Dieter Being Dieter: Dieter Dengler

Welcome Back And Birthday Banter

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Oh hey there.

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Oh hey there.

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We're the history buffoons.

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That we are.

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I'm Bradley.

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I'm Kate.

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Welcome.

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Welcome. Thanks for sticking around, folks.

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Yeah, we uh took a week off because of my birthday. So I'm older now.

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Tech technically, you're older than when you were on your birthday.

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I mean, yeah, whoa dear. Let's get into it and stop talking about me.

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Okay. We're gonna talk about um Dieter Dengler.

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Dieter Dengler.

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Yeah. He got shot down and then got shot up. What?

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What?

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Well that sounds like he went on drugs.

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Oh, or he was shot up. No. I wasn't thinking of the drug aspect of things, but mind in the gutter.

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He was shot down and rescued up. Okay.

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That's a weird way to say it.

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Okay.

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Anywho.

Beer Picks And Palate Opinions

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What are we drinking? Well, I have an energy drink to help.

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She needs one.

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Yeah. The Alani Witch's brew.

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Yes.

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Which is delicious.

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Delicious. I I got you mini cans for when you visit. They're adorbs. They're soups adorbs. Shout out to Melly. Anyways, um, I have I'm pretty positive I haven't had this on the podcast. But it's uh one that they came out with years ago and finally came back. But it's Sierra Nevada Otrovez, which brewed with lime and agave. It's fucking delicious. What is it? Ghosa style. It's awesome.

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It's what style?

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Ghosa.

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What does that mean?

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It's G-O-S-E. It's so it's more like a sour, but it's more beer than sour, really. So it's an ale.

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I hope you have more than one so I could try.

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I do. Cool. I bought a 12-pack yesterday.

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Cool.

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Two six packs.

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Um, I have Dogfish Head Craft Brewery. It is called The Grateful Dead, and it is Citrus Daydream Lager.

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It's not called The Grateful Dead, they have a Grateful Dead series. Oh, my apologies. That's alright. Do you know who The Grateful Dead is, right?

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They're a band.

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Yeah.

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But this one also has oh, oh, oh, this one says lager brewed with lime, lemongrass, lemon peel, and finio grain.

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That's why I got it for you. Wow. Something different. Very cool. Kate has been a little off the modello lately. Uh she's she still likes it, but she's just looking for something different. So since we try new beers on the podcast, I went to uh Woodman's yesterday and bought a treasure trove of beers, and uh I came across that and one other one for you to try, which we'll maybe do on another episode or later, whatever. But um, I don't know. You like lime, you like stuff like that, you're a lager person typically more than an ale. So I just like to hear what ails me. Okay.

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Cheers.

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Cheers.

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Oh my god, it's so good. I fucking love this beer.

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You know what I shouldn't have done?

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Drank that right before you did that?

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Drank my witch's brew right before it is.

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Yep, that's probably a mistake. But that's all right.

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Stay tuned for my initial thoughts at the end.

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Once your palate cleanses a little bit throughout the the beer.

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Yeah, first impression is that's different.

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Yeah, well, I figured it would be. And again, that's why I like I know I've had this before, obviously, but I've never had it on the podcast.

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Yeah.

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But we like to switch it up and try new stuff. And yeah, sometimes you do our regulars, like I'll have a shandy or five or whatever, and you have the Modello, but um I thought it would be a good one to try for you. If you don't like it, you don't like it. I mean, but I'm not saying you have to say right now, you have to get through at least a beer. I do, but uh, I'm just saying if you end up not liking it, it's fine. Yeah, I didn't mind getting it for you for the podcast.

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I just I hate that I had the the drink of Witchesbury right before that.

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Yeah, because that's quite a different flavor, I'm sure. So it is a tis.

The Book Source And Starvation Setup

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Yes.

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Okay, so the story, um, of course I didn't like save it or anything, because why would I?

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Oh.

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Um, I I downloaded a book. Um, I tend to not buy books.

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You download books. I download books.

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Um, I don't like your Kindle, right?

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That's what you're doing?

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I don't like clutter.

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Which is funny because I I don't see books as clutter because I collect books, but I understand your perception of it for especially in your house with you and Nathan. There's enough stuff around.

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Yeah.

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And you just like it to be a little more tidy and less less things. Or for me, I like to collect things more than you do, I guess. Yeah. You have so you have your certain things you collect, but I like I have a whole bookshelf of just my books. Yeah, nobody else's books are allowed on it because it's mine.

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Yeah.

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Sorry, kids.

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So the book that I I'm still actually in the middle of reading. Oh, okay. Um, I uh is this the one you got for your dad? Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So I skimmed through it.

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Yep.

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Um, I like researched uh out outside of this book. Of course. And then I found the book.

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Oh, gotcha.

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So I'm still actually in the middle of reading it. And I see. Yeah, while I was in the middle of it, I bought it from my dad.

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Yeah, because you're because your dad's birthday is also right by mine.

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Yeah, and so I bought that for him. Um, so I'm sure he'll read it. But um the book is called Hero Found, the greatest POW Escape. There's a hair. Um, the The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam War.

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Vietnam, okay.

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And it is by Bruce Henderson.

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Bruce Henderson. Yes. What up, Bruce?

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And I will bring that around right at the end. That's right. Um, who Bruce is. Okay, so picture

Childhood Hunger In Postwar Germany

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it.

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Pictured.

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With very little food coming in, the human body begins consuming its stored resources to stay alive. Yep. First it burns through readily available glucose and stored glycogen.

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Yeah.

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Then it increasingly turns to body fat for energy.

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Right.

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As starvation continues, the body also breaks down its own proteins, including skeletal muscle. Essentially, the body starts consuming itself.

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Well, it needs to get it somewhere.

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Muscle mass and physical strength decline.

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Yep.

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Metabolism slows in an attempt to conserve energy, blood pressure can fall, heart rate can slow, and maintaining normal body temperature becomes increasingly difficult.

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Okay.

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The immune system also weakens. Yep. Cuts and wounds heal more slowly, and the body's ability to fight infection deteriorates.

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Sure.

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And dehydration excuse me, ad dehydration.

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Yes.

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And the situation becomes a lot more dangerous.

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Okay.

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Blood volume decreases, blood pressure can fall further, and the kidneys desperately try to conserve what little water there is. Dizziness and weakness and fainting and fainting become increasingly likely. Eventually the brain begins to suffer as well. Severe malnutrition and dehydration can cause difficulty concentrating, confusion, poor coordination, and episodes of unconsciousness. Yep. And physical exertion accelerates the problem.

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Sure.

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Walking, climbing, swimming, and carrying weights all require calories and water that aren't being replaced. And at this point, it's not just hunger anymore. The body is stripping away all of its own resources and reserves, slowing non-essential processes and doing everything it can do to keep the brain, heart, and other vital organs functioning. Sure. Eventually, those compensations begin to fail. And at some point, the body begins running out of things it can sacrifice.

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Yeah.

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And long before Dieter Dangler understood any of that scientifically, he understood what it felt like to be hungry.

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Oh boy.

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Dieter Dangler was born on May 22nd, 1938. Okay. In Wildberg, Germany. Wildberg? Mm-hmm. It's a very small town in the Black Forest. And it's actually like very southwest Germany near the France border.

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Oh, okay. Sure.

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So this means that so born in 1938, he was he arrived on Earth at an exceptionally inconvenient time to be a German.

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Yeah, he uh, you know, Third Reich and all. Am I right? Nazis, am I right? Why does that keep coming back around? We've said that a handful of times throughout this podcast. I mean, yeah.

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So he was one year old when World War II began, and his father was drafted into the German army and eventually killed on the Eastern Front during the winter of 1943 to 44.

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Okay.

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His mother was left trying to raise Dieter and his two brothers, Klaus and Martin.

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Klaus, that's a classic German name. Dieter, that makes more sense now that you say he's German. Yep. I was gonna ask like what is that? Yeah. But okay.

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And in post-war Germany, food was becoming increasingly hard to find. Oh, sure. Dieter later remembered being constantly hungry and scavenging through animal remains looking for anything edible. Jesus. There are even accounts of his mother removing wallpaper because of the paste that contained flour that could be boiled and eaten.

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Oh my god. Could you imagine having to struggle that tough? Times are tough today, but nothing like that, obviously.

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And she would take her boys into the Black Forest and they would like scavenge in there as well.

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Oh, I'm I have no doubt. You have to look for literally anything that you can find to help. Yeah. And that's just wild that people had to go through that. You know, we take advantage of a lot of conveniences we have today and forget about what people went through in the past.

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But there are plenty of people out there who still go through stuff like that.

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Oh no, I get it. And that's the thing. Um, there's and it's getting increasingly harder with prices of everything skyrocketing. You know, I finally filled filled up my tank for less than four four dollars a gallon today on my way to work, so huzzah! Yeah, fucking hell.

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Did you have a coupon?

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No, it was actually I points is what I meant. I I had I did have only three cents off a gallon, so it went down to 396 instead of 399. Fucking insane. Yeah, it's double what it should be, in my opinion. But what do I know? I'm a buffoon.

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So I just had another taste that lemongrass is pretty strong.

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Is it really? How's the lime in it?

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I very subtle, subtle, um, but I'll try to pay attention to that next time I take a drink. Okie dokie. Okay, so before Dieter was 10 years old, he'd already learned something that you probably would become important for him later. Yeah. You ate whatever you could find. Sure. But the Roar also introduced Dieter to the one thing that would control the rest of his life.

The Obsession With Flying Takes Over

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Oh.

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And it wasn't a woman.

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That's surprising. I hope not. He was 10.

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Fair. Um I'm just saying No, it's fair. Read the context. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Airplanes. Oh.

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Yeah, that makes way more sense than a woman.

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He remembered seeing an American single engine plane fly extremely low over his down his town. Yeah. Close enough that he could actually see the pilot. Oh, wow. So most kids kids watching an enemy aircraft come screaming through their hometown would be like, oh shit, take cover. He's like, hey.

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But Dieter was like, Was he waving? I want your job. He's like, You look cool.

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Yeah. So from then on, he became obsessed with flying.

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Yeah.

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So another major influence was his maternal grandfather, Hermann Schurla.

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Herman.

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Herman Schur Schur Sh. Sorry. I suck at pronunciation. Shir Schurla. Yeah, sorry. Um, he opposed the Nazis and reportedly suffered punishment for refusing to support Hitler.

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Well, most did.

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Dieter remembered him as someone who refused to let other people dictate what he believed. So pretty early on, Dieter had developed two qualities. Um, he desperately wanted freedom and he didn't like being told what to do. Sure. So at 14, Dieter began a metal work, oh, excuse me, a metal working apprenticeship.

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I thought you were gonna say a metal band. That would have been pretty cool.

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He actually failed his high school entrance exam.

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Okay.

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And his mother signed him up then to be an apprentice.

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That's a smart pivot, honestly.

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And the apprenticeship, he said later, was extremely harsh. Um, but by his teenage years, his goal hadn't changed. He wanted to become a pilot, and so this was just a stepping stone for him.

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Did you say why it was harsh?

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Yeah. Um basically the the guy who um ran the apprenticeship. The apprenticeship was uh cruel with words and violence.

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Oh, so it was it was inflicted from a sp a certain person, sorry, uh instead of just it being like a difficult and or excuse me. Yeah, no, it was the person, yeah, and that's typically what it's gonna be, you know. I I mean I never had it that bad, but I know what a bad teacher can do to you. Fucking Mrs. Sheeley. No, we're not gonna go into that. No, we're not.

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Um, so the problem was that post-Germany didn't offer him much of a path to become a pilot. Right. And then Dieter saw this American magazine looking for pilots.

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It's just in the magazine, like, hey, we need people to fly.

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Yeah.

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Wow. We want you. Was it Uncle Sam? I don't know. That would have been I don't think so, but it's weird. Hey, if you can fly, yeah, sign up.

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He's like, Oh, I want to fly. I'm gonna go to America.

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And he and he never had flown before this. He just still had his love for for airplanes and whatnot. And he's like, I want to do that.

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Never been in a plane.

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That's crazy.

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Yeah. So Dieter began collecting and selling scrap metal to help pay for the journey to America, okay, including brass and other materials. Yep. It wasn't exactly an immigration fund, so to speak, but he did scrape together enough money to leave Germany. Wow. After finishing his apprenticeship, he hitchhiked north to Hamburg, one of Germany's major port cities, yeah, hoping to find passage to the US. And of course, getting to Hamburg is just one thing. Now you have to like well wait to get on a boat.

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And how long did he have to wait?

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A couple weeks.

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I mean, better than a couple months.

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He spent a c about three weeks essentially homeless.

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Sure. I mean, he made the trip up there. It's not like he's gonna have a lodging. No, he doesn't have the money for it.

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He slept wherever he could. Dieter was 18 years old, leaving the country where he'd spent his entire life and heading somewhere he didn't know, all because he was convinced that America could get him in a plane or Germany couldn't.

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Sure. Okay.

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So eventually he secured passage aboard the SS America, like kismet or what?

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I mean, that's where I'm going. It makes sense.

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Yeah, it was a large passenger liner that regularly crossed the Atlantic between Europe and New York. Okay. Then in May of 1957, 18-year-old Dieter Dangler finally arrived in New York City.

From Air Force Mechanic To Navy Pilot

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He didn't have any money, his English was limited, and there wasn't some elaborate like support system waiting for him when he stepped off the ship. Sure. But he made it to America, and now he just needed to convince someone to let him have a plane.

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It's like, hey, I'm here. Where's my plane?

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Yeah, pretty much.

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That's I mean, ambitious.

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So Dieter found an Air Force recruiter. Oh. Yeah. Of course, you can't simply just enlist and announce which plane is going to be yours. Of course. But becoming a pilot required him to qualify for the aviation cadet program. Okay. And Dieter didn't have the educational background. No. The Air Force required. Because remember, he didn't get into high school. Yep. He completed completed an apprenticeship in Germany, but he lacked the college level education. And he'd only been in America for a matter of weeks at this time, and his English was still limited. Sure. But of course, that was just one more thing that he's that's fine. I'll just I'll get there.

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I'll get over this.

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Yeah. In June of 1957, about a month after arriving in the U.S., Dieter enlisted in the US Air Force and was sent to Lackland Air Force Base in Texas for basic training. Okay. He was finally in the Air Force, surrounded by airplanes, and surely somebody would eventually point at a plane and say, Dieter, that one's yours.

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That's pretty uh bold thinking.

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Exactly.

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Because that didn't he that's not exactly the course of progression that you would think in the Air Force. Yeah. Even in 1957.

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He was actually sent to the motor pool.

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What's that?

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As Dieter was a metal worker, he was assigned to work as a mechanic.

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Okay, that's what I figured, but well, I mean it makes sense. And at least he has a function there, but can still get to his goal of you know airplane.

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The proximity of the airplane is closer.

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Well, exactly.

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I mean Yeah, the lemongrass is a little strong. I can't even taste the lime. Really? Yeah.

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Interesting. It is interesting. I'll have to try one too. I got a six-pack, so I'll try one as well.

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Okay, so he continued looking for a way into the cockpit and eventually took the examination for the um Air Force's aviation cadet program and he passed. Oh wow. Fortunately, he still did not have the educational requirements for flight training.

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So can he obtain these?

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Yes.

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Okay.

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Yes. So he served four years in the Air Force without ever becoming a pilot. Dieter left in 1961 with um a pretty straightforward plan. If education was the one thing standing between him and an airplane, he'd go do it. So he moved to California, where coincidentally his brother Martin was living.

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Oh.

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Yeah.

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So more of the more of his family came over. Was it just his brother that came over?

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It might have been just his brother. Wow. Um, I actually didn't hear much more about Klaus. Um, I didn't even find out specific. Well, maybe I did. At first I didn't find out if Klaus was older or younger than Dieter, and I think I eventually found that Klaus was older.

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Okay.

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But I know for certain that Martin is the younger brother. Okay. Um, so he worked in a bakery um in um and in California. So Dieter went to California, stayed with Martin, and attended college and studied aeronautics at the College of San Mateo.

SPEAKER_03 20:36

San Mateo, I've I've heard of that.

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Yeah. So he did well enough to be named Aeronautics Student of the Semester in 1962. Wow. And in January of 1963, he graduated. So two years. He got out in 61 and he graduated in 63.

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So was it just a tech program or I didn't look into the college, but um I was I just gonna ask. Uh so he's technically not in the Air Force anymore, is that correct? No, he's out. But he can go back in?

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He goes in somewhere else. Oh. Yes. Okay. Yes. So he had the education.

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Yeah.

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Nat next Dieter went into the Navy.

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Oh, so he just pivoted to another branch of the armed forces.

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So he passed the Navy's Aviation Cadet Examination, and on April 12th of 1963, he entered the NAV CAD program. So the Navy Cadet program.

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You know what's really wild for me to think about? And I I'm probably off by a couple years. He more or less was in the Navy at the same time my dad was. Really? More or less. I think I think he might have been a little my dad would have been a little later than this, but if I'm trying to because we're in what year 63? 63. My dad would have been 21. I don't Remember the years that he was actually in the Navy. But there's a good chance that Dieter and my dad were both in the Navy at the same time. That's crazy. Different locations, obviously. My dad was wherever my dad was, but but yeah, that's wild.

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Excuse me. So for the first time, Dieter wasn't working near airplanes.

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And he was heartbroken, sad.

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He was now flying.

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Oh, yeah, I suppose. Because he passed, so.

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Mm-hmm. He he passed the cadet program and had a education.

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Well, I mean, if you're if you're that determined to have you have this goal and you're that determined to reach that goal.

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Isn't that awesome?

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I mean, that's great. I've always wanted to deliver chips. Shut up.

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You get paid very well for what you do. Nobody can say otherwise.

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No, you're you're not wrong.

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So Dieter being Dieter, every Deter being Dieter.

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Every I don't know why I find that so funny.

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Even flight training has a story with him. During one early training flight, Dieter became violently sick.

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Oh dear, like vomiting everywhere.

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That would be me, like all the time.

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I don't think this would be the right course of action for you. No. Because you don't think I should get on a ship or a plane, knowing my I barely should get in a car sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

Fair.

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Knowing how much you get motion sickness.

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Driving through the mountains, am I right?

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Yeah. Yeah. So or to brown bear.

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It has curves.

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That's what I'm saying.

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So he had reportedly been warned that vomiting in the cockpit would earn him a negative mark. And after spending basically his entire life trying to get to this cockpit, he was not going to get kicked out because his stomach sudden suddenly dep developed an opinion.

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So he swallowed it?

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Oh gross, stop. So Dieter. I'm just asking a t okay. Dieter took off one of his boots. Oh, vomited into it, and put the boot right back on and finished the flight.

SPEAKER_03 24:23

Oh, that's so gross. His instructor. Can you imagine that going through your toes?

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Stop.

SPEAKER_03 24:29

So disgusting. Feet are gross enough as it is, let alone puke going all around it. Stop. Oh my word.

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His instructor apparently knew something had happened because he could smell the vomit, but he didn't see any evidence of it in the cockpit.

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How did that like not overflow from his boot when he put his leg back in?

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Let's just hope that it wasn't a lot. Anyway, it's disgusting. But by six 1964, Dieter had completely completed flight training, received his commission, and earned his wings. So now the Navy just had to decide what kind of airplane to give him.

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What do you get?

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Dieter trained as an attack pilot in the Douglas A1 Sky Raider, which was a bit of an old school type of oddball type of plane for the Vietnam era.

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Okay.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

While military aviation was increasingly dominated by jets now. The Skyraider was a big single-engine propeller aircraft who was designed back in World War II. Sure. It was slower than the newer jets, but it could carry a huge amount of weapons, stay in the air for a long time, and perform extremely well at low altitude. Oh. Yeah. So he was basically flying an old farming pickup truck that refuses to die. You know, that oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:52

Yeah. I I mean, I live out in the country. I've I've seen some.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:56

Yeah. Exactly. It's like, how is that thing running better than my car?

SPEAKER_01 25:59

And Dieter loved flying it. He loved it.

SPEAKER_03 26:02

I bet he did.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

He joined Attack Squadron 145 called the Swordsman. And by late 1965, the squadron was aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ranger heading towards Southeast Asia.

Shot Down In Laos Crash Landing

SPEAKER_04 26:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

USS Ranger comes up later.

SPEAKER_04 26:20

All right.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

American aircraft were also operating over neighboring Laos, which was officially neutral during the Vietnam War.

SPEAKER_03 26:29

Okay. I think I actually knew that.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

But had become deeply entangled in the war. Sure. So we've got North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Laos, Thailand.

SPEAKER_03 26:42

Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:43

Except for reverse, if you're watching.

SPEAKER_03 26:45

Yeah, I mean, obviously, don't take it for we're not cartographers here. No. Um, but uh obviously close proximity, it's gonna have some type of connection to what the fuck is going on.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

So and that connection specifically is the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

SPEAKER_03 27:01

Oh, the good old Ho Chi Minh Trail.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

North Vietnamese forces were moving troops and supplies through Laos. They would start in North Vietnam, travel this trail, which was going through Laos, and then ended up back into South Vietnam.

SPEAKER_04 27:18

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 27:19

So while Laos itself was also fighting a civil war of their own. Oh shit, really? Yes, yes. It involved um the communist um Pathet Lao, who were supported by North Vietnam. Okay, and the Royal Lao government who had the US support. Sure. Okay. So despite its official neutrality with the whole with Vietnam, there was plenty of fighting. Yeah, there was a lot of fighting happening here.

SPEAKER_03 27:50

Boy, that's that's not good.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

Yeah. On February 1st of 1966, Dieter took off as part of a four aircraft mission over Laos. The weather was poor with clouds and smoke limiting visibility, and during an attack run, ground fire slammed into the right wing of his Sky Raider. Oh no. Dieter managed to pull out, but the airplane was badly damaged. Sure. He fought to keep it flying at around 120 to 140 knots while trying to get back, excuse me, trying to get away from the target.

SPEAKER_05 28:24

Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:25

But it quickly became obvious that he wasn't gonna make it back to the ranger. He could bail out and hang beneath a very visible parachute over enemy controlled territory. Yep. Or he could try to put the plane down.

SPEAKER_03 28:40

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

He chose the plane, obviously.

SPEAKER_03 28:42

Well, because he it's his baby. It's his baby.

SPEAKER_01 28:44

He can't like I'd protect you anywhere we go. So as he struggled westward, he jettisoned his flight charts over the forest so they couldn't fall into enemy hands and began searching for somewhere to land. Okay. Eventually he spotted a very small clearing in Laos. He unstrapped his parachute and committed to a crash landing. Wow. As the sky raider entered the clearing, it slammed through the trees. Both wings were ripped off, the tail was ripped off. Sure. And what remained of the fuselage hit the ground and cartwheeled through the clearing.

SPEAKER_03 29:20

Oh dear.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

Dieter's helmet was torn from his head, but his sh shoulder harness held him inside the cockpit. Oh, thank goodness.

SPEAKER_03 29:28

Cause yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

And somehow the airplane did not catch fire either.

SPEAKER_03 29:33

Wow. That's impressive.

SPEAKER_01 29:35

Dieter crawled from the wreckage with a badly bruised lower leg and a bleeding cut behind his right ear. Not sure how that happened. Right. But considering he just ridden in an airplane without wings through the jungle, he was actually in pretty good shape.

SPEAKER_03 29:50

I mean, all things considered, you got pretty fucking lucky because he was doing in terms of getting it down. And he knew he was gonna crash, but especially without a runway.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:06

A proper runway, you know. So for him to only be the injured like that is amazing. Quite impressive. So yeah, all right.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

But then he heard people yelling nearby. Now we're in dense forest.

SPEAKER_05 30:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

Someone had either seen the airplane come down or heard the crash. Sure. And they were already heading towards him. No dear. Dieter had a survival equipment. Excuse me. He had survival equipment, including an emergency radio, food, fishing gear, a compass, and a 38 caliber caliber pistol.

SPEAKER_03 30:44

I think the most important thing here was the fishing gear.

SPEAKER_01 30:48

You think so?

SPEAKER_03 30:48

I mean, a little recreation just to get your mind off of things.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

For sure. For sure. I was thinking of the compass.

SPEAKER_03 30:56

Maybe the gun.

SPEAKER_01 30:57

Maybe the gun.

SPEAKER_03 30:58

I don't know. It's it's a toss-up. I mean, they're all equally important.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

He quickly concealed much of it near the crash site, intending to retrieve it later. Right. And he disappeared into the vegetation.

SPEAKER_03 31:09

Oh dear.

SPEAKER_01 31:10

Meanwhile, American aircraft knew that something had happened and they were searching for him.

SPEAKER_06 31:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

Nobody had seen Dieter go down, so search crews initially only had a general idea idea where he would be. Where he would be.

SPEAKER_03 31:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

Um, they searched through the day and into the night, and when aircraft returned the following morning, they finally spotted the wreckage. So it wasn't, it didn't take much time.

SPEAKER_03 31:35

So within a more or less 24-hour period, give or take. Yeah. Okay. I mean, that's pretty quick, actually. It is, yeah. Without knowing where the hell to look. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

So a helicopter moved close enough to examine and photograph the site. Okay. The cockpit obviously appeared empty, and some of Dieter's equipment was visible outside the airplane.

SPEAKER_03 31:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:55

That gave him hope them hope that he survived the crash.

SPEAKER_03 31:58

That he made it out of there, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

Yeah, but obviously he wasn't there.

SPEAKER_03 32:03

Well, rightly so.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

And I'm sure it's frustrating for Dieter because they he knew that they were gonna be looking for him.

SPEAKER_03 32:11

Well, it's like, what do you do? You hang out, hope for the best, and no one attacks you in this who knows how in his mind he he didn't know it was gonna be less than 24 hours that someone would have found his shit his plane. But you know, do you risk that or do you go hide? I mean, I I get why he would choose the hiding because you want to live. Yeah, I mean, Jesus. But man, could you imagine like fuck you guys were there that quick?

SPEAKER_01 32:40

And he does have to hide from planes a couple of times for fear of being caught because he didn't by other people seeing the planes.

SPEAKER_03 32:49

Well, right, yeah, makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 32:51

So hidden beneath the jungle canopy, he could hear the American aircraft overhead and occasionally see them passing above him. Oh boy. And of course, he knew what they were doing. He tried to use his emergency radio, but it couldn't establish contact. Right. And eventually the aircraft disappeared. Now there were people looking for him both directions. The Americans wanted to rescue him, the Path at Lao wanted to capture him. Unfortunately, the Path at Lao was closer.

SPEAKER_03 33:19

They went out.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

Dieter moved away from the crash site and tried to disappear into the jungle. Survival training um was something that he had taken very seriously.

SPEAKER_06 33:30

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 33:31

And one College of San Mateo account says that Dieter became the first ensign ensign. I don't know if that's how you pronounce it. Ensign. Ensign, a commissioned officer is basically what it is. An ensign, yeah. Yeah. He became the first ensign in his particular exercise to escape capture.

SPEAKER_04 33:49

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

And even managed to turn a secretly sharpened piece of pipe on one of the instructors. Wow. Yeah. There are also stories that while everyone else was losing weight during survival training, Dieter scavenged so scavenged so successfully he gained weight.

SPEAKER_03 34:06

Well, because he knew, I mean, he had training. He grew up doing that. I mean, scavenger Deter, it's like one and the same.

SPEAKER_00 34:14

One and the same.

SPEAKER_03 34:15

Yeah, he was good at that shit.

SPEAKER_00 34:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:17

And good for him, for I mean, it clearly paid off at one point for him, but you can only scavenge so much.

SPEAKER_01 34:25

Yeah. But real survival is gonna be different.

SPEAKER_03 34:29

Well, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 34:30

And eventually Dieter's luck ran out.

Capture Interrogation And Refusal To Sign

SPEAKER_01 34:33

He was spotted by two Pathet Lao soldiers, one carrying a rifle and the other a pistol, and a third man soon joined in. All right. And they took Dieter's watch, compass, and other belongings and forced him quickly through the jungle, avoiding open areas where American aircraft might see them.

SPEAKER_03 34:52

Isn't it wild to think that in the time of war they didn't just shoot him?

SPEAKER_00 35:00

I know.

SPEAKER_03 35:01

I mean, I'm glad they didn't, obviously. And I think it's wrong if people do that. But at the same time, it's like it's crazy that people have like there's like rules to war. Even though all is fair and love and war. And it's like, it's really not, but whatever. Um they usually could have just shot the guy and like, hey, cool, I gotta watch. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:25

Whatever, and Dieter's dead in the jungle. Yeah. That would be terrible.

SPEAKER_00 35:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:31

But I mean, he locked out. They didn't they weren't that way.

SPEAKER_00 35:36

Not this time, no.

SPEAKER_03 35:37

Not this time.

SPEAKER_01 35:38

So the first night his captors tried tied him flat on his back with his arms and legs. Um, I read once that they were stretched out, and I read somewhere else that they were all together. But but he had no use of his arms and legs at this point.

SPEAKER_06 35:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

And he was secure to like four stakes.

SPEAKER_03 35:56

Oh dear.

SPEAKER_01 35:57

He couldn't move or use his hands to protect himself. Mosquitoes.

SPEAKER_03 36:02

Oh god, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:04

Leeches.

SPEAKER_03 36:05

Oh, even grosser.

SPEAKER_01 36:06

And other insects fed on him throughout the night.

SPEAKER_03 36:09

Oh. Ugh.

SPEAKER_01 36:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:12

Oh. Let's go regular old insect smuggersborg. Yeah. Gross.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

So by morning, his face was so swollen from the bites that he could barely see.

SPEAKER_03 36:24

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_01 36:25

Over the next several days, Dieter was marched from village to village where his treatment became increasingly violent.

SPEAKER_05 36:31

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 36:32

At one stop, he was tied to a tree while his captors fired around his head, blasting branches away. At another, a rifle was fired beside his left ear, damaging his hearing for months. Eventually, Dieter reached a larger village where an official who spoke broken French questioned him. And Dieter spoke a little broken French as well.

SPEAKER_04 36:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 36:57

Excuse me. So he was able to give his name, his rank, his service number, and a date of birth, and explained that he'd been born in Germany, but he was now an American citizen, which he he did become citizen uh citizenized? No.

SPEAKER_03 37:16

Uh don't know the proper word.

SPEAKER_01 37:18

There's something. It's something on the wall.

SPEAKER_03 37:20

What the fuck is it?

SPEAKER_01 37:21

Naturalized naturalized. Sure. Naturalized? Let's run with that.

SPEAKER_03 37:26

Um citizenized.

SPEAKER_01 37:28

I I know that's not right.

SPEAKER_03 37:30

I a hundred percent know that's not right.

SPEAKER_01 37:32

Also, um our friend Anne, I got to watch Become an American Citizen. Yeah. And the whole spiel, um, that was fucking cool to watch. Oh, really? Yeah. I mean, if you if I didn't have someone invested in the program, I would be like, that's cool. But like just watching her become an American citizen, it was like, that is just so fucking cool.

SPEAKER_03 37:58

Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 37:59

Yeah. Anyway, shout out to Ann. We love Ann. Hi, Ann. So the official allowed him to write letters to his mother and his fiancee. I don't talk about his his love life, but he does have a fiance. They met at the bakery. They met somewhere.

SPEAKER_03 38:14

Did you say they met briefly? You were gonna say they met briefly.

SPEAKER_01 38:17

No, they they met and I mean they're fianced, but it's not it's not their story.

SPEAKER_03 38:23

I I like how like they met. Well, I would hope so. I mean, what the fuck? So they're fianced.

SPEAKER_01 38:32

So then the following so he was able to write letters.

SPEAKER_03 38:36

Wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:37

Pen, paper, and the next day they give him more pen and paper. But it was a prepared statement condemning the United States and American military involvement in Southeast Asia. Having a captured American pilot sign it would have obvious propaganda value. Sure. Dieter refused.

SPEAKER_03 39:01

Well, I would hope so.

SPEAKER_01 39:02

He later connected that decision to his grandfather Hermann, who had refused to support Hitler despite the consequences. Yes. Dieter wasn't going to put his name on something he didn't believe in. His captors responded by beating him with fists and sticks and sometimes until he lost consciousness. Sure. And still Dieter wouldn't sign.

SPEAKER_03 39:21

Good for him.

SPEAKER_01 39:22

Eventually the group began moving again, and Dieter was already looking for a way out. During what one nighttime march, he managed to steal steal a small mirror from a guard's taco uh tobacco box.

SPEAKER_06 39:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

To Dieter, that that meant the mirror could potentially signal um an airplane. Sure. Around the eighth night after his capture, two guards fell asleep beside him. Oh dear. Dieter slowly worked his hands free, retrieved his shoes and a sleeping bag, and slipped away.

SPEAKER_03 39:52

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

There's a little bug in here.

SPEAKER_03 39:54

Oh dear.

SPEAKER_01 39:56

He moved through the jungle for hours, um, trying to put distance between himself and his captors, only to make an awful discovery.

SPEAKER_03 40:05

What?

SPEAKER_01 40:06

He had gone in a circle.

SPEAKER_03 40:08

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 40:09

I know.

SPEAKER_03 40:10

This tree looks familiar.

SPEAKER_01 40:12

Pretty much.

SPEAKER_03 40:13

Oh, that's the worst.

SPEAKER_01 40:15

So he was like, I'm not gonna move anymore. So he s he laid down to rest until daylight. Uh then Dieter climbed towards a mountain peak with a little mirror. And when he'd hurt aircraft overhead, he began flashing that sunlight in the mirror towards them, desperately trying to get someone's attention, but nobody saw it. Of course. By afternoon, Dieter was exhausted and badly dehydrated, so he came down from the mountain looking for water. Of course, his freedom didn't last as the Pathet Lao found him again, and this time they knew exactly what kind of prisoner they had. Dieter later described severe torture following his capture.

SPEAKER_03 40:54

Well, yeah, I can't I can't imagine that went well for him.

SPEAKER_01 40:58

He said he was hung upside down while ants bit his face, suspended overnight in a well where falling asleep could cause him to drown. He was dragged behind a water buffalo and had bamboo pushed beneath his fingernails. Oh God. That's just gross. Still, he refused to sign the statement.

SPEAKER_03 41:22

Good for him, but gross.

unknown 41:24

Ow.

SPEAKER_03 41:25

That would fucking hurt. It's funny you mention coming down the mountain to get water. I have a Jane's addiction song in my head now. And then you mentioned a water buffalo. What is wrong with you? Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 41:45

Everybody's got a water buffalo. Yours is fast, but mine is slow. Where do you get them? I don't know. Everybody's got a water buffalo. I took my buffalo to the store, got his head stuck in a door. Spilled some lime beans on the floor. Everybody's got a water buffalo.

SPEAKER_01 42:05

Help. Excuse me. So eventually.

SPEAKER_03 42:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:14

He made Dieter watch Veggie Tale. Just kidding. His captors marched him towards a prison

Life In The POW Camp

SPEAKER_01 42:21

camp. Okay. By the time Dieter arrived, he'd already been shot down, captured, escaped, recaptured, and tortured multiple times. And February wasn't even over yet.

SPEAKER_03 42:33

That's the shortest fucking month.

SPEAKER_01 42:35

When he reached the camp, he discovered other prisoners, and some of them had been there for years. Six other prisoners. There were two other Americans, Dwayne Martin and Eugene or Gene De Bruin.

SPEAKER_04 42:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 42:54

Martin had been an Air Force helicopter pilot who was shot down in Laos in the summer, excuse me, in the in September of 1965.

SPEAKER_04 43:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 43:03

And De Bruin's story went back further. He had been working aboard an Air America C-46 transport aircraft that was shot down over Laos on September 5th, 1963. Wow. Air America sounds like somebody's aggressively patriotic regional airline. Right? Hey, welcome aboard Air Air Air America.

SPEAKER_03 43:31

I like how you fucked that up. This is your captain speaking. Thank you for aboarding Air America.

SPEAKER_01 43:38

But it was um actually closely connected to the CIA and it operated extensively in Southeast Asia. So several men from de Bruin's aircraft survived the crash and were captured. Along with de with De Bruin were three people, four people, and I'm so sorry for the pronunciations. Um Fesh it in fesh it in Thoratau. Wow, that's a tough one. Press it for Shuan. And press it Fanny. And a Chinese crewman generally identified in American rec records as YC2.

SPEAKER_03 44:22

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 44:23

I know. It's a lot.

SPEAKER_03 44:25

Can you go over that one more time?

SPEAKER_01 44:26

I cannot. Throw it in the flag.

SPEAKER_03 44:32

It's not that you cannot, it's that you will not.

SPEAKER_01 44:35

I mean, they come up later, so like I'll have to do it again. I'm just gonna tell you now.

SPEAKER_03 44:40

Good luck.

SPEAKER_01 44:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:42

So what was De Bruin's first name? Gene?

SPEAKER_01 44:45

Gene.

SPEAKER_03 44:45

It sounded like Gene, what's your De Bruin?

SPEAKER_01 44:48

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 44:50

I just I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 44:51

By the time Dieter arrived, these men had already been prisoners for roughly two and a half years. Jesus. De Bruin and several others had escaped in 1964 and remained free for several days, but then were recaptured. Of course. This group of men had already been spent years studying their captors, learning the terrain, and thinking about ways out.

SPEAKER_03 45:12

Of course.

SPEAKER_01 45:12

And initially the group didn't necessarily know what to make of Dieter. Skinny American Navy pilot with an obvious German accent, insisting that yes, he was definitely American.

SPEAKER_03 45:24

I swears.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

Sure you are, Hans.

SPEAKER_03 45:28

I really am American. Sure you are. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 45:34

I mean, I don't blame him.

SPEAKER_03 45:35

Well, I mean, yeah, you're you're a bit removed from World War II, but it's like, yeah, okay, buddy.

SPEAKER_01 45:43

But eventually Dieter became part of the group, and he became especially close with Dwayne Martin.

SPEAKER_04 45:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 45:50

Left inside the camp, excuse me, life inside the camp was miserable. The prisoners were badly underfed and suffered from disease, especially dysentery.

SPEAKER_03 46:00

Oh, Oregon Trail all over again. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:02

At night they were restrained, often handcuffed together and placed in wooden stalks or shackles.

SPEAKER_05 46:08

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_01 46:08

That made sleeping extremely difficult.

SPEAKER_05 46:11

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 46:11

Their diet deteriorated as conditions around the camp worsened. The men supplemented whatever rice they received from the captors with whatever they could catch. Snakes.

SPEAKER_03 46:23

Oh why'd you have to say snakes? Rats. Or just like in Hannah Jones said. Why'd it have to be snakes?

SPEAKER_01 46:30

Insects. Anything containing calories was food.

SPEAKER_03 46:34

Well, yeah. I mean, again, you you make the best of the worst situation you've ever been in, and you have to fucking figure it out. And whether it be snakes, rats, insects, you gotta find something to keep you alive. I get that, but man, that sucks.

SPEAKER_01 46:52

And of course, Dieter's childhood, he knew hunger growing up. Yeah. He knew what it was like to look at something that most people wouldn't consider food or edible and think we're gonna have to reconsider our standards here.

SPEAKER_03 47:06

Yeah, it's like seriously, where where's where's the surfing turf?

SPEAKER_01 47:10

Yes. Jesus. The prisoners were getting weaker, and monsoon season was approaching. So, for some context, May into October was was roughly 70% of the country's annual downfall during that season.

SPEAKER_03 47:27

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 47:28

That's insane.

SPEAKER_03 47:30

That's crazy. Do you know what else also is crazy? The name of the album that we did the Solvan episode on is Caroline Spine Monsoon.

SPEAKER_00 47:42

Oh, is it?

SPEAKER_03 47:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:44

So the prisoners began studying routines, paying attention to when they ate, how many watched the camp, and most importantly where they kept their weapons.

SPEAKER_06 47:53

Of course.

SPEAKER_01 47:53

But getting past the guards was only half the problem. Yeah. Outside the camp was miles of dense jungle, mountains, rivers, with little food and villages where they sh where they couldn't be sure who was willing to help them.

SPEAKER_03 48:16

I mean, like you said, those however many guys got loose for a few days and recaptured. So it's like, where even if you can get out, where the fuck do you go?

SPEAKER_01 48:26

Yeah. So I mean it's gonna be like any other war-torn country where you've got your enemy, but then you also have sympathizers, and you've got you've got um the allies, and you just don't know who you're gonna encounter.

SPEAKER_03 48:40

No, and you it's a risk you of ultimately have to decide do we take it or not? Because we could get lucky and run into sympathizers, allies, whatever, or we could get fucked and run into more of the same that is keeping us here. Yep. So it's a gamble you have to uh weigh and what do you do?

SPEAKER_01 49:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:02

But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:03

So Dieter wanted to leave as soon as possible. Food was becoming scarcer, and the longer they waited, the weaker they would become. Yeah. Some are some of the others were under understandably already cautious. Um, according to later accounts, one of the prisoners overheard guards discussing a plan to take them into the jungle. They've been around the guards long enough to pick up certain words. Sure. Um, so this was potentially their plan, taking them um into the jungle, killing them, and claimed that they had been shot trying to escape or something.

SPEAKER_03 49:35

Oh wow. So they're they're trying to plot a uh Yeah. Huh.

SPEAKER_01 49:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:41

That's that would be what's the word I'm going for? Really shitty to hear. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:47

So the prisoners believe that their lives were in immediate danger, which settled the argument of when they should go or if they even should go. Of course. They planned to make their move while most of the guards were gathered for a meal, free themselves, seize the unattended weapons, and get out before anyone could stop them. Okay. I mean, that sounds great.

SPEAKER_03 50:07

I mean, it's a it's it's a solid plan. It's yeah, what could what could go wrong?

SPEAKER_01 50:11

On June 30th, 1966, they put their plan into action.

Breakout Plan And Gunfire Escape

SPEAKER_01 50:16

Wow. The prisoners managed to free themselves and reach the weapons, but some of the guards returned before they could get away. Oh boy. Gunfire broke out, leaving several guards dead or wounded, although accounts differ on the amount.

SPEAKER_03 50:31

Right. Did any of the people trying to flee get hurt?

SPEAKER_01 50:36

Um, yes.

SPEAKER_03 50:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 50:38

Not I don't know if it's from this gunfire, but some of them were already injured. Gotcha for sure. Okay. So all seven prisoners escaped into the jungle. Wow. Okay. So Dieter being the seventh.

SPEAKER_04 50:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:53

They quickly split into smaller groups, making themselves harder to track. Sure. And giving each group a better chance of finding enough food to survive. Okay. Dieter paired up with Dwayne Martin, while Gene De Bruin stayed with YC2. Yeah. Um, who was already seriously ill.

SPEAKER_03 51:12

YC2 was?

SPEAKER_01 51:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 51:15

Um. So there is a movie that is eventually made, which I did not look into. Oh. Um, but it's called Rescue Dawn. And I think it's with um Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:26

I've heard of that.

SPEAKER_01 51:27

Uh Batman. Um, Chris, no. Who's Batman? Christian Bale. There we go. Got there.

SPEAKER_03 51:34

I was waiting for it.

SPEAKER_01 51:36

Yeah, it's with Christian Bale. It's called Rescue Dawn.

SPEAKER_03 51:39

I've I've heard of that movie. I don't think I've ever actually seen it though. Yeah. But yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 51:43

So there's a detail. Wow. There's a detail in it that portrays De Bruin as reluctant to escape. Okay. And in reality, he definitely wanted to escape, and he chose to remain with a sick companion rather than abandon him. Um so there was some animosity with the family and the movie after it came out because they they showed him in a different light than they knew.

SPEAKER_03 52:10

Here's the thing. I totally respect what they've had an issue with, but it's based off of a true story. I know, but people can't get past the based off of thing. And I'm sorry. But it's personal for them. I understand that. I totally get it. But hey, your family member had a movie made about them. And yes, it might have not been exactly correct. Write a book then about it.

SPEAKER_05 52:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:35

Saying this is what really happened.

SPEAKER_01 52:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:37

Do you who did did Christian who did Christian Bale play? Do you know?

SPEAKER_01 52:41

I'm assuming Dieter, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 52:43

Yeah, I would I didn't know if you came across that.

SPEAKER_01 52:45

I don't even know if they use their names, like actual names. I don't know. I I really didn't look.

SPEAKER_03 52:49

I didn't want to taint the story. Yeah. Yeah. Like I might want to eventually watch it, so I don't want to like look into it, but well, let's look into it one day and see if we want to watch it.

Monsoon Jungle Trek Toward Thailand

SPEAKER_01 53:00

So Dieter and Martin, meanwhile, plan to reach the Mekong River and cross into Thailand. So it separates the two.

SPEAKER_04 53:07

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 53:08

For the first time in months, they were out of the prison camp. Now they just had to survive everything between them and the border.

SPEAKER_03 53:15

And did the they didn't get their compass back or anything? Not that I read. So they were pretty confident in where they knew they knew where they had to go.

SPEAKER_01 53:26

Confident.

SPEAKER_03 53:27

Maybe not.

SPEAKER_01 53:28

Maybe more hopeful.

SPEAKER_03 53:29

Sure. Okay. Yeah. I mean, that's something.

SPEAKER_01 53:32

So Dieter and Martin began making their way through the jungle during monsoon season, dealing with heavy rain, mud, and swollen streams. Both were already severely underweight, and days of walking through standing water began destroying their feet.

SPEAKER_03 53:47

Uh yeah, that's that's what they always say in those in like uh even like Forrest Gum. Protect your feet, keep your socks clean and dry and all that stuff. I mean, that shit's real. Yeah. There's a reason why they're that's in like all the war movies. Yeah. Because Trenchfoot.

SPEAKER_01 54:07

Isn't that what it was called?

SPEAKER_03 54:08

I don't know if that's exactly right, but maybe, yeah. I know I know of trench foot. I don't know all the details of trench foot and how you get it, but uh it's not good.

SPEAKER_00 54:17

No, doesn't sound good.

SPEAKER_03 54:18

That might be what it is, but I I'm not 100% on that.

SPEAKER_01 54:22

So with the prison camps tiny ration of rice gone, they survived on whatever they could find plants, insects, small animals, anything else that they thought was safe to eat. Yeah. Of course, their goal was the Mekong River. If they could reach it and cross it cross it into Thailand, they believe that they could finally reach friendly territory.

SPEAKER_03 54:41

How how wide or big is this river? Did you come across that?

SPEAKER_01 54:46

I feel like I did.

SPEAKER_03 54:48

Is it like a substantial river that that is the border of Thailand?

SPEAKER_01 54:53

And um I I feel like I did find it, but I'm not sure if I wrote it down, nor do I remember at the top of my head.

SPEAKER_03 55:01

No, that's okay. I was just curious if you did because I I just because could you imagine like and I don't um I don't know if I'm jumping ahead, obviously, but get to this river and like holy like could you imagine uncrossable without bridges, like walking up to the Mississippi and like fuck, yeah, yeah. What do we do, boys? Yeah, you know, I just I it would be so like disheartening, like it's there, yeah, exactly. And I can't reach it.

SPEAKER_01 55:28

Yeah. So at one point, Dieter and Martin were along a creek when Martin nearly walked directly into three bright coral bamboo vipers hanging from a cluster of bamboo about face level. Oh, gross. And these were venomous. Well, sure. They were coiled and ready to strike, and Dieter saw them just in time and yelled for Martin to duck, and he did at the last second. Holy crap.

SPEAKER_03 55:56

Yeah, gross. I hate snakes so much.

SPEAKER_01 56:00

You know I'm gonna put a picture of a bright coral bamboo viper, right?

SPEAKER_03 56:06

And you you know I'm not gonna insert it into the video, right? Why not? Because it's a snake, gross. I hate snakes. I just uh I feel like the older I get, the more I hate them too. Yeah, it's just weird.

SPEAKER_01 56:19

So eventually the creek widened until they re they reached a river. This is probably what I was thinking of, not the actual Mekwan. Mekon. They reached a river about 300 feet across.

SPEAKER_04 56:32

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 56:32

Dieter and Martin thought they finally found their waterway that could lead them towards the Mekon River. The excuse me, the Mekon River. Yeah. Yes. So they're like, because essentially follow the creek, follow the stream, follow the river, and you'll get to the actual, like, large river that you're trying to find. I mean, it's solid thinking. Solid thinking. So yes. So they built a crude raft, although they apparently built it too well. Oh. The thing was so heavy that they couldn't get it into the water, so they had to cut it back down so that there was enough room for a single person.

SPEAKER_06 57:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 57:10

Martin was becoming increasingly sick with malaria. Oh boy. So Dieter put him on the raft while he stayed in the water behind it, kicking and trying to steep steer them downstream.

SPEAKER_03 57:21

Okay. So he was the propeller/slash rudder.

SPEAKER_01 57:24

Yep. So they'd only gotten to, excuse me, they've only gone about a quarter of a mile when they rounded a bend and heard something ahead. Uh oh. Thunder. Like it wasn't thunder.

SPEAKER_03 57:37

Like ACDC. Thunder.

SPEAKER_01 57:41

No, don't do that. Okay. Do you want me to go back to water buffalo? Uh 100% no. It was not thunder. It was bombs. It was a waterfall. Oh shit. Not even on your radar, was it? It was on waterfall.

SPEAKER_03 58:00

I mean, it definitely is something you don't go chase.

SPEAKER_01 58:03

No. Martin jumped off the raft and headed for shore while Dieter tried desperately to swim out of the current. He barely managed to avoid being swept over the falls himself. Wow. The two eventually found each other along the bank, climbed out of the water, and went back to walking. Raft was gone.

SPEAKER_03 58:23

Well, at least I got a little reprieve from walking, I guess. Yeah. I mean, now they're all wet and everything's all wet. And could you imagine I'm assuming it's pretty humid there?

SPEAKER_01 58:34

Uh it's a jungle. Yeah. Let's say yes. Yeah, so I've never been. But let's say it is.

SPEAKER_03 58:41

I've never been. No shit.

SPEAKER_01 58:44

But then they started recognizing the landscape.

SPEAKER_03 58:49

They came back around?

SPEAKER_01 58:50

The river had curved around and brought them back towards an area they had already passed. Come on, really? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 58:59

If only they had a compass.

SPEAKER_01 59:01

American aircraft occasionally passed overhead, and Dieter and Mart Martin tried desperately to get their attention. They found pieces of light colored parachute material from illumination flares.

SPEAKER_04 59:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 59:14

And used them to create signals that might stand out against the jungle.

SPEAKER_04 59:18

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 59:19

They also tried um fires and anything else that they thought might be vis visible to the air.

SPEAKER_06 59:26

Right.

SPEAKER_01 59:26

Sometimes an aircraft seemed to tur circle or make another pass, giving them hope. But every time the aircraft eventually disappeared. So Dieter and Martin kept moving.

SPEAKER_03 59:37

I mean, how how like pretend you're the pilot, right? And they were like locals. I mean, how would they know?

SPEAKER_01 59:45

And something like that does come up, actually.

SPEAKER_03 59:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 59:47

Yes, but you're absolutely right.

SPEAKER_03 59:49

Yeah, because I mean, how would you know that it's not just someone else? It's just a fire.

SPEAKER_01 59:54

They're just yeah, they're just cooking their meal.

SPEAKER_03 59:56

I mean, they weren't uh taught smoke signals, so I don't know. Maybe they were. I don't know. I'm pretty sure they weren't.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:07

So by this point, both men were in terrible condition.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:10

They had been free from the prison camp for more than two weeks, but freedom freedom had not meant safety. Of course. They were starving. Yeah. They were sick with malaria.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:21

And their bodies were breaking down. Yep. Eventually, Dieter and Martin made a decision that both men knew was incredibly dangerous. They were gonna approach a village. They needed food.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:33

There really wasn't any other option.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:35

I mean, at this point, what are you what are you going to do?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:38

You can only go. I mean, water, obviously, you need uh was is water three days?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:44

Right? And then um food is what? A week? Uh three weeks. Is it oh that long?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:51

I think it's three days and three weeks.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:53

That's that sounds right. Okay. And they're getting close to that. I mean, they've been away from it for a couple weeks. I mean, they're they need something before their body consumes itself.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:06

So as we heard from the beginning.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:09

By the 17th day after their escape, Dieter and Martin. Dieter and Martin were barely functioning. Martin had become so sick that there had been periods where he couldn't travel at all, and Dieter really wasn't doing much better. Sure. They were starving, exhausted, and so weak that when they came across what appeared to be another abandoned village, they couldn't walk towards it. They crawled towards it.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:35

Oh wow. Could you imagine your body being that like shutting down that much that you would have to more or less army crawl towards towards something? Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:45

It took them two hours because of how often they had to stop to rest because they were so sick.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:50

Oh, right. That's wild. Couldn't imagine.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:54

So Dieter and Martin slowly approached a small hut, hoping that they might be able to find something to eat.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:00

They got within about 20 feet of the building when somebody suddenly shouted. A man appeared from another hut that Dieter hadn't seen. He was carrying a long machete with a curved blade.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:13

Boy.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:13

According to Dieter's later account, the man began running towards them, shouting. Dieter and Martin tried to communicate with him, even attempting a greeting, but the man didn't stop.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:24

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:25

Martin was slightly ahead of Dieter and still crouched close to the ground when the villager reached them. The first swing of the machete struck Martin in the

A Village Attack Changes Everything

SPEAKER_01 1:02:36

leg. As Martin barreled over his leg in pain, the second hit cut off his head.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:43

Wow. So I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say this isn't a friendly village.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:53

Martin. Martin collapsed. Dieter later said that for a moment he couldn't process what he was seeing. He just stood there staring.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:03

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:04

And then the villager swung the machete at him. The blade missed Dieter's throat by inches, and whatever exhaustion Dieter had been feeling disappeared. Well, this is when he turned and ran.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:17

This is when the adrenaline kicks in. Exactly. It's amazing what adrenaline can do for you. It's an amazing drug. Even in your most desperate hour, like what he's experiencing. Yeah. I just saw my prison mate's head get cut off. I gotta fucking go.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:35

That's wild. I couldn't even fucking fathom what was going through his brain.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:41

So Dieter threw himself into the jungle and scrambled up a gully, putting as much distance as he possibly could between himself and the village.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:49

He later remembered being amazed that his legs didn't hurt anymore.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:53

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:53

After more than two weeks of starvation, illness, and struggling through the jungle, adrenaline had apparently found one more final reserve. He, of course, didn't go back for Martin. Well.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:16

Either way, Martin's dead.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:18

Martin is dead.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:18

Yeah, that's sad.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:20

The two men had survived captivity together, escaped together, and spent more than two weeks trying to find their way through the jungle together. Yeah. Now within a matter of seconds, Dieter was completely alone.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:31

Well.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:32

And what he did next shows just how badly his physical and mental condition was. That night Dieter returned to the to the village.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:43

Why?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:44

He burned it to the ground.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:46

Good for him. That a boy.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:49

I'm sure a couple of reasons. One, he was trying to get the attention of flying aircraft, two, fucking spite.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:55

Yeah. I know the song probably wasn't out at this time, but burning down the house.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:01

Then he hid nearby. So he burned it down, but he hid nearby. Sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:06

He was hoping for a signal, if you will, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:09

But he still had to worry about the Pathet Lao coming to the area. Yep. So um aircraft could actually pass overhead, dropping like these parachute flares, the illumination flares into the darkness. So he actually would watch aircraft fly in circles overhead doing that.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:27

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:27

And Dieter was hoping that word would get back, but for all that he knew, they only reported a village burning down. And as you had mentioned, we don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:36

Yeah, it's like, oh shit, man. Someone left left the oven on it or something.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:40

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:40

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:41

So by the following day, Dieter was moving again, but the escape had not changed

Alone Hallucinating And Nearing Collapse

SPEAKER_01 1:05:45

anything. There was no Dwayne Martin beside him anymore.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:48

There was nobody to help choose a direction, search for food, watch for danger danger, or simply confirm that whatever Dieter thought he was seeing was actually there.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:57

Yeah, because he's fucking hallucinating.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:59

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:00

No one to get a six, if you will.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:02

Dieter was severely malnourished, sick, barefoot, and increasingly exhausted. His feet were cut, bruised, swollen, and during the final days of his escape, he would let later estimate that he lost consciousness between 20 or 30 times.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:20

Holy balls.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:23

He wasn't confidently making his way towards Thailand anymore. He was just trying to stay alive long enough for someone to find him. Yeah. After Martin's death, Dieter's physical and mental condition deteriorated quickly. He was starving, his kidneys hurt, he coughed blood, and he became so weak that simply getting up after resting could take an enormous amount of effort.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:47

And yes, he was hallucinating. Sometimes he imagined um Dwayne Martin was still with him. Sure. I mean that he would talk to him.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:56

Being such a traumatic experience, witnessing such a traumatic experience, and then going through all the physical and mental ailments that he's currently going through, that I would have been shocked if he didn't think Dwayne was still next to him while they're while he was trudging along. Cause yeah, you're fucking hell.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:13

He just saw your I mean, I don't know if you consider him friends at this point. Obviously they were prison mates and escaped together, but seeing someone die in that fashion, yeah, of course. And then being so malnourished and your brains rotting away from lack of nutrients, yeah, you're gonna see some weird shit.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:33

So at one point, um Dieter nearly ran into a lotion uh search party that was apparently following signs left by Dieter and Martin.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:45

And Dieter made a very strange decision. Instead of getting as far away from possible to them, he followed them. Oh. Because the search party had food. Sure. Whenever they stopped to eat, they sometimes left scraps behind.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:01

And he would grab what he could.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:02

Mm-hmm. Could have been bits of rice, could have been fish bones, could have been so this starving escaped prisoner began secretly following the people who were searching for him. That's wild so he could eat their garbage.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:19

So Dieter knew roughly where this where the searchers were, which meant he could avoid accidentally crossing directly in front of them. Sure. And after they moved on, he would pick through whatever food they had left. Eventually he did break away from them. Okay. Dieter kept following streams whenever he could, partly because they gave him a source of water and partly because following water was easier than trying to navigate through dense jungle with no idea of where he was. Yeah, no doubt. Now, by now, finding enough food to keep moving was becoming a daily struggle. He ate snails, leaves, whatever he could find. There was no real meal, just tiny amounts of food that might give him a little bit of energy for a little bit of movement. Wow. At night, he slept wherever he could find some protection from the rain, insects, and animals. His feet were badly damaged, he was severely underweight, and he was becoming increasingly weak and disoriented.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:15

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:15

Then on July 20th, 21 days after escaping from the prison camp, Dieter was trying to cross a stream when he slipped on the rocks. Oh no. He fell hard and struck his head. Of course. One source said he hit his he hit his head. Another said he just slipped on a rock and fell in the stream. So unsure of which is correct.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:36

But for a man already running on almost nothing, it was enough to stop him.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:42

Dieter stayed near the stream and rested, eventually laying out in the sunlight to dry himself and recover some strength. At that point, he had no way of knowing how much longer he could continue moving through the jungle. Then he knew, then he heard a sound that he knew.

Spotted From The Air And Rescued

SPEAKER_01 1:09:59

An American aircraft.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:00

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:01

Dieter looked up to find an airplane overhead. The aircraft Dieter heard belonged to Lieutenant Colonel Eugene Dietrich of the U.S. Air Force, who was flying an armed reconnaissance mission over Laos with another A-1 Skyraider.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:18

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:19

As Dietrich turned near the river, something white on the ground caught his attention. At first he couldn't tell exactly what he was looking at, so he circled back for another pass. Down below, Dieter realized the aircraft had turned. He still had pieces of the light-colored parachute material he'd collected from illumination flares. Yeah. And he began waving it frantically as he could, trying to make himself stand out against the jungle. Sure. And Dietrich came around again. This time there was no question that someone was down there trying to get his attention. Dieter had also arranged parachute material on the ground into a large SOS.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:57

I was going to say SOS, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:59

Giving Dietrich another unmistakable sign that whoever was beside that river was wanting to be found. Yep. There was just one problem, as far as Dietrich knew, there was no recently reported missing airmen in that area. Right. Dietrich had been shot down back in February. Yeah, exactly. More than five months had passed, and nobody flying over this stretch of Laos was actively searching for him anymore. Of course not. So Dietrich had no idea who he had found. But he knew that there was a man on the ground asking for help and he wasn't willing to simply fly away. That's nice. Dietrich reported the sighting and continuing continued circling the area while arrangements were made to send in a rescue helicopter. Okay. Eventually an Air Force rescue helicopter arrived and descended towards the river. Even then, the crew couldn't assume that the man below was American.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:51

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:51

They were operating in enemy-controlled territory and nobody had reported a missing pilot in the immediate area, so they had no idea that who Dieter was or what they might be flying into. Sure. But they brought him aboard.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:05

Well, that's good.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:06

After more than five months since his aircraft had gone down, months of captivity, and nearly three weeks trying to survive in the jungle alone, Dieter Dangler was finally back in American hands. Wow. He barely looked like a Navy pilot who had climbed into a sky raider aboard the USS Ranger in February.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:23

I imagine his bones were pretty prominent through his cheekbones and every bone.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:29

Severely emanciated, filthy, injured, exhaustion, and later accounts put it put his weight at roughly 98 pounds.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:38

Wow. And was he normally a pretty big dude? Like when he was full, full on average.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:43

As far as I knew, based on images, he was a fairly average sized man. Yeah. Gotcha. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:52

Yeah. Wow. 98 pounds.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:55

That's wild.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:57

So he was actually restrained because the Americans didn't know who he was.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:02

I mean, he was searched. They have to protect themselves, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:06

So but Dieter was able to tell them his name. Lieutenant Junior Grade Dieter Dangler, United States Navy. He explained that he'd been shot down over Loos in February. And for Dieter, the escape was finally over, but the rescue immediately raised another question. What happened to the other men?

SPEAKER_04 1:13:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:26

Dwayne Martin was dead. Dieter had witnessed the machete attack.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:31

Gene De Bruin and YC2 disappeared after the escape, thought to have died within days of the escape. Oh wow. For years there were reports and intelligence suggesting De Bruin may have actually survived the initial breakout and had been recaptured.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:45

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:46

Some later intelligence placed him in captivity after the escape, possibly into 1967 or 1968. Wow. He never returned home. Bummer. Fishit and Therathat also survived the breakout. He was eventually recaptured by the Pathet Lao after 32 days in the jungle. Man. He was actually rescued by a CIA operation in January of 1967. Wow. He currently lives in Thailand.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:15

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:17

His testimony became extremely important because it provided another survivor's version of what happened inside the camp. The fates of Prosit from from Suan and Proset Titany were less clear in the immediate aftermath, and the surviving documentation surrounding the group is fairly complicated. So out of seven men who ran out of the prison camp, only Dieter and Feachit and Therathat are known to have ultimately made it out to freedom.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:48

That's sad.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:50

Once Dieter remained, excuse me, once Dieter reached American hands, he was taken to a hospital.

Aftermath Awards Films And Final Years

SPEAKER_01 1:14:57

And this is where his story gets slightly ridiculous again because apparently both the U.S. Navy and the Air Force wanted custody of the escaped POW.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:08

The Air Force had rescued him, and the Navy said, Well, that's our guy, you know?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:13

Yeah, he's one of us, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:14

There are later accounts describing Navy personnel essentially retrieving Dieter from the Air Force hospital so that he could be returned to the USS Ranger.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:24

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:24

So Dieter went back to the ship.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:26

Sure. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:28

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:29

The Navy awarded Dieter the Navy Cross, the service's second highest decoration for valor. The citation credited credited him with playing a major role in planning and carrying out the escape. He also received other decorations for his military service. Sure. But the important thing for Dieter was a little bit more simpler. He got to fly again.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:51

Oh, so he uh obviously he got back to proper health and was able to get into a plane again.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:57

He eventually left active Navy service in 1968, although he remained associated with the Naval Reserve afterwards.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:07

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:08

Um, he did keep flying airplanes. He worked as a civilian test pilot and later as a commercial pilot. Oh, wow. Flying had been the goal since childhood, and captivity wasn't going to change that. No, of course not. His story became increasingly famous in January of 1967. Dieter had appeared on the television program I've Got a Secret.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:32

His secret was that he had escaped from a POW camp in Laos.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:37

Um what a secret, Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:39

I know.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:39

He's like not one lot of people can say.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:41

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:42

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:43

Um German filmmaker Werner Herzog became fascinated with him. Herzog himself had grown up in post-war Germany, and Dieter's strange relationship with hunger, survival, nature, and flying and flying fit perfectly with the kinds of people Herzog liked making films about.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:03

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:04

In 1997, Herzog released released the documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly. And then in 2006, he turned the story into a feature film, Rescue Dawn, with Christian Bale playing Dieter.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:17

Oh, so he did. Okay. He did.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:18

The movie brought Dieter's story to a much larger audience, but it also created controversy with Gene De Bruin.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:27

But De Bruin's family and Fish in there that objected to the film's description of De Bruin as someone reluctant to escape while Dieter was portrayed as the driving force behind everything.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:39

Right. And again, I get why they could have been a little upset. Yeah. Whatever. But I mean, it was also the focus was on Dieter, not on De Bruin, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:17:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:48

More or less. He's a part of the story, but. All right.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:53

Um, there is one more final detail about Dieter Dangler. Um, after surviving childhood hunger in Germany, Dieter reportedly remained deeply uncomfortable with the idea of running out of food. Sure, of course. In Lid Little Dieter needs to fly, Erzog shows Dieter's home stocked with large amounts of food. This man um who had learned twice in his life that civilian civilization could disappear very quickly. Yeah. Once as a child and once in miles. Years later, Bruce became friends. Excuse me, Dieter became friends with Bruce Henderson. Bruce Henderson.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:30

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:30

Who had actually been a young Navy weatherman aboard the USS Ranger when Dieter was shot down and was still there when Dieter returned after you rescue. Wow. In 1997 and 1998, Henderson sat down with Dieter for a series of extensive interviews about his life, captivity, and escape. He also interviewed Dieter's family, friends, and fellow servicemen, eventually using those conversations and Dieter's military records to write the book Hero Found, The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam War, published in 2010. Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:08

Those interviews became especially valuable because Henderson's record because Henderson recorded Dieter's story in his own words. Dieter Dengler died in 2001 at the age of 62. He had been diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:26

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:26

It was a um progressive neurological disease. He actually died by self-exit.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:32

Oh, that's too bad.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:34

He was later buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:37

Oh, cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:39

One final side note before I end. You know how death row inmates get like a last meal request? Yeah. Well, when Dieter was rescued and put on the USS Ranger after being in the sick bay, like he recovered. Yep. His first meal back was a large steak with all the trimmings and a sheet cake that they decorated with Welcome Home Dieter.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:02

Oh, jeez.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:04

And that's the story of Dieter Dangler.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:07

That's crazy. I would not want to be in a prison camp anywhere. Wow. I mean, to have to go through that and even survive it is quite fucking impressive.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:21

Five and a half months.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:22

That's crazy. And and that was only him. You said there was people there for a couple of years already that were that were imprisoned. And could you imagine five and a half months? I couldn't even imagine, let alone more than that, or years for that matter. And you'd pick to pick your war, there's the same thing, you know, throughout all the wars, really. Um but man, no. No thanks. I'm glad he survived. Sad that he I mean, I understand, you know, ELS is not a it it fucks with you, obviously. It it it takes you out. And he just decided to do it himself, but you know, it's kind of sad that he he did have to do that, but yeah. Um I mean ALS would have eventually got him anyway, so that's really sad. Wouldn't it bring me down at the end? Yeah, I know. Sorry.

Beer Verdict And How To Reach Us

SPEAKER_01 1:21:15

So what'd you think of the beer?

SPEAKER_03 1:21:17

Well, as you know, I fucking love it. Is it too lemongrassy?

SPEAKER_01 1:21:22

So the more I drink it, the less it's an issue.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:27

Okay. So I'm hoping it was just like my initial Yeah, the combination of witches brew with the beer. Well, I got more for you to tr to try another one or whatever. I'll try one too, because I'm curious, and I have never had that either. So I I don't know how much I like lemongrass.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:46

But um oh, just a quick note. Um, there is also a book by Dieter Dangler. Oh, he wrote one? Yeah, I couldn't have I couldn't get access to it.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:56

Um, but it's called Escape from Louse, if anyone wants to look into that.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:00

Oh, nice. All right.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:01

Yeah. So I suppose.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:05

All right, buffoons. That's it for today's episode.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:07

Buckle up because we've got another historical adventure waiting for you next time. Feeling hungry for more buffoonery? Or maybe you have a burning question or a wild historical theory for us to explore?

SPEAKER_03 1:22:19

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SPEAKER_01 1:22:33

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SPEAKER_03 1:22:38

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SPEAKER_01 1:22:42

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