27 Facts About Jeremiah Denton

Jeremiah Denton was the first Republican to be popularly elected to a Senate seat in Alabama.

Jeremiah Denton was the first of the American POWs released by Hanoi to step off an American plane during Operation Homecoming on February 12,1973.

In 1976, Jeremiah Denton wrote When Hell Was in Session about his experience in captivity, which was made into the 1979 film with Hal Holbrook.

Denton was the subject of the 2015 documentary Jeremiah produced by Alabama Public Television.

In 1980, Jeremiah Denton was elected to the US Senate, where he focused mainly on family issues and national security, helping pass the Adolescent Family Life Act in 1981 and heading the Judiciary Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism.

Jeremiah Denton attended McGill Institute and Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama.

Jeremiah Denton served as a test pilot, flight instructor, and commanding officer of an attack squadron flying the A-6 Intruder.

Jeremiah Denton went on to serve on the staff of the Commander, US Sixth Fleet at the rank of Commander as Fleet Air Defense Officer.

Jeremiah Denton graduated from the Armed Forces Staff College and the Naval War College, where his thesis on international affairs received top honors by earning the prestigious President's Award.

Jeremiah Denton served as a United States Naval Aviator during the Vietnam War.

On July 18,1965, Commander Jeremiah Denton was piloting his A-6A Intruder jet while leading a 28-aircraft bombing mission over North Vietnam off the Independence which was stationed in the South China Sea.

Jeremiah Denton used the opportunity to send a distress message confirming for the first time to the US Office of Naval Intelligence and Americans that American POWs were being tortured in North Vietnam.

Jeremiah Denton repeatedly blinked his eyes in Morse code during the interview, spelling out the word "T-O-R-T-U-R-E".

Jeremiah Denton was later awarded the Navy Cross for heroism and the Purple Heart for wounds incurred while a prisoner of war.

Jeremiah Denton was first sent to the Hoa Lo Prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton", and was later transferred to the Cu Loc Detention Center, nicknamed the "Zoo".

Jeremiah Denton was briefly hospitalized at the Naval Hospital Portsmouth, Virginia, and then was assigned to the Commander, Naval Air Forces, US Atlantic Fleet, from February to December 1973.

In January 1974, Jeremiah Denton became the commandant of the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, to June 1977.

Jeremiah Denton accepted a position with the Christian Broadcasting Network as a consultant to CBN founder and friend, Pat Robertson, from 1978 to 1980.

In 1980, Jeremiah Denton ran as a Republican for a US Senate seat from his home state of Alabama, and was supported by Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority.

In doing so, Jeremiah Denton became the first retired Navy admiral elected to the United States Senate.

Jeremiah Denton was the second retired Navy admiral to serve in the US Senate, as Admiral Thomas C Hart of Connecticut was appointed to fill a vacant Senate seat and served from November 15,1945, to November 5,1946.

Jeremiah Denton was the first Republican to be popularly elected in Alabama since the direct election of US senators began in 1913, the first Republican senator since Reconstruction to represent Alabama in the US Senate, and the first Catholic to be elected to statewide office in Alabama.

Jeremiah Denton was outspoken on national security issues, particularly with regard to the Soviet Union.

In 1986, Jeremiah Denton narrowly lost his bid for reelection to the US Senate, receiving 49.7 percent of the vote against US Congressman Richard Shelby, a conservative Democrat who later became a Republican.

Jeremiah Denton's children included James S Denton, publisher and editor of World Affairs and the director of the World Affairs Institute.

Jeremiah Denton died of complications from a heart ailment at a hospice in Virginia Beach on March 28,2014, at age 89.

Jeremiah Denton is buried at Arlington National Cemetery with his wife Jane.