U.S. FLIER WHO FLED PRISON CAMP TELLS OF ORDEAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200180007-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 23, 1999
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: September 14, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

NEW YORK 't'I MR,S
Approved For Release 2000/08/26 6(;PA1 EDF196600149R000200180007-7
U. S. Flier Who Fled Prison Camp Tells of Ordeal
Depicts Torture After Beim
Shot Down Near Border of
Laos and North Vietnam
was captured again, then es-' Associated Press wirephoto
taped anew with six other pris-1 Lieut. Dieter Deng ier and mother at news conference
oners June 29 and spent 23 day
-'
walking through the jungle to Had '4iesD Oertnan 1'as:,port
safety. SAN DIEGO, Sept. 13 (UPI)
Handcuffed in Camp In his first meeting with
newsmen since his escape, Lieu-
In captivity, the lieutenant. tenant Dengler said today that
said, he was marched through he carried his former West Ger-
villages to a prison camp, where man passport when he was cap-,
"we were locked up in crude turgid to explain his German ar-
wooden blocks and handcuffed." cent. He became a naturalized
Ile added: "We were taken United States citizen Aug. 3,
out and beaten fsr ?n6 reason.I1960.
They hang you upside down on i He said he had been captured
a tree for five-hours and putby the pro-Communist Pathet
:cuts on your face." Lao forces on the Laotian side
In the mornings, he said, ,of the border and marched
;?i_soners were shot at as theyahrough villages until his cap-
ram to a latrine. None were"tors reached the prison camp.
hit, he added, "but they came
pretty close."
The flier said that so far a,~
loo knew no prisoners yielded
to, pressure to, condemn the
l;nited'States.
He said that his captors had
no knowledge of Geneva Cone
vention regulations regarding
the treatment of prisoners and
drat he saw no representatives
of the International Red Cross.
The pilot has been hospital-
ized at the naval hospital here!
since July 27, and appeared to
have regained most of the 591
pounds he lost while in prison,
and during his escape.
He announced that he planned
to wed a research assistant ate
Stanford University Laboratory,)
Marina Adamich of Belmont,
Calif.
Lieutenant Dengler's remarks
wore censored at times when'
they touched on areas of secur-
ity. A Navy spokesman said that
the flier's information had been
"extreme] t'y geIr f 1", irr~~t~r~e 1n 2000/08/26 CIA-RDP75-00149R000200180007-7
pil Ar ~+1-pii~+rnSlt
SAN DIEGO, Calif., Sept. 13
(AP)-A German-born United
States Navy flier who escaped
from a North Vietnamese prison
camp said today that American
prisoners had been beaten, shot
at and hung upside down from
trees, with ants put on their
laces, in a? campaign of harass-
ment.
The apparent aim of the cap-
tors, said Lieut. .(jig.) Dieter
Dengler, was to persuade the
prisoners to sign statements
condemning United States ac-
tions in Vietnam..
Lieutenant Dengler; 28 years
old, of Pacifica, Calif., described
his experiences at a news con-
ference.
He was rescued July 20, six
months after his plane crashed
on his first flight over North
j Vietnam. He said he had crawled
'from the wreckage and evaded
the enemy for a day, then was
,captured.
He escaped after six days,