Adm. Jeremiah Denton, a former U.S. senator who spent seven years in brutal conditions as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, credits his survival and subsequent success to giving himself over to God after enduring years of torture.
"The holidays of course made you ache for home, for your wife, your children, your friends so it wasn’t very much fun but at least it was a break,” Denton recalled in an interview with Newsmax.TV. “They (the North Vietnamese) didn’t usually do torture on those big holidays either.”
See Video: Adm. Jeremiah Denton talks about how believing in Jesus Christ got him through 7 years in a POW camp - Click Here Now
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On July 18, 1965, Denton was leading a group of twenty-eight aircraft from the USS Independence in an attack on enemy installations near Thanh Hoa, when he was shot down and captured by local North Vietnamese troops.
He spent the next seven years and seven months as a prisoner of war, suffering severe mistreatment and becoming the first U.S. military captive to be subjected to four years of solitary confinement. His book about that ordeal is called, "When Hell was in Session."
[Editor’s Note: Get Adm. Jeremiah Denton’s book, “When Hell was in Session’’ — Go here now]
A commander when he was shot down, Denton was recommended for and promoted to the rank of captain while a prisoner. He was confined at several prison camps in and around Hanoi, frequently acting as the senior American military officer of all American POW’s.
Denton was elected to the Senate in November 1980. In so doing, he became the first Republican ever elected by popular vote to the U S. Senate from Alabama. He served until 1987.
Denton is famous for sending a message using Morse code with his eyes during a 1966 interview in a Vietnamese prison. He simply blinked t-o-r-t-u-r-e as he was being interviewed by a Japanese journalist to let the U.S. military know the Vietnamese were torturing him and other prisoners.
But Denton says it was his spiritual awakening in that hellish prison that has since informed his life after the war.
Interviewed by Newsmax TV’s Ashley Martella, Denton recalled how he was sitting in his cell alone as the screams of a fellow prisoner being tortured filled the cell when he suddenly heard a calm, soothing voice.
“Well, this is going to sound kooky I guess, but I heard a voice in my cell when I was nearing despair and saying to the Lord I’m not sure I can go on comporting myself in an honorable fashion,” Denton told Martella. “I’ve just got to have some help. About five or ten seconds after I said that... the only noise Icould hear was this man being tortured who was shrieking... and this clear voice came out and said, ‘Say sacred heart of Jesus, I give myself to you.’ “
Denton explained that he has been brought up with the phrase in a religious club he once belonged to, “so it wasn’t an entirely foreign thing for me to hear. But I knew where it was coming from, and he didn’t say thee, he said you.
“And that just broke me up. I broke down and cried and since that time I’ve learned that if you do that, turn yourself over to God and say, ‘Look, you be the origin of the stimuli for my thoughts for my actions and make it be in accordance with your will’ and it’s amazing how that will work,” Denton said. “I’m not the only one who will say that. But people who try it will be surprised at how quickly it catches on to establish that rapport.”
Denton also told Martella that he fears for the nation under the Obama administration. What concerns him most is Obama’s lack of military experience or any meaningful rapport with the military.
“President Obama cannot be qualified to be a commander-in-chief and run our national security because he has zero experience in that,” Denton said. “That doesn’t mean he’s the only who hasn’t had (experience). Lyndon Johnson didn’t have it. He read one book on international affairs. He was big on socialism.
“But, is Obama going to listen to his experts, his military advisers, people experienced in statesmanship, who understand about war and peace and the balance of power, all of that stuff... The jury’s still out on that.”
Obama said during the presidential campaign that he was going to reduce military appropriations by 25 percent – a figure that Denton said is “absurd.”
“That is the most absurd thing and unless he has learned since then, he must realize that we’re spending less on national defense (as a percent of gross national product) than we have hardly ever,” Denton said. “And we’re facing the greatest threats, and are the least prepared for what the National Intelligence Estimate would say are the possible things our enemies could do to us.”
See Video: Adm. Jeremiah Denton talks about how believing in Jesus Christ got him through 7 years in a POW camp - Click Here Now
[Editor’s Note: Get Adm. Jeremiah Denton’s book, “When Hell was in Session’’ — Go here now]
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