Five Downed Military Pilots Who Made History
Pilots have been flying wartime missions since World War I, when aerial fighting in the skies of Europe was dominated by the British, German, and French. The United States, with its late entry into that conflict, wouldnât become a real player in the air until World War II. One of the most daunting aspects of flying missions over conflict zones remains the prospect of being shot down and captured behind enemy lines. Here are the stories of five Americans who experienced such a fate and how they fared.
Pappy Boyington
The incredible flying prowess and escapades of Gregory âPappyâ Boyington are the stuff of World War II legend. Boyington was the commander of a Marine fighter squad that famously became known as the Black Sheep Squadron, so named because he stitched it together with pilots rejected by other commanders. The self-described crew of misfits would help dominate the air over the Solomon Islands in 1943 and 1944. Boyington was a flying ace credited with shooting down 28 Japanese aircraft during the war. That includes three on January 3, 1944, the day Boyington himself was shot down over Japanese-controlled waters and taken prisoner. He was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1944 but was held as a prisoner of war until 1945. He retired from the Marine Corps in 1947 and went on to write a memoir of his exploits, Baa Baa Black Sheep, on which a 1970s TV show was based.
Francis Gary Powers
American pilot Francis Gary Powers, imprisoned by the Soviets and poorly served by his own country, was one of the most famous figures of the Cold War era. Powers was working for the Central Intelligence Agency when the U-2 aircraft he was flying, built for surveillance and reconnaissance, was shot down deep in Soviet airspace. When Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announced the downing in May 1960, the U.S. government responded by saying falsely that the plane had strayed over the Soviet Union while on a mission to collect weather data, prompting the Soviets to display the high-tech aircraft for the world to see. Powers was tried for espionage, convicted, and sentenced to 10 years in prison. The U-2 incident, as it became known, deepened the freeze between the two countries, although Powers was freed in 1962 as part of an exchange for the U.S.-held Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. Powers, who wrote of the incident in his 1970 memoir Operation Overflight, died in a helicopter crash in 1977.
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Jeremiah Denton, Jr.
Shot down, taken prisoner, and used for propaganda by the North Vietnamese, Navy pilot Jeremiah Denton, Jr., still found an ingenious and courageous way to communicate with U.S. officials about the conditions he and other captives faced during the Vietnam War. Denton was captured on July 18, 1965, when the plane he was piloting was shot down over North Vietnam. Some 10 months later, as part of a propaganda campaign, the North Vietnamese government arranged for him to be interviewed by a Japanese television journalist. Speaking to the interviewer and appearing to be blinded by the bright spotlights, Denton began blinking in a seemingly random manner. He was actually using Morse Code to send a message: T-O-R-T-U-R-E. That message, which he later said he didnât believe the North Vietnamese figured out until 1974, was confirmation to the U.S. government of the treatment of American prisoners of war. In all Denton was held for almost seven years and seven months, during which time he was subject to starvation, beatings, and solitary confinementâin a word, torture. For some of the time, Denton was imprisoned at the notorious âHanoi Hilton,â where he was held with other downed pilots, including James Stockdale and John McCain (see below). Denton was freed in 1973 and went on to serve as a Republican U.S. senator from Alabama from 1981 to 1987.
James Stockdale
Shot down on September 9, 1965, Navy Comdr. James Stockdale was the highest-ranking captive naval officer during the Vietnam War. Held for more than seven years, he served as something of a commanding officer for the other captivesâincluding Denton and McCainâand set up a chain of command and a way to communicate. âWe organized a clandestine society via our wall tap codeâa society with our own laws, traditions, customs, even heroes,â he wrote in 1995 for The World and I magazine. He was brutally tortured during his captivity and held in solitary confinement for four of the years he was detained but stalwartly refused to provide the North Vietnamese with information. His 1976 Medal of Honor citation includes reference to a 1969 incident in which he âdeliberately inflicted a near-mortal wound to his person in order to convince his captors of his willingness to give up his life rather than capitulate.â Stockdale was Ross Perotâs running mate during his 1992 third-party presidential run.
John McCain
Arguably Americaâs most famous prisoner of war, John McCain was a Navy aviator shot down over Vietnam in October 1967 and held captive for five and a half years. His father was a Navy admiral and, for part of his sonâs captivity, was the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific. The North Vietnamese, who beat and tortured the younger McCain, also offered him early release because of his famous father. He steadfastly refused but was so despairing that he attempted suicide twice during his captivity. When he was finally released in 1973, he was so badly disabled as a result of the torture that he could not raise his arms over his shoulders. For the rest of his life he was unable to comb his own hair. He went on to be elected to six terms in the U.S. Senate, representing Arizona. In 2008 he was the Republican nominee for the presidency, losing the race to Barack Obama.