightness is really
what I remember.

368
00:21:29,875 --> 00:21:31,416
I decided, maybe I can...

369
00:21:31,500 --> 00:21:34,250
fly the airplane and glide it
right over this ridge.

370
00:21:34,333 --> 00:21:36,083
There was a ridge
on the right-hand side.

371
00:21:36,166 --> 00:21:37,583
There was a lot of trees,
as I said.

372
00:21:37,666 --> 00:21:40,500
There was a... an enormous
tree in front of me,

373
00:21:40,541 --> 00:21:42,500
and just before I hit it,
I kicked full right rudder.

374
00:21:42,541 --> 00:21:43,875
The airplane yawed to the right.

375
00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:46,541
There was an impact on the
left wing. It snapped this...

376
00:21:46,625 --> 00:21:48,500
this, this thick tree off,

377
00:21:48,541 --> 00:21:50,833
and, of course, then
the left wing went back.

378
00:21:50,916 --> 00:21:54,208
Then the entire tail:
the rudder, hose, stabilizer.

379
00:21:54,291 --> 00:21:55,916
Everything just tumbled by.

380
00:21:56,041 --> 00:21:58,541
I clearly remember the canopy
started cracking,

381
00:21:58,625 --> 00:21:59,791
the lower left-hand corner.

382
00:21:59,875 --> 00:22:03,083
Just like slow motion. It was
cracking, and it ripped off.

383
00:22:03,166 --> 00:22:05,166
Then my helmet
just jerked off my head.

384
00:22:05,250 --> 00:22:08,125
And then the airplane
started to cartwheel.

385
00:22:13,833 --> 00:22:15,375
Then I must have passed out

386
00:22:15,458 --> 00:22:17,750
because maybe a minute later,
I came back.

387
00:22:17,833 --> 00:22:20,208
I was laying 100 feet
from the airplane.

388
00:22:20,291 --> 00:22:22,625
Dust was still in the...
in the air.

389
00:22:22,708 --> 00:22:23,875
It was very, very quiet.

390
00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:26,500
Of course,I crawled out
real quickly, and then I...

391
00:22:26,541 --> 00:22:29,000
ran towards the jungle
to get away.

392
00:22:43,333 --> 00:22:46,000
You know, many times people
ask me if I was afraid,

393
00:22:46,083 --> 00:22:49,375
if there was fear
when I was shot down.

394
00:22:49,458 --> 00:22:51,291
There really is no time.

395
00:22:51,375 --> 00:22:53,458
I had to unstrap.
I had to drop my fuel tanks.

396
00:22:53,500 --> 00:22:54,416
I had to find...

397
00:22:54,500 --> 00:22:56,166
I had to put the airplane
in a small clearing.

398
00:22:56,250 --> 00:22:58,875
It was extremely difficult
to fly this airplane.

399
00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:01,041
There was no time
to have fear.

400
00:23:01,125 --> 00:23:03,916
And then later on it's just
like on an aircraft carrier.

401
00:23:04,041 --> 00:23:05,000
3:00 in the morning,

402
00:23:05,083 --> 00:23:06,875
you're flying
through this monsoon rain.

403
00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:08,083
It's really not a rain,

404
00:23:08,166 --> 00:23:09,875
it's a waterfall
that you're shooting through

405
00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:11,500
at 80 feet over the water,

406
00:23:11,541 --> 00:23:14,500
200 mph, trying
to find the aircraft carrier.

407
00:23:14,541 --> 00:23:16,916
You have only contact
through your headset

408
00:23:17,041 --> 00:23:18,416
with the operator on the ship.

409
00:23:18,500 --> 00:23:20,875
It's total darkness.

410
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:23,250
Then, finally there's
this enormous bang

411
00:23:23,333 --> 00:23:25,000
as you hit the back
of the aircraft carrier

412
00:23:25,083 --> 00:23:26,208
on your landing.

413
00:23:26,291 --> 00:23:27,833
Then, as you pull over
to the side...

414
00:23:27,916 --> 00:23:29,625
as I turned my engine off...

415
00:23:29,708 --> 00:23:33,166
The engine would spin down.
It would go...

416
00:23:33,250 --> 00:23:34,375
Spin down. Then, my legs...

417
00:23:34,458 --> 00:23:36,416
that's the time
when my legs start shaking.

418
00:23:36,500 --> 00:23:38,208
They would shake and shake
and shake,

419
00:23:38,291 --> 00:23:40,333
and I'm trying to hold them,
I couldn't even hold them.

420
00:23:40,416 --> 00:23:42,833
I would some time have to
sit in cockpit for five minutes

421
00:23:42,916 --> 00:23:44,375
before I could crawl out.

422
00:23:44,458 --> 00:23:45,916
And ironically...

423
00:23:46,041 --> 00:23:49,708
later on, just before dying,
there is no more fear.

424
00:23:49,791 --> 00:23:51,166
It's like a dream.

425
00:23:51,250 --> 00:23:54,750
It's just like floating along
in a real thick medium.

426
00:23:54,833 --> 00:23:57,541
I used to pinch myself,
there was no more pain.

427
00:23:57,625 --> 00:24:00,250
And I thought,
"Is this real? Is this unreal?"

428
00:24:00,333 --> 00:24:02,041
This. This is...

429
00:24:02,125 --> 00:24:06,083
This is basically what death
looks like to me.

430
00:24:06,833 --> 00:24:10,583
♪♪

431
00:24:41,125 --> 00:24:44,208
Two days after I was shot down,
I was captured.

432
00:24:44,291 --> 00:24:47,125
I did the unforgivable,
I crossed a small clearing.

433
00:24:47,208 --> 00:24:49,625
I came out
of the thick jungle...

434
00:24:49,708 --> 00:24:50,875
I came to a small trail.

435
00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:52,333
I looked to the left,
I looked to the right.

436
00:24:52,458 --> 00:24:54,458
There was no one there.
I went to run across.

437
00:24:54,500 --> 00:24:56,041
I was at about ten yards
out of it,

438
00:24:56,125 --> 00:24:57,166
and someone yelled.

439
00:24:57,250 --> 00:24:58,583
I turned to the right.

440
00:24:58,666 --> 00:25:00,416
There's a guy standing
there with a pistol,

441
00:25:00,500 --> 00:25:02,125
another guy was standing there
with a rifle.

442
00:25:02,208 --> 00:25:03,375
My hands shot in the air.

443
00:25:03,458 --> 00:25:05,791
I yelled in German, "Nicht
schießen! Nicht schießen!"

444
00:25:05,875 --> 00:25:08,208
Right away I was surrounded
by six other guys.

445
00:25:08,291 --> 00:25:10,083
They stripped of my clothes,
I was searched.

446
00:25:10,166 --> 00:25:11,375
They took everything away.

447
00:25:11,458 --> 00:25:13,416
They bandaged my left leg
with bamboo,

448
00:25:13,500 --> 00:25:15,000
because I hurt
that in the crash.

449
00:25:15,083 --> 00:25:17,708
And then we started to run.
We ran and ran.

450
00:25:17,791 --> 00:25:20,416
Every so often I would collapse.
They would massage my leg.

451
00:25:20,500 --> 00:25:22,333
They would give me...
some water.

452
00:25:22,416 --> 00:25:25,333
And then later in the evening,
underneath a cluster of trees...

453
00:25:25,416 --> 00:25:26,500
so the airplanes
couldn't see us.

454
00:25:26,541 --> 00:25:30,166
Normally... they took
four pegs in the ground,

455
00:25:30,250 --> 00:25:31,583
I would have to lay
on the ground.

456
00:25:31,666 --> 00:25:32,833
They would tie my ankles
to the pegs,

457
00:25:32,916 --> 00:25:35,000
and they would tie
my hands to the pegs.

458
00:25:54,875 --> 00:25:58,625
In his dreams, Dengler would
walk through an airport.

459
00:25:58,708 --> 00:26:02,583
He was going to fly back home
to the Black Forest.

460
00:26:02,666 --> 00:26:06,541
But all the planes had been
smashed to pieces.

461
00:26:08,916 --> 00:26:11,833
Yet, he knew that the pieces
would start to move

462
00:26:11,916 --> 00:26:16,125
and to reassemble themselves
again into real planes,

463
00:26:16,208 --> 00:26:19,375
as a broken coffee cup
in the film "Play it Backwards"

464
00:26:19,458 --> 00:26:23,583
puts itself together and leaps
back up on the table.

465
00:26:26,666 --> 00:26:29,000
I was sure that my flight
would be on time.

466
00:26:29,083 --> 00:26:32,208
But then, the pieces of the
plane didn't jump back together,

467
00:26:32,291 --> 00:26:33,500
as I had expected.

468
00:26:33,541 --> 00:26:36,041
And I grew more
and more horrified.

469
00:26:36,125 --> 00:26:37,750
And I was glad
when I finally woke up

470
00:26:37,833 --> 00:26:40,750
and found myself
bitten by mosquitos.

471
00:26:41,416 --> 00:26:42,666
In the mornings,
I'd wake up,

472
00:26:42,750 --> 00:26:44,291
and a lot of times
I couldn't even see

473
00:26:44,375 --> 00:26:46,541
because the mosquitos had eaten,
had stung,

474
00:26:46,625 --> 00:26:50,333
and my face
was all swollen up.

475
00:26:50,416 --> 00:26:52,583
Then we just walked,
for days and days like that.

476
00:26:52,666 --> 00:26:54,500
There were a lot of airplanes
in the air.

477
00:26:54,583 --> 00:26:56,791
They were looking for me,
my buddies.

478
00:26:56,875 --> 00:26:59,083
And I need to make a signal.

479
00:26:59,166 --> 00:27:01,416
I need to have some kind
of device to signal to them.

480
00:27:01,500 --> 00:27:05,458
And luckily at one time I
spotted a small survival mirror

481
00:27:05,500 --> 00:27:08,583
in the tobacco pouch
of one of my guards.

482
00:27:08,666 --> 00:27:10,166
I hung around these guards
all the time,

483
00:27:10,250 --> 00:27:11,750
because sometimes
we would walk...

484
00:27:11,833 --> 00:27:14,500
late in the evening.
It was total dark.

485
00:27:14,583 --> 00:27:18,625
My hands were tied.
A guard would be in front of me.

486
00:27:18,708 --> 00:27:21,083
My hands would be tied,
they would go over his shoulder.

487
00:27:21,166 --> 00:27:22,625
Here, I had the right guard
in front of me,

488
00:27:22,708 --> 00:27:24,500
and very carefully,
ever so carefully,

489
00:27:24,583 --> 00:27:26,583
I opened his pocket,
and I took this box out...

490
00:27:26,666 --> 00:27:28,583
Dengler succeeded
in stealing the mirror,

491
00:27:28,666 --> 00:27:31,791
and for the first time
he spent the night in a hut.

492
00:27:31,875 --> 00:27:34,833
My legs and my ankles would be
tied together with a rope.

493
00:27:34,916 --> 00:27:36,833
The rope would go down, there
would be a peg in the ground.

494
00:27:36,916 --> 00:27:39,333
That's where I would be tied up.
They would feed me up here.

495
00:27:39,416 --> 00:27:42,375
Then when the sleeping time
came, I would then lay down.

496
00:27:42,458 --> 00:27:43,708
A guard would be on my right.

497
00:27:43,791 --> 00:27:46,541
A guard would be on my left.
There would be rifles there.

498
00:27:46,625 --> 00:27:50,083
And that night, I woke about
11:00-12:00 in the morning

499
00:27:50,166 --> 00:27:51,666
because it was bitter,
bitter cold.

500
00:27:51,750 --> 00:27:53,375
They were snoring so loud.
I got up.

501
00:27:53,458 --> 00:27:56,500
I knew that it was
the right time. I kicked my...

502
00:27:56,583 --> 00:27:59,666
legs up two or three times
really hard. The peg gave way.

503
00:27:59,750 --> 00:28:01,208
I came up,
I untied my legs slowly.

504
00:28:01,291 --> 00:28:02,833
I came forward to the edge,

505
00:28:02,916 --> 00:28:05,500
and very carefully I let myself
down to the edge.

506
00:28:05,583 --> 00:28:07,208
Just when I hit the bottom,

507
00:28:07,291 --> 00:28:09,250
the pigs and the dogs
and the chickens ran off.

508
00:28:09,333 --> 00:28:10,875
There was a hell of a racket.
I quickly went back up.

509
00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:13,083
I laid down again.
I didn't move.

510
00:28:13,166 --> 00:28:15,333
They kept on snoring,
nobody noticed.

511
00:28:15,416 --> 00:28:16,666
I tried it one more time.

512
00:28:16,750 --> 00:28:19,375
And then I was free.
I was in the jungle...

513
00:28:19,458 --> 00:28:21,625
but I couldn't move
because it was so thick.

514
00:28:21,708 --> 00:28:23,208
But my target was a mountain.

515
00:28:23,291 --> 00:28:24,916
A coarse mountain
just like that.

516
00:28:25,041 --> 00:28:26,291
And that's what
I was heading for.

517
00:28:26,375 --> 00:28:27,416
I'd seen that in the moonlight,

518
00:28:27,500 --> 00:28:30,666
but I didn't realize
it was a coarse mountain.

519
00:28:30,750 --> 00:28:32,541
There was crevices
after crevice.

520
00:28:32,625 --> 00:28:34,333
There was very,
very sharp rock.

521
00:28:34,416 --> 00:28:36,750
It was very, very difficult
to go up to this rock.

522
00:28:36,833 --> 00:28:39,125
I finally got on top, there was
no vegetation on top.

523
00:28:39,208 --> 00:28:42,208
That day nothing came.
They had stopped looking for me.

524
00:28:42,291 --> 00:28:43,375
Not a single airplane.

525
00:28:43,458 --> 00:28:46,250
The only thing that really came
was the sun. And it got hot.

526
00:28:46,333 --> 00:28:47,458
I didn't count on that

527
00:28:47,500 --> 00:28:49,375
because I was for the last
two weeks in the jungle.

528
00:28:49,458 --> 00:28:50,708
And it was cool down there,

529
00:28:50,791 --> 00:28:53,375
and I was already
getting delirious, and I was...

530
00:28:53,458 --> 00:28:55,666
I saw all those...

531
00:28:55,750 --> 00:28:57,875
It was just terrible
up there. And finally...

532
00:28:58,000 --> 00:28:59,833
I decided to work
my way down

533
00:28:59,916 --> 00:29:02,500
from this hill towards
a waterhole. I had saw...

534
00:29:02,583 --> 00:29:05,166
seen a stinking waterhole
at the bottom of this hill,

535
00:29:05,250 --> 00:29:06,375
and that was my target,

536
00:29:06,458 --> 00:29:08,458
because I knew
water was the only thing

537
00:29:08,500 --> 00:29:09,625
that would make me survive.

538
00:29:14,541 --> 00:29:17,166
His guards knew
where to find him.

539
00:29:17,291 --> 00:29:20,000
The moment he started
to drink the putrid water,

540
00:29:20,083 --> 00:29:22,250
they were all over him.

541
00:29:23,250 --> 00:29:26,208
From then on,
the torture began.

542
00:29:26,458 --> 00:29:28,208
They would hang him upside down

543
00:29:28,291 --> 00:29:30,375
and put an ant nest
over his face

544
00:29:30,458 --> 00:29:32,916
until he lost consciousness.

545
00:29:35,208 --> 00:29:36,333
For several nights,

546
00:29:36,416 --> 00:29:39,541
they suspended him into
a well shaft, in such a way

547
00:29:39,625 --> 00:29:43,041
that he almost died a slow
death from drowning.

548
00:29:43,125 --> 00:29:45,541
But he was worth more
to them alive.

549
00:29:45,625 --> 00:29:48,250
He was their
prized possession.

550
00:29:49,500 --> 00:29:52,500
And all of a sudden we came out
of the jungle into an open area.

551
00:29:52,583 --> 00:29:54,333
A real red-dusted area,

552
00:29:54,416 --> 00:29:56,500
there were about 30 guards
standing there.

553
00:29:56,583 --> 00:29:58,000
They had formed a circle.

554
00:29:58,083 --> 00:29:59,666
I was dragged into the center
of the circle,

555
00:29:59,750 --> 00:30:02,333
and two North Vietnamese guys
were standing there.

556
00:30:02,458 --> 00:30:04,583
They had their caps on,
the red stars on it.

557
00:30:04,666 --> 00:30:07,708
They had khaki uniforms on. They
started yelling and screaming...

558
00:30:07,791 --> 00:30:09,416
and start kicking me...

559
00:30:09,500 --> 00:30:11,541
And all of a sudden
one of the guards

560
00:30:11,625 --> 00:30:13,833
came across the circle,
walked towards me.

561
00:30:13,916 --> 00:30:16,000
He had his rifle in his hand.
The butt first.

562
00:30:16,083 --> 00:30:18,125
And he came towards me,
he hesitated a couple of times.

563
00:30:18,208 --> 00:30:20,333
He swung towards me.
I moved my head.

564
00:30:20,416 --> 00:30:22,750
He hit me in the shoulder,
knocked me down on my back.

565
00:30:22,833 --> 00:30:24,000
The gun went off.

566
00:30:24,083 --> 00:30:26,166
And I clearly remember
looking across,

567
00:30:26,250 --> 00:30:28,625
another one of the guards
closed his eyes,

568
00:30:28,708 --> 00:30:30,583
fell backwards over.

569
00:30:30,666 --> 00:30:32,708
He had no shirt on,
he had just a loincloth on.

570
00:30:32,791 --> 00:30:35,416
I saw the blood coming out
just above his kidneys.

571
00:30:35,500 --> 00:30:37,875
His buddy saw that,
he took his gun,

572
00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:40,250
started shooting at this guy
who shot this guy.

573
00:30:40,333 --> 00:30:43,250
I'm laying on the ground. All
of a sudden bullets are flying.

574
00:30:43,333 --> 00:30:45,583
There's screaming and yelling.
They had forgotten about me.

575
00:30:45,666 --> 00:30:47,541
I thought it was the end
of me. I closed my eyes.

576
00:30:47,625 --> 00:30:50,125
I waited for...
I waited to be shot myself.

577
00:30:50,208 --> 00:30:52,041
I closed my eyes.
I looked over.

578
00:30:52,125 --> 00:30:54,708
I saw someone wrap a loincloth
around this guy's waist.

579
00:30:54,791 --> 00:30:56,541
You know,
it was natural for them

580
00:30:56,625 --> 00:30:58,416
to be really angry at me now.

581
00:30:58,500 --> 00:31:00,625
I had escaped from them,
they had lost face,

582
00:31:00,708 --> 00:31:03,291
and they really wanted
to get even.

583
00:31:03,375 --> 00:31:04,500
Whenever we were
near the village,

584
00:31:04,583 --> 00:31:06,250
that's when they really
became aggressive.

585
00:31:06,333 --> 00:31:07,750
They had this new idea.

586
00:31:07,833 --> 00:31:10,041
My legs were tied up,
my arms were tied up,

587
00:31:10,125 --> 00:31:11,125
my hands were tied up.

588
00:31:11,208 --> 00:31:14,083
I was tied
behind a water buffalo.

589
00:31:14,166 --> 00:31:15,583
They'd hit the water buffalo
with a stick.

590
00:31:15,666 --> 00:31:17,750
He'd start taking off.
I was hoping behind it.

591
00:31:17,833 --> 00:31:20,458
I was trying to keep my balance,
but pretty soon I fell over.

592
00:31:20,500 --> 00:31:22,625
A couple, two or three
of the guards,

593
00:31:22,708 --> 00:31:24,750
the bad ones kept walking
to the right and left.

594
00:31:24,833 --> 00:31:27,541
They were kicking me in the face
with the dust all the time.

595
00:31:27,625 --> 00:31:30,208
They were kicking me-- other
guys would jump to my back.

596
00:31:30,291 --> 00:31:31,541
The kids were laughing.

597
00:31:31,625 --> 00:31:34,083
They thought it was
just a lot of fun.

598
00:31:34,166 --> 00:31:36,541
Later on, they wanted me
to sign something

599
00:31:36,625 --> 00:31:38,875
condemning the American
aggression in Vietnam.

600
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:40,916
I didn't sign it.
I didn't believe in it.

601
00:31:42,041 --> 00:31:44,625
They came up with this idea.
They stuck small, little...

602
00:31:44,708 --> 00:31:49,291
pieces of bamboo underneath my
fingernails. They cut my arms.

603
00:31:50,333 --> 00:31:52,666
They put pieces of bamboo,
actually they stuck it in there,

604
00:31:52,750 --> 00:31:54,416
and they left a piece
of bamboo in there.

605
00:31:55,375 --> 00:31:57,291
They cut here.
They cut here.

606
00:31:58,250 --> 00:31:59,333
They cut here.

607
00:31:59,458 --> 00:32:02,333
At various different places.
Then one guy had this idea,

608
00:32:02,458 --> 00:32:05,625
they'd put this rope
around my upper arm.

609
00:32:05,708 --> 00:32:07,500
Like a tourniquet, they put
a piece of wood in there

610
00:32:07,583 --> 00:32:08,625
and twisted and twisted it,

611
00:32:08,708 --> 00:32:10,791
until the nerves were cutting
against the bone.

612
00:32:10,875 --> 00:32:12,041
My hand would drop,

613
00:32:12,125 --> 00:32:15,291
and this hand was completely
unusable for six months.

614
00:32:16,375 --> 00:32:18,541
They were just always thinking
of something to do to me.

615
00:32:23,083 --> 00:32:25,875
It's Christmas time
in my home town in Germany.

616
00:32:26,666 --> 00:32:29,333
It's beautiful,
all the decorations...

617
00:32:29,500 --> 00:32:31,916
It's like a Christmas calendar.

618
00:32:32,541 --> 00:32:35,000
But many, many years before,
during the Nazi time,

619
00:32:35,083 --> 00:32:36,458
it was a different story.

620
00:32:36,750 --> 00:32:38,125
In fact, in this town,

621
00:32:38,208 --> 00:32:40,416
100% of the people
voted for Hitler.

622
00:32:40,500 --> 00:32:43,500
Except one person:
my grandfather.

623
00:32:44,583 --> 00:32:46,000
He was picked up at the house.

624
00:32:46,083 --> 00:32:49,833
They hung signs around his neck,
saying that he was a traitor.

625
00:32:50,208 --> 00:32:52,125
The parade on tinseltown.

626
00:32:53,500 --> 00:32:56,500
There was a fanfare
of drums and trumpets.

627
00:32:56,541 --> 00:32:59,541
People spat out of the windows,
water was poured on him.

628
00:32:59,625 --> 00:33:00,875
And he feared for his life,

629
00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:02,625
he thought he was not
going to live through it.

630
00:33:02,708 --> 00:33:04,291
And for me, 30 years later,

631
00:33:04,375 --> 00:33:07,125
when I was a pilot in Vietnam,
I was a prisoner.

632
00:33:07,208 --> 00:33:08,333
I was tortured,

633
00:33:08,416 --> 00:33:10,166
and they wanted me to sign
a piece of paper saying

634
00:33:10,250 --> 00:33:13,083
that I condemned the American
action in Vietnam.

635
00:33:13,166 --> 00:33:15,625
And I was strong enough
not to do that.

636
00:33:15,708 --> 00:33:18,166
Many times this strength
came through my grandfather.

637
00:33:18,250 --> 00:33:19,500
I was thinking of him...

638
00:33:19,583 --> 00:33:21,750
and if he could do it,
so could I do it.

639
00:33:22,250 --> 00:33:26,625
[ Speaking in Vietnamese ]

640
00:33:32,708 --> 00:33:36,041
Oh-oh. This feels a little bit
too close to home.

641
00:33:36,333 --> 00:33:41,250
[ Speaking in Vietnamese ]

642
00:33:43,708 --> 00:33:46,458
Of course, Dieter knew
it was only a film,

643
00:33:46,500 --> 00:33:51,375
but all the old terror returned
as if it were real.

644
00:33:52,500 --> 00:33:55,333
I thought, "You guys behind me
with your camera

645
00:33:55,416 --> 00:33:56,750
can only see my back,

646
00:33:56,833 --> 00:34:00,458
but you can't know how
my heart is thumping inside."

647
00:34:00,500 --> 00:34:03,375
I told myself,
"Okay, play along with them."

648
00:34:03,458 --> 00:34:07,083
"Running like this might chase
the demons away."

649
00:34:07,666 --> 00:34:12,208
♪♪

650
00:34:36,500 --> 00:34:39,500
Almost everything that I learned
in survival school back at...

651
00:34:39,541 --> 00:34:42,333
in California, I couldn't
use in the jungle.

652
00:34:42,458 --> 00:34:44,500
I watched my guards,
they taught me a lot.

653
00:34:44,583 --> 00:34:47,625
They taught me how to set traps.
They taught me how to make fire.

654
00:34:47,750 --> 00:34:51,458
In the jungle, it's quite easy
to find an old piece of bamboo.

655
00:34:51,500 --> 00:34:54,333
Which is right here.
You split it in half.

656
00:34:54,541 --> 00:34:57,000
And then you mount... half...

657
00:34:57,500 --> 00:34:58,583
in a vertical position.

658
00:34:58,666 --> 00:35:00,583
You take four
or five sticks and just...

659
00:35:00,666 --> 00:35:04,083
to hold it into place.
Then you take the other half.

660
00:35:04,166 --> 00:35:06,041
And you need to cut
a grove in the other one,

661
00:35:06,125 --> 00:35:07,000
from the top.

662
00:35:07,083 --> 00:35:08,625
Cut this grove
just far enough in,

663
00:35:08,708 --> 00:35:11,500
so it just barely
comes back on the other side.

664
00:35:12,333 --> 00:35:15,750
Then you take a machete...
or anything else,

665
00:35:15,833 --> 00:35:19,125
and you make some...
scrapings of the bamboo.

666
00:35:19,208 --> 00:35:21,666
As you can see,
it looks like a little wool.

667
00:35:21,833 --> 00:35:23,791
Now, I have prepared
this a little bit already,

668
00:35:23,875 --> 00:35:25,750
but you take this wool...

669
00:35:26,125 --> 00:35:29,916
and you put it over this crack,
then you start rubbing.

670
00:35:37,791 --> 00:35:39,666
Okay.

671
00:35:53,500 --> 00:35:56,333
Being a prisoner,
all of Dengler's thoughts

672
00:35:56,416 --> 00:35:59,916
were focused on another escape,
and on survival.

673
00:36:00,041 --> 00:36:01,333
Back in the mid-'60s,

674
00:36:01,416 --> 00:36:04,583
American strategic thinking
was turned against Russia.

675
00:36:04,666 --> 00:36:09,166
So, all survival meant survival
in Russia and Siberia.

676
00:36:09,250 --> 00:36:12,208
A jungle war didn't factor much
in their thinking.

677
00:36:12,291 --> 00:36:14,916
And that's why
their instructional films

678
00:36:15,041 --> 00:36:17,041
look somewhat funny.

679
00:36:22,375 --> 00:36:24,375
You know,
when it rained that hard,

680
00:36:24,458 --> 00:36:27,000
you didn't have to
collect water.

681
00:36:30,125 --> 00:36:34,666
Of course, our man immediately
comes across heart of palm.

682
00:36:34,750 --> 00:36:38,916
The film hints, as easily
as in the supermarket.

683
00:36:45,458 --> 00:36:48,125
Very important is...
that you have got a knife.

684
00:36:48,708 --> 00:36:53,500
Of course, our man also
has his whetstone on him.

685
00:36:54,416 --> 00:36:57,000
And you better look
hard for the enemy.

686
00:36:58,791 --> 00:37:01,541
♪♪

687
00:37:08,375 --> 00:37:11,583
And now, the knife seems
to be sharp as a razor.

688
00:37:11,666 --> 00:37:14,583
You've got to put it
to the test.

689
00:37:14,666 --> 00:37:17,750
A leaf should slice
easily in two.

690
00:37:18,666 --> 00:37:21,458
Now, if the leaf
doesn't cooperate,

691
00:37:21,500 --> 00:37:24,041
you can still chew it.

692
00:37:32,500 --> 00:37:35,333
Let's suppose you are wounded.

693
00:37:35,416 --> 00:37:39,458
It's always smart to have
your medicine kit on you.

694
00:37:43,583 --> 00:37:46,000
You apply the right ointment.

695
00:37:47,208 --> 00:37:51,208
Rub it in, sleeve down,
and done.

696
00:37:52,291 --> 00:37:56,916
And it's a good idea to bring
your radio transmitter along.

697
00:37:57,041 --> 00:38:00,500
You make your position known
to the planes above.

698
00:38:04,791 --> 00:38:07,500
And then you shoot a flare.

699
00:38:09,541 --> 00:38:11,833
The rescue helicopter spot it,

700
00:38:11,916 --> 00:38:14,916
and you better scramble
for a clearing.

701
00:38:18,166 --> 00:38:20,500
The helicopter is
already waiting.

702
00:38:20,541 --> 00:38:22,666
But now, this is very odd.

703
00:38:22,750 --> 00:38:25,500
What for God's sake is
our man signaling

704
00:38:25,666 --> 00:38:27,166
so frantically
to the helicopter

705
00:38:27,333 --> 00:38:28,666
right above him?

706
00:38:30,750 --> 00:38:36,000
♪♪

707
00:39:00,250 --> 00:39:02,291
As we were walking
through the jungle,

708
00:39:02,375 --> 00:39:04,250
we always had fire with us.

709
00:39:04,333 --> 00:39:07,291
One of our guards had this
little container on wires.

710
00:39:07,375 --> 00:39:08,500
It was full of charcoal.

711
00:39:08,541 --> 00:39:11,000
He would swing it back and
forth, so it wouldn't go out.

712
00:39:11,083 --> 00:39:14,125
Some of the other guards would
have a fan made out of bamboo.

713
00:39:14,208 --> 00:39:17,208
They would cut it on top
with a machete,

714
00:39:17,291 --> 00:39:19,458
then they would beat it flat
with a rock.

715
00:39:19,500 --> 00:39:20,791
They knew exactly
what rind to cut,

716
00:39:20,875 --> 00:39:22,333
some white sap
would come out.

717
00:39:22,416 --> 00:39:23,375
It was really sticky,

718
00:39:23,458 --> 00:39:25,000
they would smear it
all over the surface here.

719
00:39:25,083 --> 00:39:26,750
And as we were walking along,

720
00:39:26,833 --> 00:39:29,000
they would just see
a small or a big bug

721
00:39:29,083 --> 00:39:30,791
way up on a branch
or on a leaf.

722
00:39:30,875 --> 00:39:32,708
They would reach up
very carefully,

723
00:39:32,791 --> 00:39:35,041
and the wings of this bug
would stick on it.

724
00:39:35,125 --> 00:39:36,291
They would take it off,

725
00:39:36,375 --> 00:39:38,250
and they would lay it
on top of this charcoal.

726
00:39:38,333 --> 00:39:39,500
And it was--
we were walking along,

727
00:39:39,541 --> 00:39:40,875
they were
barbecuing all the time.

728
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:42,458
In fact, one time
I turned around,

729
00:39:42,500 --> 00:39:44,083
and they had
a small bird barbecuing.

730
00:39:44,166 --> 00:39:47,125
When we got there in the
evening, they weren't hungry.

731
00:39:50,875 --> 00:39:56,291
[ Birds chirping ]

732
00:40:09,666 --> 00:40:10,833
I was shot down over Laos,

733
00:40:10,916 --> 00:40:13,083
and of course I was captured
by the Pathet Lao.

734
00:40:13,166 --> 00:40:15,250
We started walking towards
the east, towards Vietnam,

735
00:40:15,333 --> 00:40:18,416
and about 2 1/2 weeks later, I
was turned over to the Vietcong.

736
00:40:19,083 --> 00:40:21,791
Even though later on
I was kept in a Pathet Lao camp,

737
00:40:21,875 --> 00:40:22,916
it was clear to me

738
00:40:23,041 --> 00:40:25,833
that the North Vietnamese
were running the show.

739
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:28,416
They were a different
breed of people.

740
00:40:28,500 --> 00:40:29,541
I was frightened of them.

741
00:40:29,625 --> 00:40:32,375
They were very, very honest.
They were very, very precise.

742
00:40:32,458 --> 00:40:35,041
When I walked with them,
we would come into a village...

743
00:40:35,125 --> 00:40:36,500
They would line up
all the people.

744
00:40:36,583 --> 00:40:37,750
They would count the people.

745
00:40:37,833 --> 00:40:39,250
They would write down
the name of the village.

746
00:40:39,333 --> 00:40:41,791
They would look at their
watches, it would be 7:28.

747
00:40:41,875 --> 00:40:43,291
They would know the time.

748
00:40:43,375 --> 00:40:45,625
They would tie me down
different at night.

749
00:40:45,708 --> 00:40:48,458
There was no chance
that I could escape.

750
00:40:48,500 --> 00:40:51,500
In fact, there is one incident
that's very vivid in my mind.

751
00:40:51,541 --> 00:40:53,625
Initially, when
I was captured...

752
00:40:53,708 --> 00:40:55,625
they took everything
away from me...

753
00:40:55,708 --> 00:40:57,000
except my engagement ring.

754
00:40:57,083 --> 00:40:59,375
I insisted on keeping it,
and they let me have it.

755
00:41:00,416 --> 00:41:02,833
And here, about 2 1/2
or 3 weeks later,

756
00:41:02,916 --> 00:41:04,250
we arrived in this village.

757
00:41:04,333 --> 00:41:07,833
We came to a hut, it just looked
something like this.

758
00:41:07,916 --> 00:41:11,000
There was a villager
in the corner, he was cooking.

759
00:41:11,083 --> 00:41:12,500
Next thing, he's next to me.

760
00:41:12,583 --> 00:41:13,916
He gave me a plate of rice.

761
00:41:14,041 --> 00:41:17,416
He smiled at me,
he was very friendly.

762
00:41:17,500 --> 00:41:19,541
All of a sudden, he grabs over,
he grabs my hand.

763
00:41:19,625 --> 00:41:22,291
He gets a hold of my ring, and
he starts pulling my ring off.

764
00:41:22,375 --> 00:41:23,500
And, of course,
I'm pulling back.

765
00:41:23,583 --> 00:41:25,583
And it's going back and forth,
and back and forth like that.

766
00:41:25,666 --> 00:41:28,250
There was no way this
guy's gonna get my ring.

767
00:41:28,333 --> 00:41:31,375
He got up, he left.
I thought it was all over.

768
00:41:31,458 --> 00:41:32,875
All of a sudden,
a few seconds later,

769
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:34,333
he's coming back with a machete.

770
00:41:34,416 --> 00:41:35,541
He raises his arm.

771
00:41:35,625 --> 00:41:38,666
I realized then
I better let him have my ring.

772
00:41:38,750 --> 00:41:41,916
The North Vietnamese,
they were in a corner.

773
00:41:42,041 --> 00:41:43,291
They were doing something
over there,

774
00:41:43,375 --> 00:41:45,041
they were not
aware what was happening.

775
00:41:45,125 --> 00:41:46,208
They got up.

776
00:41:46,291 --> 00:41:49,000
Got our stuff together,
and off we went, we left.

777
00:41:49,083 --> 00:41:50,083
I was disappointed.

778
00:41:50,166 --> 00:41:53,375
I was unhappy. And the longer
we walked, the angrier I get.

779
00:41:53,458 --> 00:41:55,916
And about 1 1/2 or 2 hours
later, I stopped them,

780
00:41:56,041 --> 00:41:57,333
I showed them my finger,

781
00:41:57,416 --> 00:41:59,375
it was all white
where the ring had been.

782
00:41:59,458 --> 00:42:02,791
At first, they didn't understand
what I was talking about.

783
00:42:02,875 --> 00:42:06,291
I made stealing gestures.
They got together, they talked.

784
00:42:06,375 --> 00:42:07,333
Then they turned around

785
00:42:07,416 --> 00:42:08,750
and started walking back
towards this village.

786
00:42:08,833 --> 00:42:10,333
Of course, I was happy.

787
00:42:10,416 --> 00:42:12,083
I was thinking
I'm getting my ring back.

788
00:42:12,166 --> 00:42:14,250
But I wasn't prepared
for what happened next.

789
00:42:14,333 --> 00:42:16,416
We got in this village...

790
00:42:16,500 --> 00:42:17,875
Next thing,
they find this villager,

791
00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:19,625
they just beat
the hell out of this guy.

792
00:42:19,708 --> 00:42:21,291
And then, they grabbed
this guy's hand.

793
00:42:21,375 --> 00:42:23,083
Violently
they grabbed his hand.

794
00:42:23,166 --> 00:42:25,458
They put it on top of the table,
they put his finger there.

795
00:42:25,500 --> 00:42:27,083
They chopped his finger off!

796
00:42:27,166 --> 00:42:29,291
I'm leaping back!
The blood is squirting out!

797
00:42:29,375 --> 00:42:31,750
The... finger's
laying on the ground.

798
00:42:31,833 --> 00:42:34,583
The North Vietnamese bends down,
he picks up this finger.

799
00:42:34,708 --> 00:42:38,083
He pulls off this ring,
he sticks it on my finger.

800
00:42:38,166 --> 00:42:39,125
I was speechless.

801
00:42:39,208 --> 00:42:41,250
I caused this misery,
I felt horrible.

802
00:42:41,333 --> 00:42:44,500
He nodded to me,
we turned around, we walked off.

803
00:42:45,625 --> 00:42:47,416
I realized right then and there,

804
00:42:47,500 --> 00:42:49,500
you just don't fool around
with the Vietcongs.

805
00:42:51,791 --> 00:42:54,291
It's just a movie.
Don't worry about it.

806
00:42:54,416 --> 00:42:57,458
And you still got your fingers
and everything.

807
00:43:14,500 --> 00:43:16,333
[ Rooster calls ]

808
00:43:31,125 --> 00:43:34,666
Finally, after 3 1/2 weeks,
I arrived at a prison camp.

809
00:43:35,708 --> 00:43:37,125
I looked forward
to coming to the camp.

810
00:43:37,208 --> 00:43:38,416
I had been
beaten so much.

811
00:43:38,500 --> 00:43:39,750
I had lost so much blood.

812
00:43:39,833 --> 00:43:41,250
I had been unconscious
so many times.

813
00:43:41,333 --> 00:43:43,458
I wanted to share my misery
with someone else.

814
00:43:43,541 --> 00:43:44,833
Other pilots.

815
00:43:44,916 --> 00:43:46,291
I was hoping to see someone,

816
00:43:46,375 --> 00:43:48,250
maybe meet someone
that I've known before.

817
00:43:48,333 --> 00:43:49,500
Maybe a doctor would be there,

818
00:43:49,583 --> 00:43:52,166
but it was totally different
than what I expected.

819
00:43:52,250 --> 00:43:53,750
First of all,
I thought I was all alone

820
00:43:53,833 --> 00:43:55,541
in this...this camp.

821
00:43:55,625 --> 00:43:57,708
High bamboo walls on the side.

822
00:43:57,791 --> 00:44:00,500
The huts were built out
of grass and out of bamboo.

823
00:44:00,583 --> 00:44:02,666
I was let in, they threw me
into one of the huts.

824
00:44:02,750 --> 00:44:05,000
And only three hours later
they opened the door

825
00:44:05,083 --> 00:44:06,500
and let the other guys come out.

826
00:44:06,583 --> 00:44:07,750
I couldn't believe my eyes,

827
00:44:07,833 --> 00:44:10,500
the first guy was carrying his
intestines around in his hand.

828
00:44:10,583 --> 00:44:11,708
There was six of them.

829
00:44:11,791 --> 00:44:13,250
There were four Thais,
two Americans...

830
00:44:13,333 --> 00:44:16,250
Duane Martin,
who became my friend later on.

831
00:44:16,333 --> 00:44:18,000
The next guy came out,
he had no teeth.

832
00:44:18,083 --> 00:44:19,208
With a rusty nail
and a rock

833
00:44:19,291 --> 00:44:21,000
they would knock
each other's teeth in.

834
00:44:21,083 --> 00:44:23,708
...to let the puss out.
They'd been there 2 1/2 years.

835
00:44:23,791 --> 00:44:26,125
It was just awful. I looked
at them, and I realized,

836
00:44:26,208 --> 00:44:28,166
that's exactly what I'm
gonna look in six months.

837
00:44:28,250 --> 00:44:29,625
So, I said,
"I'm leaving tonight."

838
00:44:29,708 --> 00:44:32,666
No. I was advised
not to because of the rain.

839
00:44:32,750 --> 00:44:34,333
We needed the water to drink.

840
00:44:34,416 --> 00:44:36,208
At nights, we would
be handcuffed.

841
00:44:36,291 --> 00:44:38,583
Sometimes we would get
cross-handcuffed,

842
00:44:38,666 --> 00:44:39,916
sometimes straight-handcuffed.

843
00:44:40,041 --> 00:44:42,041
Cross-handcuffed,
this is a more modern handcuff,

844
00:44:42,125 --> 00:44:43,125
would be like that.

845
00:44:43,208 --> 00:44:44,333
Left wrist would go

846
00:44:44,416 --> 00:44:46,666
to the right wrist
of the guy on my right.

847
00:44:46,750 --> 00:44:47,916
My right wrist would go

848
00:44:48,041 --> 00:44:49,708
to the left wrist
of the guy on my left.

849
00:44:49,791 --> 00:44:52,375
This way we'd be together.
Everybody had dysentery.

850
00:44:52,458 --> 00:44:54,541
20 times a night,
this guy made the motion,

851
00:44:54,625 --> 00:44:56,000
this guy had to make the motion.

852
00:44:56,083 --> 00:44:58,375
On top of it,
our legs were in foot blocks,

853
00:44:58,458 --> 00:44:59,583
big wooden blocks they made.

854
00:44:59,666 --> 00:45:01,500
Our feet would be
driven through there,

855
00:45:01,583 --> 00:45:02,666
a pin would come in-between.

856
00:45:02,750 --> 00:45:05,625
Some sides were be longer,
sometimes it would be shorter.

857
00:45:05,708 --> 00:45:07,833
And this is the way
they expected you to sleep.

858
00:45:07,916 --> 00:45:09,583
If you had no blankets,
it was miserable cold.

859
00:45:12,250 --> 00:45:14,333
In the misery of those nights,

860
00:45:14,416 --> 00:45:19,208
Dengler often dreamt of oceans
and foreign shores.

861
00:45:23,833 --> 00:45:26,208
And I dreamt
that a boat appeared.

862
00:45:26,291 --> 00:45:29,458
And the whole American Navy
came to rescue me.

863
00:45:29,500 --> 00:45:33,375
And I waved. And I shouted.
But they wouldn't listen.

864
00:45:33,458 --> 00:45:36,833
They just kept on going
and went somewhere else.

865
00:45:37,791 --> 00:45:41,291
♪♪

866
00:46:06,291 --> 00:46:08,291
As far as food,
they themselves were very poor.

867
00:46:08,375 --> 00:46:10,375
At the beginning, we were given
a handful of rice,

868
00:46:10,458 --> 00:46:14,041
then later on a handful of rice
for all of us.

869
00:46:14,125 --> 00:46:16,333
Sometimes they
would catch a deer.

870
00:46:16,416 --> 00:46:17,666
They would cut a deer open,

871
00:46:17,750 --> 00:46:19,333
they would take the grass
out from the inside.

872
00:46:19,416 --> 00:46:21,833
That's what we would get to eat.

873
00:46:21,916 --> 00:46:22,916
They would keep the meat.

874
00:46:23,041 --> 00:46:25,416
They would take the meat and
stuff it in a bamboo container.

875
00:46:25,500 --> 00:46:28,416
After 4 or 5 days, it would rot
so bad for themselves.

876
00:46:28,500 --> 00:46:29,875
They would come in with a towel.

877
00:46:30,000 --> 00:46:32,125
They would pour it out, it would
be white, it was covered smack,

878
00:46:32,250 --> 00:46:33,666
and it would stink
to high heaven.

879
00:46:33,750 --> 00:46:35,458
First time I tried it,
I vomited.

880
00:46:35,500 --> 00:46:37,625
But if you didn't eat it,
you just died.

881
00:46:37,708 --> 00:46:38,625
We were lucky, though,

882
00:46:38,708 --> 00:46:40,583
because we couldn't go
to the bathroom.

883
00:46:40,666 --> 00:46:42,416
So, once every 3 or 4 weeks
they would let us out.

884
00:46:42,500 --> 00:46:44,166
We would go to the
bathroom right below us,

885
00:46:44,250 --> 00:46:45,833
it would stink to high heaven.

886
00:46:45,916 --> 00:46:48,250
I mean it was awful,
but there were rats down there.

887
00:46:48,333 --> 00:46:51,041
And we couldn't catch the rats,
but there was a snake there.

888
00:46:51,125 --> 00:46:53,291
And every so often we were
lucky to catch that snake.

889
00:46:53,375 --> 00:46:55,291
We would look, we would
lay on our bellies,

890
00:46:55,375 --> 00:46:57,291
we watched this snake
line up on the rat.

891
00:46:57,416 --> 00:46:58,750
Get a hold of the rat.

892
00:46:58,833 --> 00:47:00,458
We had a stick,
we would get the snake,

893
00:47:00,500 --> 00:47:02,208
we pulled the snake up,
we pulled the rat out.

894
00:47:02,291 --> 00:47:05,208
We cut the rat apart, and
everybody got his share.

895
00:47:05,291 --> 00:47:07,083
We lost, of course,
a lot of weight

896
00:47:07,166 --> 00:47:09,041
waiting for the rain to come.
But...

897
00:47:09,125 --> 00:47:10,875
We had to supplement
our food

898
00:47:11,000 --> 00:47:13,833
for the day
that we left for freedom.

899
00:47:15,166 --> 00:47:18,125
Well, initially... initially,
February or March...

900
00:47:18,208 --> 00:47:20,833
we were allowed to go to
the bathroom in the morning...

901
00:47:20,916 --> 00:47:22,500
for about two minutes.

902
00:47:22,583 --> 00:47:24,500
And... we had...

903
00:47:24,541 --> 00:47:28,000
We have a couple of tubes you go
in at night and you can imagine,

904
00:47:28,083 --> 00:47:29,166
you're in a big block
in the woods,

905
00:47:29,250 --> 00:47:30,458
and you're handcuffed like that,

906
00:47:30,500 --> 00:47:31,875
and you got to go
to the bathroom at night

907
00:47:32,000 --> 00:47:34,125
with a guy
having diarrhea or dysentery.

908
00:47:34,250 --> 00:47:35,541
So, it was a real mess,

909
00:47:35,625 --> 00:47:38,541
but while we walked down,
we run down like hell.

910
00:47:38,625 --> 00:47:42,291
There's about a 20- or 30-foot
walk to the hole.

911
00:47:42,375 --> 00:47:45,166
And while we did this, they...
they shot at us.

912
00:47:45,250 --> 00:47:48,333
And it got so close that some
of the prisoners came back

913
00:47:48,416 --> 00:47:49,875
with black in the face,

914
00:47:50,000 --> 00:47:51,750
or greased their hair
with a bullet, and...

915
00:47:51,833 --> 00:47:53,916
So, we didn't even want
to go anymore.

916
00:47:54,041 --> 00:47:55,625
We... we rather
stayed with the tubes.

917
00:47:55,708 --> 00:47:56,875
MAN: Why were
they shooting at ya?

918
00:47:57,000 --> 00:47:59,458
MAN 2: The question is, why were
they shooting at you?

919
00:47:59,500 --> 00:48:00,500
Just harassment.

920
00:48:00,541 --> 00:48:03,708
They will take a gun, and they'd
show it to you, they put a...

921
00:48:03,791 --> 00:48:04,916
a round in it,

922
00:48:05,041 --> 00:48:06,708
and they put it right
onto your head, and they...

923
00:48:06,791 --> 00:48:09,375
take the safety off and they go:
click, click, click, click.

924
00:48:09,458 --> 00:48:14,041
And they'll laugh...
Stuff like that. So...

925
00:48:14,125 --> 00:48:15,250
I'm lucky to be here!

926
00:48:17,333 --> 00:48:18,916
The camp was inside Laos,

927
00:48:19,041 --> 00:48:22,625
and the shortest way out would
have been east to the ocean.

928
00:48:22,708 --> 00:48:24,541
But there were
impassable mountains

929
00:48:24,625 --> 00:48:27,208
and, of course,
North Vietnam.

930
00:48:28,125 --> 00:48:31,250
What made most sense
for them was to go west.

931
00:48:31,333 --> 00:48:33,333
To float down
the river to the Mekong,

932
00:48:33,416 --> 00:48:36,458
and then cross
to freedom in Thailand.

933
00:48:43,375 --> 00:48:46,375
Our plan to escape from
this prison camp was planned

934
00:48:46,458 --> 00:48:48,166
right down to the last detail.

935
00:48:48,250 --> 00:48:52,208
We had six months, we're waiting
for the monsoon rain.

936
00:48:52,291 --> 00:48:54,916
We had a little problem
amongst ourselves.

937
00:48:55,041 --> 00:48:57,458
Some of the other prisoners
didn't want to escape.

938
00:48:57,500 --> 00:49:01,125
In 1966, there was
really no war in Laos.

939
00:49:01,208 --> 00:49:03,291
They were hoping to be released
pretty soon, and also

940
00:49:03,375 --> 00:49:05,250
they were afraid to be shot
on the way out.

941
00:49:05,333 --> 00:49:07,500
This changed pretty
dramatically, real quick,

942
00:49:07,541 --> 00:49:09,250
because the Thais,
who spoke the language,

943
00:49:09,333 --> 00:49:11,791
in this hut overheard the
guards outside talking about

944
00:49:11,875 --> 00:49:13,625
that they would take us
in the jungle,

945
00:49:13,708 --> 00:49:15,583
shoot us, so it would look
like we'd escaped,

946
00:49:15,666 --> 00:49:17,375
because they wanted to go
home anyway,

947
00:49:17,458 --> 00:49:19,791
because they had hardly
anything else to eat.

948
00:49:20,333 --> 00:49:23,666
Of course, now we all
thought alike.

949
00:49:23,750 --> 00:49:26,166
And we had to move really,
really quick. And the plan was

950
00:49:26,250 --> 00:49:28,041
that if I would make
it out of my hut

951
00:49:28,125 --> 00:49:31,208
into this hut over here,
without being seen,

952
00:49:31,291 --> 00:49:33,166
the other guys would follow me.

953
00:49:33,250 --> 00:49:35,166
Now, we had...

954
00:49:35,375 --> 00:49:38,166
for the last 2 or 3 weeks,
we had a little diagram.

955
00:49:38,250 --> 00:49:39,916
We had little squares
with names on it

956
00:49:40,041 --> 00:49:41,416
for the people
and for the rifles.

957
00:49:41,500 --> 00:49:42,833
We would look
through the cracks.

958
00:49:42,916 --> 00:49:45,166
We would observe them.
We would listen to them.

959
00:49:45,250 --> 00:49:47,875
And pretty soon we knew
exactly where every rifle was,

960
00:49:48,000 --> 00:49:49,166
where every person was,

961
00:49:49,250 --> 00:49:51,291
because this was very,
very important.

962
00:49:51,375 --> 00:49:53,791
That they would all be
in the kitchen at the same time,

963
00:49:53,875 --> 00:49:55,333
because our plan was

964
00:49:55,416 --> 00:49:57,625
that while they were in the
kitchen, we would encircle them.

965
00:49:57,708 --> 00:50:00,333
We would capture them.
Lock 'em up. Hold the camp.

966
00:50:00,416 --> 00:50:01,875
Signal the airplanes at night

967
00:50:02,000 --> 00:50:04,250
and be rescued
right out of there.

968
00:50:05,291 --> 00:50:06,500
Now, during the day,

969
00:50:06,583 --> 00:50:09,166
there was only one time
that we could do this.

970
00:50:09,250 --> 00:50:11,833
We had about two minutes,
120 seconds to do this.

971
00:50:11,916 --> 00:50:14,083
And this is when the cook
over here would yell,

972
00:50:14,166 --> 00:50:15,458
"Chow time! Food time!"

973
00:50:15,541 --> 00:50:18,583
Only then would the guards
leave their rifles behind.

974
00:50:18,708 --> 00:50:21,500
The next problem was to get out
of the handcuffs.

975
00:50:21,541 --> 00:50:24,333
It's quite simple. Nowadays
everybody ought to know

976
00:50:24,416 --> 00:50:26,000
how to open a handcuff.

977
00:50:26,083 --> 00:50:27,791
If you come a little closer
with your camera,

978
00:50:27,875 --> 00:50:29,416
I can show you how to do that.

979
00:50:31,291 --> 00:50:32,750
With this small key,

980
00:50:32,833 --> 00:50:36,083
I'm gonna open the handcuff to
show you the functions inside.

981
00:50:36,291 --> 00:50:37,500
As you look in there,

982
00:50:37,583 --> 00:50:40,625
you see this small spring
going back and forth.

983
00:50:40,708 --> 00:50:42,708
You'll also see
a few teeth in there

984
00:50:42,791 --> 00:50:45,458
that holds
the handcuff in place.

985
00:50:49,708 --> 00:50:53,125
Now, just with a regular
paperclip...

986
00:50:53,541 --> 00:50:56,750
you can open this handcuff
quite simply by inserting...

987
00:50:56,833 --> 00:50:59,750
one of these ends
into the opening.

988
00:50:59,833 --> 00:51:02,750
Apply pressure to the spring,
pulling the handcuff open.

989
00:51:07,791 --> 00:51:12,583
The day came.
The cook yelled, "Chow time!"

990
00:51:12,666 --> 00:51:14,833
I stripped my blocks,
I let myself to the floor.

991
00:51:14,916 --> 00:51:16,250
I was underneath my hut now.

992
00:51:16,333 --> 00:51:18,791
I crawled quickly over
to the logs, those heavy logs

993
00:51:18,875 --> 00:51:20,166
that I had to lift out. I...

994
00:51:20,250 --> 00:51:21,750
actually loosened them
the day before.

995
00:51:21,833 --> 00:51:23,041
My heart
was really pounding.

996
00:51:23,125 --> 00:51:26,583
I crawled across. I came to this
fence. I untied the rattan.

997
00:51:26,666 --> 00:51:28,250
Slipped the bamboo up

998
00:51:28,333 --> 00:51:30,416
and rushed through this door,
and I leaped into this hut.

999
00:51:30,500 --> 00:51:33,125
There were three rifles
in there, two I passed away,

1000
00:51:33,208 --> 00:51:34,791
and the other one I kept.

1001
00:51:34,875 --> 00:51:36,583
I ran out into the open.

1002
00:51:36,666 --> 00:51:38,291
Nobody came from this side
except the guards,

1003
00:51:38,416 --> 00:51:39,500
running in my direction.

1004
00:51:39,583 --> 00:51:41,875
They must have heard
or seen the other guys.

1005
00:51:42,000 --> 00:51:43,291
This big shootout started.

1006
00:51:43,375 --> 00:51:45,000
All of a sudden,
the bullets were flying.

1007
00:51:45,083 --> 00:51:46,708
Somehow
we had miscalculated.

1008
00:51:46,791 --> 00:51:48,708
Somebody
had a rifle in there.

1009
00:51:48,791 --> 00:51:50,583
I had this sub-machine
gun in my hand.

1010
00:51:50,666 --> 00:51:51,875
I never shot one before.

1011
00:51:52,000 --> 00:51:54,166
When I pulled the trigger, it
practically flew out of my hand.

1012
00:51:54,250 --> 00:51:55,666
It raised up like that,

1013
00:51:55,750 --> 00:51:58,458
and this allowed them to close
this distance real quick.

1014
00:51:58,500 --> 00:52:00,791
They came within
2 or 3 feet from me.

1015
00:52:00,875 --> 00:52:03,458
The morron, one of the guys,
had a machete in his hand.

1016
00:52:03,500 --> 00:52:04,541
He came within 4 or 5 feet,

1017
00:52:04,708 --> 00:52:05,750
I shot him through the hip.

1018
00:52:05,833 --> 00:52:08,166
It lifted him up, it threw him
down to the ground.

1019
00:52:08,250 --> 00:52:10,708
Next thing I'm looking up,
he's getting up again.

1020
00:52:10,791 --> 00:52:12,500
He still had the machete,
he's still coming at me.

1021
00:52:12,541 --> 00:52:13,916
Of course this time
I couldn't miss.

1022
00:52:14,041 --> 00:52:16,083
He was right 2 or 3 feet
in front of me.

1023
00:52:16,166 --> 00:52:17,458
I couldn't believe it.

1024
00:52:17,500 --> 00:52:19,125
I didn't have a scratch.

1025
00:52:19,208 --> 00:52:21,041
There was five dead guards
laying on the ground.

1026
00:52:21,125 --> 00:52:22,583
Two of them got away.

1027
00:52:22,666 --> 00:52:25,375
They ran a zigzag pattern,
and they got in the jungle.

1028
00:52:25,458 --> 00:52:27,000
I knew then,
right then and there,

1029
00:52:27,083 --> 00:52:29,041
they would get help...
and we had to get out of there.

1030
00:52:29,125 --> 00:52:30,083
Where was Duane?

1031
00:52:30,166 --> 00:52:33,833
I saw him behind this bush
over here, he had vomited.

1032
00:52:33,916 --> 00:52:35,416
I yelled to him,
"Duane, let's get out of here!

1033
00:52:35,500 --> 00:52:36,416
Let's get out of here!"

1034
00:52:36,500 --> 00:52:38,458
We took off. We ran down
between this kitchen. We ran...

1035
00:52:38,500 --> 00:52:41,000
ran amongst those dead guys
laying on the ground.

1036
00:52:41,083 --> 00:52:42,500
And it was very important

1037
00:52:42,541 --> 00:52:44,666
because our shoes
were tied together in a bundle,

1038
00:52:44,750 --> 00:52:46,666
were hanging
on this hut over here.

1039
00:52:46,750 --> 00:52:48,625
The shoes we needed
in the jungle,

1040
00:52:48,708 --> 00:52:50,500
but when we got there,
they were already taken.

1041
00:52:50,583 --> 00:52:52,833
The other guys must have taken
them and run off with them.

1042
00:52:52,916 --> 00:52:55,666
And then, Duane and I, we had
no choice but to turn around,

1043
00:52:55,750 --> 00:52:58,458
barefoot we ran into the jungle.

1044
00:53:01,625 --> 00:53:03,375
Of the seven of us
that escaped,

1045
00:53:03,458 --> 00:53:05,791
I was the only one
that came out alive.

1046
00:53:05,875 --> 00:53:07,583
The other ones disappeared
in the jungle,

1047
00:53:07,666 --> 00:53:09,875
and nobody ever heard
from them again.

1048
00:53:21,166 --> 00:53:23,500
God! How I ever made it
through this jungle,

1049
00:53:23,583 --> 00:53:26,916
barefoot, for weeks.
I'll never know.

1050
00:53:33,875 --> 00:53:36,375
Dieter and Duane were
struggling to make their way

1051
00:53:36,458 --> 00:53:37,458
through the jungle.

1052
00:53:37,500 --> 00:53:41,500
Weak and starved, their feet
badly cut by thorns.

1053
00:53:41,541 --> 00:53:43,583
After ten days
they reached a river,

1054
00:53:43,666 --> 00:53:45,791
somewhat like this one.

1055
00:53:45,875 --> 00:53:50,500
Only the river was much higher
because of the monsoon rains.

1056
00:53:52,083 --> 00:53:54,791
We were ecstatic.
We felt like dancing,

1057
00:53:54,875 --> 00:53:57,500
and we thought that this was
our highway to freedom.

1058
00:53:58,458 --> 00:54:00,500
Exhausted as they were,

1059
00:54:00,541 --> 00:54:04,291
they managed to build a small
raft and climbed aboard.

1060
00:54:06,500 --> 00:54:09,458
There we were on this river,
this beautiful river,

1061
00:54:09,500 --> 00:54:12,250
drifting down between hills
and mountains for a couple--

1062
00:54:12,333 --> 00:54:14,500
hour and a half,
down towards Thailand.

1063
00:54:15,625 --> 00:54:16,583
I thought I heard something.

1064
00:54:16,666 --> 00:54:18,125
I said, "Duane,
do you hear anything?"

1065
00:54:18,208 --> 00:54:19,250
But then it got quiet again,

1066
00:54:19,333 --> 00:54:21,875
but when we came
around the next hill,

1067
00:54:22,000 --> 00:54:23,541
we heard it at the same time.

1068
00:54:23,625 --> 00:54:25,875
We both yelled, "Waterfalls!"
He leaped off.

1069
00:54:26,000 --> 00:54:27,291
I jumped in the water.

1070
00:54:27,375 --> 00:54:28,916
I was actually in the water,
I grabbed the rifles.

1071
00:54:29,041 --> 00:54:31,875
I kicked as hard as I could.
I was taken off.

1072
00:54:32,000 --> 00:54:34,375
I was going
then towards... this side.

1073
00:54:34,458 --> 00:54:36,083
Duane was already
nearly over there,

1074
00:54:36,166 --> 00:54:37,666
but I had these rifles
in my arm,

1075
00:54:37,750 --> 00:54:39,166
and I couldn't really swim
that fast.

1076
00:54:39,250 --> 00:54:40,416
And the current shot,

1077
00:54:40,500 --> 00:54:41,791
picking up, and quicker
and quicker!

1078
00:54:41,875 --> 00:54:43,666
And I thought
I wouldn't make it,

1079
00:54:43,750 --> 00:54:46,166
and finally there was
a couple of rocks sticking out.

1080
00:54:46,250 --> 00:54:48,791
I clung on this rock, and
I looked over the side and...

1081
00:54:48,875 --> 00:54:52,458
our raft had tumbled and tumbled
and tumbled down 300 feet.

1082
00:54:52,541 --> 00:54:55,333
It disintegrated on the bottom.
I was speechless.

1083
00:54:55,416 --> 00:54:56,833
I looked at Duane,
he was snow-white.

1084
00:54:56,916 --> 00:54:58,500
We had just... escaped death.

1085
00:54:58,583 --> 00:55:01,166
I mean, it was truly
touch and go.

1086
00:55:01,250 --> 00:55:04,416
We were speechless. We just sat
there after I made it to shore.

1087
00:55:05,333 --> 00:55:06,458
Trying to decide
what to do.

1088
00:55:06,500 --> 00:55:08,291
One of the rifles,
we threw away.

1089
00:55:08,375 --> 00:55:10,458
It was vertical going down,
on both sides.

1090
00:55:10,500 --> 00:55:12,333
We had a very difficult time,

1091
00:55:12,416 --> 00:55:14,250
because it was full
of green mud.

1092
00:55:14,333 --> 00:55:16,500
During the rainy season.

1093
00:55:16,541 --> 00:55:18,125
The ground was very muddy,

1094
00:55:18,208 --> 00:55:21,458
and on the vines we were sliding
down, helping each other down.

1095
00:55:21,500 --> 00:55:23,541
And late in the evening
we arrived on the bottom.

1096
00:55:23,625 --> 00:55:27,083
We were totally exhausted.
We were totally disillusioned.

1097
00:55:27,166 --> 00:55:29,875
Then barefoot,
over rocks and sticks we...

1098
00:55:30,000 --> 00:55:33,500
Down the river we went, looking
forward towards freedom.

1099
00:55:34,000 --> 00:55:39,333
♪♪

1100
00:55:57,208 --> 00:56:00,541
To this day, I often think
about Duane Martin.

1101
00:56:00,625 --> 00:56:04,000
We shared so many hardships,
hopes and despair.

1102
00:56:04,083 --> 00:56:06,666
And this made us
grow very close.

1103
00:56:06,750 --> 00:56:10,583
By the end, Duane was closer to
me than anyone else in my life.

1104
00:56:10,666 --> 00:56:13,500
Even closer than my mother
and my brothers.

1105
00:56:21,416 --> 00:56:26,125
Behind me is the Mekong.
We called it "The Big Muddy".

1106
00:56:26,208 --> 00:56:28,916
Over there is Laos. I was
a prisoner of war over here.

1107
00:56:29,041 --> 00:56:31,875
Over here is Thailand.
Freedom.

1108
00:56:32,500 --> 00:56:34,458
We talked about this river
so many times.

1109
00:56:34,500 --> 00:56:38,500
We dreamt about this river.
This river was our target.

1110
00:56:38,666 --> 00:56:41,041
But we never reached it.

1111
00:56:41,416 --> 00:56:45,166
When I think about it now, even
though it's over 30 years ago,

1112
00:56:45,250 --> 00:56:47,500
it's just like it
happened yesterday.

1113
00:56:47,541 --> 00:56:49,500
I remember,
Duane and I, we had...

1114
00:56:49,583 --> 00:56:51,708
nearly starved to death
when we escaped the camp.

1115
00:56:51,791 --> 00:56:53,291
We were barefoot in the jungle.

1116
00:56:53,375 --> 00:56:56,375
Within the first mile, our feet
were cut to shreads.

1117
00:56:56,458 --> 00:56:58,916
In fact, they swelled up
to big white stumps.

1118
00:56:59,041 --> 00:57:02,208
We had found a single sole
of a tennis shoe.

1119
00:57:02,291 --> 00:57:04,208
And we alternated wearing it,

1120
00:57:04,291 --> 00:57:07,500
and we would tie it to one
of our foot with rattan.

1121
00:57:07,541 --> 00:57:11,833
And then came the monsoon.
The monsoon is something else.

1122
00:57:11,916 --> 00:57:14,125
I mean, you have to
really be there to...

1123
00:57:14,208 --> 00:57:16,583
to know what I'm talking about.
It's just deafening.

1124
00:57:16,666 --> 00:57:19,166
You can scream on top of your
lungs, and nobody can hear you.

1125
00:57:19,250 --> 00:57:23,125
The water comes down like
somebody turned on... a bathtub.

1126
00:57:23,208 --> 00:57:26,041
It goes for hours,
for days. The mud!

1127
00:57:26,125 --> 00:57:27,666
The bamboo!

1128
00:57:27,750 --> 00:57:30,416
All the stuff that comes
down from the mountains.

1129
00:57:30,500 --> 00:57:32,708
In fact, Duane and I, we had
to look for high grounds.

1130
00:57:32,791 --> 00:57:35,541
We would tie ourselves down
to a stump or trees.

1131
00:57:35,625 --> 00:57:38,083
Not to be swept down
with this mud overnight.

1132
00:57:38,166 --> 00:57:39,375
Of course, we would hug
each other.

1133
00:57:39,458 --> 00:57:40,833
We needed each other
for warmth.

1134
00:57:40,916 --> 00:57:43,458
We needed each other
for friendship in this misery.

1135
00:57:43,500 --> 00:57:45,083
And then came dawn.

1136
00:57:45,166 --> 00:57:48,125
I would look over there, and
I couldn't even recognize Duane.

1137
00:57:48,208 --> 00:57:50,208
Duane would be covered
from top to bottom

1138
00:57:50,291 --> 00:57:52,041
with mud and blood.

1139
00:57:52,125 --> 00:57:53,375
I looked the same.

1140
00:57:53,458 --> 00:57:57,041
We had leeches, not 20, not 50.
Hundreds. It was like a belt.

1141
00:57:57,125 --> 00:57:58,083
It was black around there.

1142
00:57:58,166 --> 00:57:59,750
Our legs were covered
with leeches.

1143
00:57:59,833 --> 00:58:01,166
They were looking
for the soft spots.

1144
00:58:01,250 --> 00:58:03,375
Between our fingers,
underneath the arms,

1145
00:58:03,458 --> 00:58:05,583
and the nose and the ears.
It was awful.

1146
00:58:05,666 --> 00:58:07,583
They're tiny, tiny creatures.

1147
00:58:07,666 --> 00:58:09,875
Like a needle, they find
every tiny, little hole.

1148
00:58:10,000 --> 00:58:11,083
They attach themselves,

1149
00:58:11,166 --> 00:58:14,416
they suck themselves full with
blood, as big as this finger.

1150
00:58:15,500 --> 00:58:19,333
We would then take our rags off,
we would take bamboo,

1151
00:58:19,416 --> 00:58:22,125
and we scraped them off,
and on we went.

1152
00:58:22,208 --> 00:58:23,666
But then, there were
a couple of times

1153
00:58:23,750 --> 00:58:25,500
we thought
we really had it made.

1154
00:58:25,541 --> 00:58:28,708
One time, we built a raft.
We had to abandon the raft.

1155
00:58:28,791 --> 00:58:30,000
The raft went over
the waterfall.

1156
00:58:30,083 --> 00:58:32,291
But then, later on,
we made this beautiful fire.

1157
00:58:32,375 --> 00:58:34,500
We waved at night
to the airplanes.

1158
00:58:34,541 --> 00:58:36,250
They saw us,
they circled overhead.

1159
00:58:36,333 --> 00:58:39,458
And we knew, we're gonna
be rescued, that next morning.

1160
00:58:39,500 --> 00:58:41,833
We were elated. We hugged
each other, we cried together.

1161
00:58:41,916 --> 00:58:43,791
We talked about who's going
in the helicopter first.

1162
00:58:43,875 --> 00:58:46,625
What are we gonna eat?
Who are we gonna call?

1163
00:58:46,708 --> 00:58:48,708
And then moning came,
and we waited and waited,

1164
00:58:48,791 --> 00:58:50,125
and nothing happened.

1165
00:58:50,208 --> 00:58:52,333
It was a blow.
What a disappointment.

1166
00:58:52,416 --> 00:58:53,708
But then we had to move on

1167
00:58:53,791 --> 00:58:55,375
because we were
starving to death.

1168
00:58:55,458 --> 00:58:57,458
In fact, we couldn't even
walk anymore.

1169
00:58:57,500 --> 00:58:59,708
We were crawling
and lay on our knees

1170
00:58:59,791 --> 00:59:01,250
down this small little trail.

1171
00:59:01,333 --> 00:59:03,625
And all of a sudden there
was this small boy on our left.

1172
00:59:03,708 --> 00:59:06,541
He was carrying a water
container over his shoulder.

1173
00:59:06,625 --> 00:59:08,541
And all of a sudden,
there was all this comotion.

1174
00:59:08,625 --> 00:59:11,291
People were running...
all over each way.

1175
00:59:11,375 --> 00:59:12,458
There was noise.

1176
00:59:12,500 --> 00:59:14,000
Duane and I right away
we were on our knees,

1177
00:59:14,083 --> 00:59:17,416
and we put our hands together.
We said, "Hello. Sabai."

1178
00:59:17,500 --> 00:59:20,458
Duane then starts sitting back
and started getting up.

1179
00:59:20,500 --> 00:59:21,791
And all of a sudden,

1180
00:59:21,875 --> 00:59:23,750
out of the corner of my eye,
I saw something.

1181
00:59:23,833 --> 00:59:26,041
I looked over there,
a villager was standing there.

1182
00:59:26,125 --> 00:59:28,458
He had a machete in his hand,
high above his head.

1183
00:59:28,500 --> 00:59:30,666
He just hesitated for a second,
and then he swung.

1184
00:59:30,750 --> 00:59:33,625
He swung for me, I ducked,
it missed me by a few inches.

1185
00:59:33,708 --> 00:59:36,833
He hit Duane in the upper leg,
the blade was deeply buried.

1186
00:59:36,916 --> 00:59:38,083
And then Duane screamed.

1187
00:59:38,166 --> 00:59:41,416
He reached down,
he grabbed his leg, screaming!

1188
00:59:41,500 --> 00:59:43,208
And with the next swipe...

1189
00:59:43,291 --> 00:59:46,000
Duane's head came off.
Blood squirting out!

1190
00:59:46,083 --> 00:59:48,625
I start screaming. I leaped
towards this villager.

1191
00:59:48,708 --> 00:59:49,708
He turned around, he ran.

1192
00:59:49,791 --> 00:59:51,041
In fact, they all
started running,

1193
00:59:51,125 --> 00:59:53,500
and unknownst to me,
I had reached down and grabbed

1194
00:59:53,583 --> 00:59:55,041
this rubber sole from his foot.

1195
00:59:55,125 --> 00:59:56,291
I turned around and ran,

1196
00:59:56,375 --> 00:59:59,541
where 30 seconds before
I was crawling along.

1197
01:00:01,416 --> 01:00:03,083
Duane, my friend, he was gone.

1198
01:00:03,166 --> 01:00:07,708
And from then on, my motions,
my progress, became mechanical.

1199
01:00:08,500 --> 01:00:11,500
In fact, I couldn't care less
if I would live or die.

1200
01:00:11,583 --> 01:00:13,375
But then later on,
there was this bear.

1201
01:00:13,458 --> 01:00:15,250
This beautiful bear
that was following me.

1202
01:00:15,333 --> 01:00:16,500
It was circling me.

1203
01:00:16,541 --> 01:00:18,791
In fact, sometimes when
it was gone, I missed it.

1204
01:00:18,875 --> 01:00:21,083
It was just like a dog.
It was just like a pet.

1205
01:00:21,166 --> 01:00:23,583
Of course, I knew,
this bear was there,

1206
01:00:23,666 --> 01:00:25,083
he was waiting to eat me.

1207
01:00:28,250 --> 01:00:30,541
When I think about it...

1208
01:00:30,791 --> 01:00:33,458
This bear meant death to me.

1209
01:00:33,500 --> 01:00:35,708
And it is really ironic...

1210
01:00:36,416 --> 01:00:40,250
That the only friend I had
in the end was death.

1211
01:00:49,708 --> 01:00:54,791
♪♪

1212
01:01:37,000 --> 01:01:38,750
How Dieter Dengler
has been able

1213
01:01:38,916 --> 01:01:40,125
to cope with all this

1214
01:01:40,208 --> 01:01:42,333
remains a mystery.

1215
01:01:42,416 --> 01:01:44,625
He hides behind
the casusal remark

1216
01:01:44,708 --> 01:01:47,916
that this was
the fun part of his life.

1217
01:02:00,083 --> 01:02:03,375
Dieter took an early retirement
from the Armed Forces

1218
01:02:03,458 --> 01:02:06,458
and became
a civilian test pilot.

1219
01:02:06,500 --> 01:02:11,291
He survived four more crashes
and flies to this day.

1220
01:02:11,375 --> 01:02:13,458
Death did not want him.

1221
01:02:27,083 --> 01:02:28,666
What's that, about 20 pounds?

1222
01:02:28,750 --> 01:02:30,041
No, 30, actually.

1223
01:02:30,125 --> 01:02:32,083
30 Pounds. Wow!

1224
01:02:33,250 --> 01:02:35,000
My God, he'll be surprised.

1225
01:02:35,083 --> 01:02:36,750
How long did it take
to cook that thing?

1226
01:02:36,833 --> 01:02:39,625
-A good five hours.
-Five hours.

1227
01:02:44,166 --> 01:02:48,291
Dieter! God,
my suspicions were true!

1228
01:02:49,500 --> 01:02:52,708
-It's good to see you!
-Happy Thanksgiving, friend!

1229
01:02:52,791 --> 01:02:54,208
This is Eugene Deatrick,

1230
01:02:54,291 --> 01:02:57,750
to whom Dieter Dengler
ultimately owes his life.

1231
01:02:57,833 --> 01:03:00,625
Dieter wanted to surprise him
on Thanksgiving.

1232
01:03:00,708 --> 01:03:02,583
I wouldn't be here
without you,

1233
01:03:02,666 --> 01:03:04,083
and I really appreciate
what you did for me.

1234
01:03:04,166 --> 01:03:05,875
And that you
followed it up and...

1235
01:03:06,083 --> 01:03:08,250
Sit down, tell me all about it.

1236
01:03:10,125 --> 01:03:11,250
My God!

1237
01:03:11,333 --> 01:03:12,791
You're losing hair.
Both of them.

1238
01:03:12,875 --> 01:03:15,458
Tell me did you have any
suspicion, even a little bit?

1239
01:03:15,500 --> 01:03:16,583
I had, a little bit.

1240
01:03:16,666 --> 01:03:18,625
You don't come down here for...

1241
01:03:18,708 --> 01:03:22,333
no one telling you what it is,
but bygod it's good to see you.

1242
01:03:22,583 --> 01:03:26,291
All right, I haven't done that
too many times, but...

1243
01:03:26,375 --> 01:03:28,125
What a turkey.

1244
01:03:28,250 --> 01:03:30,750
It seems like yesterday that...

1245
01:03:31,125 --> 01:03:34,583
Andy and I started to take
off that morning.

1246
01:03:35,500 --> 01:03:37,416
I have said many times
to people

1247
01:03:37,500 --> 01:03:40,083
that this was
a million in one shot.

1248
01:03:40,166 --> 01:03:42,708
If everything hadn't gone
exactly right,

1249
01:03:42,791 --> 01:03:44,333
we never
would have found you.

1250
01:03:44,416 --> 01:03:45,541
Just step by step.

1251
01:03:45,708 --> 01:03:50,083
We were late getting off.
Supposed to leave at eight.

1252
01:03:50,166 --> 01:03:53,375
Didn't get off
until about noon or 1:00.

1253
01:03:53,458 --> 01:03:56,166
We came up, and it was
an armed wrecking area.

1254
01:03:56,250 --> 01:03:58,666
Which meant that you could
bomb anything in the area

1255
01:03:58,750 --> 01:04:00,250
if you thought it was enemy.

1256
01:04:00,333 --> 01:04:01,500
Right.

1257
01:04:01,541 --> 01:04:06,166
And I left Andy high, to stay
in contact with Danang.

1258
01:04:06,250 --> 01:04:08,500
And I went down on the deck.

1259
01:04:08,583 --> 01:04:11,416
And I saw this big river
coming out of the mountain.

1260
01:04:11,500 --> 01:04:13,500
And I thought I'll go up that
as a first shot.

1261
01:04:15,500 --> 01:04:19,083
And again, if it hadn't been
that you were right in the bend,

1262
01:04:19,166 --> 01:04:21,916
because as you fly straight,
I couldn't see down.

1263
01:04:22,041 --> 01:04:24,916
But just where you were,
there was a bend in the river.

1264
01:04:25,041 --> 01:04:27,250
I made that 90-degree bank

1265
01:04:27,333 --> 01:04:28,708
and looked down,
and there on that rock...

1266
01:04:28,791 --> 01:04:29,541
A split second!

1267
01:04:29,625 --> 01:04:32,833
And this nut sitting down there,
waving at me.

1268
01:04:32,916 --> 01:04:35,291
And I thought that was nice
and flew on.

1269
01:04:35,375 --> 01:04:37,500
I must have gone
5 or 10 minutes,

1270
01:04:37,541 --> 01:04:40,125
and I'll never know
whatever made me come back.

1271
01:04:40,208 --> 01:04:42,666
But something just didn't
settle right, that...

1272
01:04:42,750 --> 01:04:45,458
I guess you, it wasn't
a conscious effort, but...

1273
01:04:45,500 --> 01:04:47,333
Natives don't...

1274
01:04:47,416 --> 01:04:49,083
Hang on and wave to you.

1275
01:04:49,166 --> 01:04:51,291
Wave to me
on a fully loaded airplane.

1276
01:04:51,375 --> 01:04:52,541
So, I came back,

1277
01:04:52,625 --> 01:04:54,250
and when you were there
the second time, waving...

1278
01:04:54,333 --> 01:04:56,666
I really wasn't
sure what it was...

1279
01:04:57,708 --> 01:04:58,583
And...

1280
01:04:58,666 --> 01:04:59,541
You know that piece
of white material,

1281
01:04:59,625 --> 01:05:00,625
you know where it came from?

1282
01:05:00,708 --> 01:05:02,375
-The flare.
-The flare.

1283
01:05:02,458 --> 01:05:05,333
Actually, it wasn't the flare.
About five days before...

1284
01:05:05,416 --> 01:05:06,666
You know,
I had gone down to a village,

1285
01:05:06,750 --> 01:05:07,583
and the Americans saw it,

1286
01:05:07,666 --> 01:05:09,625
and they dropped flares, and it
was one of those parachutes.

1287
01:05:09,708 --> 01:05:11,500
And I had already given up...

1288
01:05:11,541 --> 01:05:13,166
It looked like fishing nets
from where I was.

1289
01:05:13,250 --> 01:05:15,041
Well, I'll tell ya,
I pulled that sucker down,

1290
01:05:15,125 --> 01:05:16,791
and I had that thing
in my little backpack.

1291
01:05:16,875 --> 01:05:19,125
And when I heard an airplane,
I didn't even look up.

1292
01:05:19,208 --> 01:05:20,583
All I could do
is reach back there.

1293
01:05:20,666 --> 01:05:22,875
That's when I pulled that
white piece of material out.

1294
01:05:23,000 --> 01:05:24,708
I was thinking,
"SOS. SOS."

1295
01:05:24,791 --> 01:05:27,166
"How does it go,
does the S go this way?

1296
01:05:27,250 --> 01:05:29,291
Or the S go this way?"

1297
01:05:29,375 --> 01:05:31,666
And I ripped my pants off,
trying to lay it down.

1298
01:05:31,750 --> 01:05:33,625
And every so often I would
look up and you were

1299
01:05:33,708 --> 01:05:35,250
way in the corner
between the clouds.

1300
01:05:35,333 --> 01:05:37,500
I thought, "Oh, God.
Please don't let him leave.

1301
01:05:37,541 --> 01:05:40,000
Please don't let him leave."
I was laying out this SOS.

1302
01:05:40,083 --> 01:05:41,666
And as I came back
around the next time,

1303
01:05:41,750 --> 01:05:43,541
I asked Andy
if he could see anything,

1304
01:05:43,625 --> 01:05:45,500
and that's when
he saw the parachute

1305
01:05:45,541 --> 01:05:48,833
and said, "It looks like he
has an SOS." Well, that...

1306
01:05:48,916 --> 01:05:52,500
gave us both the clue that...
someone was down there,

1307
01:05:52,583 --> 01:05:55,041
and the fact that you were there
after three passes...

1308
01:05:55,125 --> 01:05:57,125
So, we pulled off
to the side,

1309
01:05:57,208 --> 01:05:58,916
and I called the crown aircraft,

1310
01:05:59,041 --> 01:06:03,041
which is the C-121 controller
in that area.

1311
01:06:03,125 --> 01:06:06,666
And I asked them if anyone
had been shot down.

1312
01:06:06,750 --> 01:06:09,500
They said there was no
Air Force, no Navy, no Marine,

1313
01:06:09,541 --> 01:06:11,416
no Laotians, no Thai.

1314
01:06:11,500 --> 01:06:15,250
And I said, well... insisted
that someone was down there,

1315
01:06:15,333 --> 01:06:16,458
and they said,
"Well, it couldn't be."

1316
01:06:16,500 --> 01:06:18,583
And a long
conversation went on.

1317
01:06:18,666 --> 01:06:19,875
But we finally got approval,

1318
01:06:20,000 --> 01:06:22,875
and they got the rescue
helicopters, two of them.

1319
01:06:23,000 --> 01:06:26,333
And the aircraft on the coast
escorted them in.

1320
01:06:26,416 --> 01:06:29,083
I took the lead helicopter
when they got in sight.

1321
01:06:29,166 --> 01:06:32,166
Put him down and told him
where you were, and went out.

1322
01:06:32,250 --> 01:06:34,333
And that's when he dropped
his long range tank

1323
01:06:34,416 --> 01:06:36,000
up the river from you.

1324
01:06:36,083 --> 01:06:38,375
That's the first time I realized
it was for real.

1325
01:06:38,458 --> 01:06:40,916
Because, you know, I was
hallucinating all this time.

1326
01:06:41,041 --> 01:06:42,500
And when I smelled
that gasoline,

1327
01:06:42,541 --> 01:06:43,833
I knew it was for real.

1328
01:06:43,916 --> 01:06:47,833
And he couldn't get down very
low because of the mountain.

1329
01:06:47,916 --> 01:06:50,083
And he dropped
the penetrator cable down,

1330
01:06:50,166 --> 01:06:51,916
and I saw you climbing aboard.

1331
01:06:52,041 --> 01:06:54,708
And it was then that my heart
began to beat, I'll tell you.

1332
01:06:54,791 --> 01:06:55,625
Well, you know,

1333
01:06:55,708 --> 01:06:58,083
I couldn't even pull down
the zip on the penetrator.

1334
01:06:58,166 --> 01:07:01,458
I had it in my armpit
as I was going up.

1335
01:07:01,500 --> 01:07:06,125
The helicopter had come in, and
all the trees and the bushes...

1336
01:07:06,208 --> 01:07:07,833
...blowing me around down there,

1337
01:07:07,916 --> 01:07:09,375
and I had a hard time
catching that.

1338
01:07:09,458 --> 01:07:12,291
As I was going up, I was just
going around and around.

1339
01:07:12,375 --> 01:07:14,750
They were taking off
because the Vietcongs,

1340
01:07:14,833 --> 01:07:16,375
they were shooting up at them.

1341
01:07:16,458 --> 01:07:18,125
The guys up there
had the machine guns,

1342
01:07:18,208 --> 01:07:19,500
not only on them,
but also on me,

1343
01:07:19,583 --> 01:07:21,875
because they thought
that I might be a Vietcong.

1344
01:07:22,000 --> 01:07:23,625
They probably had
the same idea I had.

1345
01:07:23,708 --> 01:07:25,875
Not recognizing
Dieter as an American,

1346
01:07:26,000 --> 01:07:27,958
and fearing he
might be a Vietcong

1347
01:07:28,125 --> 01:07:29,291
on a suicide mission,

1348
01:07:29,375 --> 01:07:32,125
a black corporal on board
the helicopter

1349
01:07:32,208 --> 01:07:34,291
threw his weight of 300 pounds

1350
01:07:34,375 --> 01:07:37,125
upon the skeleton
that was left of Dieter,

1351
01:07:37,208 --> 01:07:39,125
and wrestled him to the floor.

1352
01:07:39,208 --> 01:07:40,291
The previous day

1353
01:07:40,375 --> 01:07:42,916
Dieter had seen a snake
swimming in the water,

1354
01:07:43,041 --> 01:07:45,333
and had bitten it in two
from hunger.

1355
01:07:45,416 --> 01:07:47,250
Searching for explosives,

1356
01:07:47,333 --> 01:07:49,166
the corporal pulled
out half a snake

1357
01:07:49,333 --> 01:07:50,666
from under Dieter's shirt.

1358
01:07:50,750 --> 01:07:52,500
It gave him such a shock

1359
01:07:52,583 --> 01:07:55,291
that he fell halfway out
of the helicopter,

1360
01:07:55,375 --> 01:07:57,708
and had to be rescued himself.

1361
01:07:57,791 --> 01:08:00,833
So, as he started to pull away,
and I saw you going in,

1362
01:08:00,916 --> 01:08:02,125
and the thing didn't blow up,

1363
01:08:02,208 --> 01:08:04,875
I gave a great sigh of relief,
I'll tell you that!

1364
01:08:05,000 --> 01:08:08,083
That scared me. I thought my
career would be over if that...

1365
01:08:08,166 --> 01:08:09,583
And as they went away,

1366
01:08:09,666 --> 01:08:12,166
I asked 'em if they could
identify you.

1367
01:08:12,250 --> 01:08:14,625
And they said that they didn't
know who it was,

1368
01:08:14,708 --> 01:08:16,916
but he claimed that
he was a Navy lieutenant

1369
01:08:17,041 --> 01:08:19,125
that had been shot down
several months before.

1370
01:08:19,208 --> 01:08:22,208
And I'll tell you, my heart
gave a sigh of relief.

1371
01:08:24,458 --> 01:08:32,666
♪♪

1372
01:08:36,500 --> 01:08:40,208
Dieter wanted to be back with
the fleet, back on his ship.

1373
01:08:42,291 --> 01:08:45,208
He had been taken
to the hospital in Danang.

1374
01:08:45,291 --> 01:08:46,500
He was safe now,

1375
01:08:46,666 --> 01:08:49,500
but he was sure
this was only a dream.

1376
01:08:49,541 --> 01:08:52,916
For him,
this was just a mirage.

1377
01:09:15,833 --> 01:09:20,000
He wanted to run, and they
had to tie him to his bed.

1378
01:09:20,083 --> 01:09:22,416
So, his friends came
and snuck him out

1379
01:09:22,500 --> 01:09:24,625
and brought him
back to the carrier.

1380
01:09:25,458 --> 01:09:28,208
The elevator took him down
to the hanger bay.

1381
01:09:28,291 --> 01:09:29,833
It was a drizzly day,

1382
01:09:29,916 --> 01:09:32,750
and there had been hardly
anyone on deck.

1383
01:09:32,833 --> 01:09:34,375
But there was
something strange,

1384
01:09:34,458 --> 01:09:36,500
something
almost eerie about the fact

1385
01:09:36,583 --> 01:09:39,041
that no one was there.

1386
01:09:39,125 --> 01:09:42,083
Unknownst to myself, the Admiral
had assembled about...

1387
01:09:42,583 --> 01:09:45,541
4,000 people up here
in the hanger bay.

1388
01:09:46,125 --> 01:09:47,166
They were waiting for me,

1389
01:09:47,250 --> 01:09:50,166
and I was thinking that nobody
would know that I was alive.

1390
01:09:50,250 --> 01:09:52,083
That this was going
to be a total surprise.

1391
01:09:52,166 --> 01:09:53,833
So, the airplane was...

1392
01:09:53,916 --> 01:09:56,500
The engine was turned off.
The airplane was pulled in here.

1393
01:09:56,583 --> 01:09:58,583
We came over here.

1394
01:09:58,666 --> 01:10:00,750
There was just a...
load of these people.

1395
01:10:00,833 --> 01:10:02,750
4,000 guys were waiting.

1396
01:10:02,833 --> 01:10:06,208
They opened... the door,
there was a red carpet.

1397
01:10:06,291 --> 01:10:08,083
And the yelling
and the screaming started.

1398
01:10:08,166 --> 01:10:11,458
It was such an emotional moment.
I just can't really describe it.

1399
01:10:11,500 --> 01:10:13,416
The tears!

1400
01:10:13,500 --> 01:10:15,500
All my friends that I'd been
through flight training with.

1401
01:10:15,541 --> 01:10:16,500
Norman, Spook...

1402
01:10:16,708 --> 01:10:19,416
Farcas, Lizard.
They all were there.

1403
01:10:19,500 --> 01:10:21,500
Tears were rolling... hugging.

1404
01:10:30,083 --> 01:10:32,250
And finally, I was
on the aircraft carrier,

1405
01:10:32,333 --> 01:10:33,333
they were all my buddies.

1406
01:10:33,416 --> 01:10:36,041
The other pilots there, they did
everything they could for me.

1407
01:10:36,125 --> 01:10:39,125
It was just unreal.
The Admiral packed his bag.

1408
01:10:39,208 --> 01:10:41,041
He left. He said, "Dieter, my
quarters are your quarters."

1409
01:10:41,125 --> 01:10:42,166
I slept in his bed.

1410
01:10:42,250 --> 01:10:44,833
At nights, I would have dreams,
I would yell and scream.

1411
01:10:44,916 --> 01:10:45,791
My friends would tie me down,

1412
01:10:45,875 --> 01:10:47,500
they even got
afraid of me sometimes.

1413
01:10:47,541 --> 01:10:48,625
So, they finally figured it out,

1414
01:10:48,708 --> 01:10:50,333
and they would take me
up in a cockpit.

1415
01:10:50,416 --> 01:10:53,083
At nights, they would take me up
on top of the carrier deck,

1416
01:10:53,166 --> 01:10:55,083
and they would pack
me into a cockpit,

1417
01:10:55,166 --> 01:10:56,500
put two or three pillows
next to me.

1418
01:10:56,541 --> 01:10:57,916
That's where I felt safe.

1419
01:10:58,041 --> 01:11:00,833
That's where
I felt... truly, truly safe.

1420
01:11:00,916 --> 01:11:03,125
And then I would sleep
in there.

1421
01:11:03,208 --> 01:11:05,458
In fact, later on,
when I was on different bases,

1422
01:11:05,500 --> 01:11:07,041
sometimes at nights
I would come down,

1423
01:11:07,125 --> 01:11:08,250
and I would go
to an aircraft cockpit,

1424
01:11:08,333 --> 01:11:10,791
and I would just bed in there,
and I would sleep in there.

1425
01:11:10,875 --> 01:11:13,375
And I brought you here to show
you all these airplanes.

1426
01:11:13,458 --> 01:11:14,625
I mean, this is a heaven
for pilots.

1427
01:11:14,708 --> 01:11:15,875
I mean, just look around.

1428
01:11:16,000 --> 01:11:18,500
In every directions,
there's just miles,

1429
01:11:18,541 --> 01:11:20,500
and miles and miles
of airplanes.

1430
01:11:20,541 --> 01:11:23,583
Everywhere! Here,
miles and miles...

1431
01:11:23,666 --> 01:11:26,625
God! Look at the cockpits!
These are just fantastic!

1432
01:11:26,708 --> 01:11:29,083
These are just really, really,
truly beautiful.

1433
01:11:29,166 --> 01:11:31,041
And one could really
feel at home here.

1434
01:11:31,125 --> 01:11:33,083
This is just a heaven
for a pilot.

1435
01:11:34,666 --> 01:11:37,291
♪♪