Student Saturday: Captured: An American Prisoner of War in North Vietnam by Alvin Townley

 

Genre: Young Adult, Biography
Student Reviewer: Anna H.

“Captured” by Alvin Townley is a taste of reality that most people do not ever experience. The book is an account of an American prisoner of war, Jeremiah (Jerry) Denton, in North Vietnam during the Vietnamese war. Jerry Denton was a commander and a husband to a women named Jane as well as a father to seven children. Denton and his bombardier-navigator, Bill Tschudy, had boarded the aircraft called Independence in June,1965.Soon after takeoff, the ship had crashed in a river in North Vietnam where the Vietnamese Soldiers took them away to a prison which the American soldiers called Hanoi Hilton. Jerry and many other soldiers at the prison began finding ways to communicate using a secret code for letters. They would use a communication method of tapping through the walls and sending messages through the latrine. This went on for some time and then the Vietnamese soldiers wanted the POWs (prisoners of war) to give them as much information as possible. The Americans refused and were only allowed to give their name, rank, service number, and date of birth, as the code of conduct had permitted them to say. The Vietnamese soldiers did not respect their answers and went against the Geneva Convention, an agreement between Vietnam and America that does not allow for cruel, inhumane punishment. They tortured the American soldiers until they couldn't take anymore and forced them to write biographies or give information about America’s army to them. This went on for about six years. During that time the most uncooperative American men, including Jerry and 10 others, were sent to an isolation camp with extremely small cells yet they still found ways to communicate. Back home their wives founded a National league of POW-MIA families which got them out of solitary confinement and closer to returning home. They were no longer tortured and were given a proper amount of food. In February 1973 the war ended, and the American soldiers finally went home to their families after eight long years of misery. Most men made it out alive and with honor because of Jerry Denton's leadership and commanding order. He was a legend to America. 

“Captured” explains the eight hard years that Jeremiah Denton and other Americans experienced while being cut off from the world because of the love for their country and the fight in them. The Biography is a piece of what it is really like to fight for your country even when you must sacrifice time. Some American Soldiers missed the chance to watch their kids grow up and miss important events during the eight years they spent in prison. When I read “Captured” I made a connection with the many families there are in today's world who have loved ones in the army that they may not see often or at all. I am not one for biographies but this one was very good and made me see that we should never take our loved ones for granted. I recommend this book to anyone from ages 13-100.