Captured and at the mercy of an increasingly cruel enemy, German-born US Navy pilot Dieter Dengler was left with no choice but to attempt a daring escape from the Pathet Lao prison camp in which he was being held during the Vietnam War. The fateful decision was made only after he and six other POWs had overheard plans to get rid of them as soon as the guards ran out of food. Dieter would choose to take matters into his own hands – deciding that he would be [QUOTE] “alive and free—or dead.” After twenty-three days on the run through the dense Laos jungle, he was the only one of the group to successfully return to his home country from the camp after the ordeal, making him the first POW airman to escape in the Vietnam War..
Through the Valley: My Captivity in Vietnam by Dr. William S. Reeder, Jr.
In 1972, as the Paris Peace Accords drew to a conclusion, young William Reeder, Jr. was a Captain in the U.S. Army, assigned to an AH-1G Cobra Attack Helicopter in Vietnam. For many servicemen and women, the Vietnam War was over for the U.S. military. Reeder was afraid he missed the opportunity to see combat as a Cobra gunship pilot. The North Vietnamese had other plans, however, and the Easter Offensive changed Reeder’s life forever.
