All language subtitles for Little.Dieter.Needs.To.Fly.1997.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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[ Traffic going by ]

Come in.

-Nice to see you.
-Yeah, good seeing you.

Listen, take off your jacket
and your shirt,

and we'll see
what it looks like.

We can put it on your back or
your chest, wherever you want.

Well, actually I... you know,
I couldn't have that on my body,

because I hate to tell you,
but it was somewhat different.

In fact,
it was quite a big difference.

You have to understand,

I was just crawling along,
I had one day to live.

I was on my knees,
and I was hallucinating.

And then, those
enormous doors opened up.

Lots of horses
kept galloping out,

and there wasn't death,
there was...

driving those horses,
it was the angels.

And I had this vision.

Death didn't want me.
Death didn't really want me.

[ Music plays ]

DIETER: Men are
often haunted by things

that happen to them in life,

especially in war or other
periods of great intensity.

Sometimes, you see these men
walking the streets

or driving in a car.

Their lives seem to be normal,
but they are not.

When I'm driving my car,

I often hear the voices
of my dead friends.

Sometimes, my friend
Duane Martin calls me

and tells me
that his feet are cold.

Because of this,

even on a warm sunny day,
I keep my convertible top up.

I was shot down
over Laos in 1966,

in the early phase
of the Vietnam War.

I never wanted to go to war.

I only got into this because
I had one burning desire,

and that was to fly.

But that there were people
down there who suffered

and who died only became
clear to me much later...

when I was their prisoner.

This is Dieter Dengler.

He came to America
40 years ago,

and for the last 15 years,

he has lived
on Mount Tamalpais,

north of San Francisco.

Yeah, this is a lot of fun.

You see, this really seems
strange to most people,

but to me, it's very important.

It denotes freedom to be able
to open or close a door.

When I was a prisoner,
I couldn't open the door,

and later on, when I was dying,

those big doors in the sky
would open up.

And so...

most people don't realize
how important it is,

and the privilege
that we have

to be able to open
or close a door.

So... anyway, that's a habit
I got into and... so be it!

Well, this is the inside
of my home.

But you see, when you come
into my house, right away,

there are pictures
of open doors.

That's been always
very important to me,

and... it gives me
a sense of freedom.

Walk into my house, when I built
this house 15 years ago,

I focused on having
this open feeling.

This was very important to me

that I am on top
of the mountain,

I needed to find
some kind of canyon.

Well, looking out here, you see
a B-51 Mus... uh, Spitfire.

Flying was always very important
to me as a child.

Got little motors in there,
don't know if they still work.

I can climb up there and see.

[ Motors start ]

Yes, they do.

Anyway, again,
just standing here, you see

that I do have an open feeling
in this house.

There's a... large stove.
I really enjoy to cook.

Food is very, very,
very important to me.

As you see,
there's a lot of food.

The refrigerator is always
packed full with food.

The cupboard is full of food.

In fact, as I look in there,
it's half empty.

Not only that, below the house,

I have emergency provisions
that I put in there years ago,

that I'm kind of hoarding
down there.

Well, I'm really
curious myself now

to see if everything is still
in good shape down here.

Tear up this carpet here.

And those...
those five-gallon containers.

Yeah, everything seems to be...
still in good shape down here.

There is a 1,000 pounds of rice.

There is a 1,200 pounds
of flour and wheat.

There's 300 pounds of honey.

There's sugar down there.

I tell you, I'll probably
never need...

any of this food,

but I can sleep so much better
knowing that it's down there.

Well, while I was in prison,
all we did talk about was food.

We talked about deep freezers,

and... refrigerators,
stacking 'em up,

and I decided
I'm coming back home,

and I'm gonna build
a restaurant.

A German-type restaurant,

and I'm gonna stack it up
and never be hungry again.

[ Laughter ]

This is my mother.

She arrived in America

after I had gained
about 30 or 40 pounds.

I was in San Diego,
in a hospital.

She...

came on an airplane
with... boxes full of apples...

that she was passing around

to all the passengers
around her.

She turned the meal down,
in the airplanes,

because she thought
it'd cost her a lot of money.

And she was truly starved.

This is my father.

I only know my father
from pictures.

He was killed in the war.

I missed not having a father.
It was just then, later on...

when I was in Vietnam,

and my friend Duane's head
was... cut off,

and the Vietcongs
were all around me,

there was just shooting
and yelling,

and... yeah, I was just running
along down this trail.

And then I came
to this river fork and...

Here was my father,

clear as a picture in the middle
of the river standing

and pointing with his arm, and
just pointing and pointing...

for me, for the direction to go.

And I went behind the rocks,

and I worked
my way up that riverbed.

I heard the Vietcongs
come by up the other side.

They went up the other side,

and then later on,
about five days later,

I was rescued
going up this other side.

So...

That was truly a miracle.

[ Music plays ]

Below me, you see my home town,
Wildberg.

I was born there. My childhood
years were... spent right here.

Down here you see
the church

and a few houses to the left,
with my house.

It's not there anymore,
the bombers came and...

and wiped out this town.

The first airplane...

The first airplanes
that I ever saw in my life,

they came right over here.

They were fighters.
They were...

They dove down
onto this small town.

They made senseless attacks

on this small village
just like this.

[ Heavy fire ]

And behind me...up there.
That's kind of how it looked.

I had two brothers then,

we were out on the top window,
and we looked out.

And we watched all this,

and I clearly remember
one of the airplanes...

came diving at our house,

and it was so unusual,
because the cockpit was open.

The pilot had black goggles

that were sitting
on his forehead.

He was looking.

He had actually turned around.
He was looking in the window.

And the machine guns
were just firing,

because the... the flashes...

I keep seeing them coming out.

And the left wing tip

just missed the house
by two or three feet.

I seen it rip by!

It was just a fraction
of a second.

It was like a... vision for me!

It was like an Almighty being...
that came out.

It was just something else

that's very difficult
to describe.

But I knew
from that moment on

that I wanted to be a pilot,
I wanted to be a flier.

From that moment on,
little Dieter needed to fly.

♪♪

I have a few medals
that I received.

That's an American
Fighter Ace medal.

Right over here is
the Purple Heart, Air Medal...

Distinguished Flying Cross,
and the Navy Cross.

Up here in the corner,

this sword is called
the Sword of Loyola.

It was blessed by the Pope,

it was brought over here
by a bishop.

Just two in existence.

J. Edgar Hoover got one, and I
was lucky to get the other one.

What does it mean for you
to be a war hero?

Oh, I'm not a hero.

Only people who are dead
who are heroes.

And that's not a thing
I want to be,

and I don't think of myself
as a hero.

No, only dead people are heroes.

If I start over here...

This picture was sent to me
recently by a friend.

This is the last shot
of my airplane after I took...

when I took off for Vietnam.

And this is how the airplane
looked two hours later.

And this is Dieter Dengler,

six months later,
after his rescue.

He was down to 85 pounds.

DIETER:
I knew hunger as a child.

I grew up in post-war Germany.

We lived in great poverty
and I remember, as children,

going to bombed out buildings,
where we tore off wallpaper.

My mother would cook
the wallpaper,

and we would eat it...

because there were nutrients
in the glue.

♪♪

As a child,
Dieter saw things around him

that just made
no earthly sense at all.

♪♪

Germany had been
transformed

into a dreamscape
of the surreal.

♪♪

And then things got better.

Dieter remembers the first
sausage in a display window.

It was the first one in years,

and he stopped
and stared at it.

Everyone else stopped too, but
nobody could afford to buy it.

♪♪

In post-war Germany,
there was no aviation.

And, therefore,

it remained Dieter's dream
to become a pilot.

This is a very, very,
very old... rare clock.

From age 14,

Dengler apprenticed
as a tool and dye maker.

He learned how to build
church clocks.

Not only did I learn to be
a ...church clock builder,

I learned to be a blacksmith.

God! What a tough
apprenticeship I had!

How many hours
did I stand right here?

How many times did I have
that hammer on my side?

...an old man...

He was a blacksmith,
he had hands like that.

Many times he would come up
and hit me in the face.

I would be just...
I would be passing out.

We worked from seven in
the morning till late at night.

Including weekends.
We made 50 cents a month.

It was truly horrible,
but we stuck with it.

And then, later on in Vietnam...

That's the first time
I recognized it.

What it meant really to me,

and without this tough, tough,
tough man

that beat us many, many times,
I could have never made it.

He finished his apprenticeship
at age 18.

30 minutes
after his final exam,

Dieter was already
en route to America,

because his dream of being
a pilot had never died.

This photo was taken
the moment he left.

I left from right down here
for America.

I had 30 cents in my pocket.

I was two hours out of town,
I was hungry.

I had two weeks to wait
for my ship to leave,

and I hitchhiked...

via Hamburg, to Bremerhaven,
where the boat left.

I was climbing up the ladder,
I got seasick right away.

In the back of the ship,

they were playing
a German national song:

"Auf Wiedersehen",
"Auf Wiedersehen".

Tears were rolling down my eyes.

I stepped on the ship
and got seasick.

I was violently sick
for 2 1/2 weeks.

But I managed to go up in
the kitchen or in living room...

Not the living room,
but where people were eating,

and there I got sandwiches,
and I got oranges.

And I hoarded it all in my room.

And then, early in the morning,
there was an announcement

that the Statue of Liberty
was going to come in sight.

I went in my room.

I took this large shirt
from my grandfather,

tied it with string
below my knees,

and filled it up
with sandwiches,

with oranges, all this food.

And I thought,
we're just going to arrive,

I'll walk off the ship.

But we had to go
through customs.

Well, I never heard of customs.

I was this little
18-year-old boy,

I never was out
of my hometown.

One time for one day we went
to a castle somewhere.

We were extremely poor.

So, anyway,
I went through customs.

A lot of people were lined up.
This customs agent came over.

The first thing,
he grabbed my shirt.

Pulled my shirt up,

and all the sandwiches
and all those oranges

fell on the floor.

I got beet red because
when I left my hometown,

people were laughing, they said,

"He's going to America.
Money's gonna...

He thinks money
grows on the trees!"

They thought I'm gonna end up
in jail, and now I knew.

I went, "They're right,
I'm gonna end up in jail."

♪♪

I didn't speak any English,
I knew a few words.

Timmy Square...
Times Square.

The highest house, two-storey
houses that I saw in Germany.

Here, I'm in New York.
Manhattan.

Walking around, it was just
a whole new world for me.

But again, of course,
I was extremely hungry.

So, I lived in the streets
for about ten days,

and I met a couple of people.

And then finally,
I joined the Air Force.

Because I really left Germany
to become a pilot.

And I couldn't do it
in Germany.

Germany didn't have
an Air Force.

They didn't have an airline,

they had no schooling
whatsoever.

We had to work to help
our parents just to survive

and to live.

And so, I went to the recruiter
in New Jersey, and he said,

"Of course,
if you join the Air Force,

you're going to be a pilot."

I signed up, two hours later,
I was in San Antonio, Texas.

They cut my hair off.

But instead of becoming a pilot,
they put me in the kitchen.

There were 5,000 recruits there.
7,000 recruits!

I peeled potatoes
for 2 1/2 years.

And then finally,
they put me in the motor pool.

I changed tires, but I never
got near an airplane.

I went to night school.
I became a citizen.

And then I left for California,

because I knew by then
what I had to do.

I had to go to college,

get a college degree
to join the Navy.

And that's what I did. I bought
a car, an old VW Bus.

There was a big hole
in the side.

I parked
in the parking lot.

I had my surfboard in there,
my skis in there.

That's where I lived
for 2 1/2 years.

Worked at night,
went to school.

And after that I joined
the Navy.

And then
I was based in Alameda.

And from there we left

on the aircraft carrier
for Vietnam.

♪♪

But from the air, Vietnam
didn't seem real at all.

For Dengler, it was like
a grid on a map.

He had suddenly found himself
not only a pilot,

but a soldier
caught up in a real war.

But even though
it was all very real,

everything down there seemed
to be so alien and so abstract.

♪♪

It all looked strange, like
a distant, barbaric dream.

Also, I...
I flew the Skyraider...

over Vietnam...
I had just left the carrier.

I had flown 2 1/2 hours
through heavy flak.

I was coming near my target.

And I clearly remember
my target was disappearing

right at the wing root,
where the wing meets the body.

And I rolled the airplane
on its back.

And then, of course I would
see the target above me,

and I was coming straight down,

and just when I was inverted,

there was this loud explosion
off the right side,

half my wing was gone.

And I remember
the brightness of it

was just like
a lightning striking.

The airplane then tumbled
through the air.

I reached down,
and I dropped my tanks,

and I thought I'll belly the
airplane down in this valley.

But then more explosions
went off, off my right wing.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The brightness is really
what I remember.

I decided, maybe I can...

fly the airplane and glide it
right over this ridge.

There was a ridge
on the right-hand side.

There was a lot of trees,
as I said.

There was a... an enormous
tree in front of me,

and just before I hit it,
I kicked full right rudder.

The airplane yawed to the right.

There was an impact on the
left wing. It snapped this...

this, this thick tree off,

and, of course, then
the left wing went back.

Then the entire tail:
the rudder, hose, stabilizer.

Everything just tumbled by.

I clearly remember the canopy
started cracking,

the lower left-hand corner.

Just like slow motion. It was
cracking, and it ripped off.

Then my helmet
just jerked off my head.

And then the airplane
started to cartwheel.

Then I must have passed out

because maybe a minute later,
I came back.

I was laying 100 feet
from the airplane.

Dust was still in the...
in the air.

It was very, very quiet.

Of course,I crawled out
real quickly, and then I...

ran towards the jungle
to get away.

You know, many times people
ask me if I was afraid,

if there was fear
when I was shot down.

There really is no time.

I had to unstrap.
I had to drop my fuel tanks.

I had to find...

I had to put the airplane
in a small clearing.

It was extremely difficult
to fly this airplane.

There was no time
to have fear.

And then later on it's just
like on an aircraft carrier.

3:00 in the morning,

you're flying
through this monsoon rain.

It's really not a rain,

it's a waterfall
that you're shooting through

at 80 feet over the water,

200 mph, trying
to find the aircraft carrier.

You have only contact
through your headset

with the operator on the ship.

It's total darkness.

Then, finally there's
this enormous bang

as you hit the back
of the aircraft carrier

on your landing.

Then, as you pull over
to the side...

as I turned my engine off...

The engine would spin down.
It would go...

Spin down. Then, my legs...

that's the time
when my legs start shaking.

They would shake and shake
and shake,

and I'm trying to hold them,
I couldn't even hold them.

I would some time have to
sit in cockpit for five minutes

before I could crawl out.

And ironically...

later on, just before dying,
there is no more fear.

It's like a dream.

It's just like floating along
in a real thick medium.

I used to pinch myself,
there was no more pain.

And I thought,
"Is this real? Is this unreal?"

This. This is...

This is basically what death
looks like to me.

♪♪

Two days after I was shot down,
I was captured.

I did the unforgivable,
I crossed a small clearing.

I came out
of the thick jungle...

I came to a small trail.

I looked to the left,
I looked to the right.

There was no one there.
I went to run across.

I was at about ten yards
out of it,

and someone yelled.

I turned to the right.

There's a guy standing
there with a pistol,

another guy was standing there
with a rifle.

My hands shot in the air.

I yelled in German, "Nicht
schießen! Nicht schießen!"

Right away I was surrounded
by six other guys.

They stripped of my clothes,
I was searched.

They took everything away.

They bandaged my left leg
with bamboo,

because I hurt
that in the crash.

And then we started to run.
We ran and ran.

Every so often I would collapse.
They would massage my leg.

They would give me...
some water.

And then later in the evening,
underneath a cluster of trees...

so the airplanes
couldn't see us.

Normally... they took
four pegs in the ground,

I would have to lay
on the ground.

They would tie my ankles
to the pegs,

and they would tie
my hands to the pegs.

In his dreams, Dengler would
walk through an airport.

He was going to fly back home
to the Black Forest.

But all the planes had been
smashed to pieces.

Yet, he knew that the pieces
would start to move

and to reassemble themselves
again into real planes,

as a broken coffee cup
in the film "Play it Backwards"

puts itself together and leaps
back up on the table.

I was sure that my flight
would be on time.

But then, the pieces of the
plane didn't jump back together,

as I had expected.

And I grew more
and more horrified.

And I was glad
when I finally woke up

and found myself
bitten by mosquitos.

In the mornings,
I'd wake up,

and a lot of times
I couldn't even see

because the mosquitos had eaten,
had stung,

and my face
was all swollen up.

Then we just walked,
for days and days like that.

There were a lot of airplanes
in the air.

They were looking for me,
my buddies.

And I need to make a signal.

I need to have some kind
of device to signal to them.

And luckily at one time I
spotted a small survival mirror

in the tobacco pouch
of one of my guards.

I hung around these guards
all the time,

because sometimes
we would walk...

late in the evening.
It was total dark.

My hands were tied.
A guard would be in front of me.

My hands would be tied,
they would go over his shoulder.

Here, I had the right guard
in front of me,

and very carefully,
ever so carefully,

I opened his pocket,
and I took this box out...

Dengler succeeded
in stealing the mirror,

and for the first time
he spent the night in a hut.

My legs and my ankles would be
tied together with a rope.

The rope would go down, there
would be a peg in the ground.

That's where I would be tied up.
They would feed me up here.

Then when the sleeping time
came, I would then lay down.

A guard would be on my right.

A guard would be on my left.
There would be rifles there.

And that night, I woke about
11:00-12:00 in the morning

because it was bitter,
bitter cold.

They were snoring so loud.
I got up.

I knew that it was
the right time. I kicked my...

legs up two or three times
really hard. The peg gave way.

I came up,
I untied my legs slowly.

I came forward to the edge,

and very carefully I let myself
down to the edge.

Just when I hit the bottom,

the pigs and the dogs
and the chickens ran off.

There was a hell of a racket.
I quickly went back up.

I laid down again.
I didn't move.

They kept on snoring,
nobody noticed.

I tried it one more time.

And then I was free.
I was in the jungle...

but I couldn't move
because it was so thick.

But my target was a mountain.

A coarse mountain
just like that.

And that's what
I was heading for.

I'd seen that in the moonlight,

but I didn't realize
it was a coarse mountain.

There was crevices
after crevice.

There was very,
very sharp rock.

It was very, very difficult
to go up to this rock.

I finally got on top, there was
no vegetation on top.

That day nothing came.
They had stopped looking for me.

Not a single airplane.

The only thing that really came
was the sun. And it got hot.

I didn't count on that

because I was for the last
two weeks in the jungle.

And it was cool down there,

and I was already
getting delirious, and I was...

I saw all those...

It was just terrible
up there. And finally...

I decided to work
my way down

from this hill towards
a waterhole. I had saw...

seen a stinking waterhole
at the bottom of this hill,

and that was my target,

because I knew
water was the only thing

that would make me survive.

His guards knew
where to find him.

The moment he started
to drink the putrid water,

they were all over him.

From then on,
the torture began.

They would hang him upside down

and put an ant nest
over his face

until he lost consciousness.

For several nights,

they suspended him into
a well shaft, in such a way

that he almost died a slow
death from drowning.

But he was worth more
to them alive.

He was their
prized possession.

And all of a sudden we came out
of the jungle into an open area.

A real red-dusted area,

there were about 30 guards
standing there.

They had formed a circle.

I was dragged into the center
of the circle,

and two North Vietnamese guys
were standing there.

They had their caps on,
the red stars on it.

They had khaki uniforms on. They
started yelling and screaming...

and start kicking me...

And all of a sudden
one of the guards

came across the circle,
walked towards me.

He had his rifle in his hand.
The butt first.

And he came towards me,
he hesitated a couple of times.

He swung towards me.
I moved my head.

He hit me in the shoulder,
knocked me down on my back.

The gun went off.

And I clearly remember
looking across,

another one of the guards
closed his eyes,

fell backwards over.

He had no shirt on,
he had just a loincloth on.

I saw the blood coming out
just above his kidneys.

His buddy saw that,
he took his gun,

started shooting at this guy
who shot this guy.

I'm laying on the ground. All
of a sudden bullets are flying.

There's screaming and yelling.
They had forgotten about me.

I thought it was the end
of me. I closed my eyes.

I waited for...
I waited to be shot myself.

I closed my eyes.
I looked over.

I saw someone wrap a loincloth
around this guy's waist.

You know,
it was natural for them

to be really angry at me now.

I had escaped from them,
they had lost face,

and they really wanted
to get even.

Whenever we were
near the village,

that's when they really
became aggressive.

They had this new idea.

My legs were tied up,
my arms were tied up,

my hands were tied up.

I was tied
behind a water buffalo.

They'd hit the water buffalo
with a stick.

He'd start taking off.
I was hoping behind it.

I was trying to keep my balance,
but pretty soon I fell over.

A couple, two or three
of the guards,

the bad ones kept walking
to the right and left.

They were kicking me in the face
with the dust all the time.

They were kicking me-- other
guys would jump to my back.

The kids were laughing.

They thought it was
just a lot of fun.

Later on, they wanted me
to sign something

condemning the American
aggression in Vietnam.

I didn't sign it.
I didn't believe in it.

They came up with this idea.
They stuck small, little...

pieces of bamboo underneath my
fingernails. They cut my arms.

They put pieces of bamboo,
actually they stuck it in there,

and they left a piece
of bamboo in there.

They cut here.
They cut here.

They cut here.

At various different places.
Then one guy had this idea,

they'd put this rope
around my upper arm.

Like a tourniquet, they put
a piece of wood in there

and twisted and twisted it,

until the nerves were cutting
against the bone.

My hand would drop,

and this hand was completely
unusable for six months.

They were just always thinking
of something to do to me.

It's Christmas time
in my home town in Germany.

It's beautiful,
all the decorations...

It's like a Christmas calendar.

But many, many years before,
during the Nazi time,

it was a different story.

In fact, in this town,

100% of the people
voted for Hitler.

Except one person:
my grandfather.

He was picked up at the house.

They hung signs around his neck,
saying that he was a traitor.

The parade on tinseltown.

There was a fanfare
of drums and trumpets.

People spat out of the windows,
water was poured on him.

And he feared for his life,

he thought he was not
going to live through it.

And for me, 30 years later,

when I was a pilot in Vietnam,
I was a prisoner.

I was tortured,

and they wanted me to sign
a piece of paper saying

that I condemned the American
action in Vietnam.

And I was strong enough
not to do that.

Many times this strength
came through my grandfather.

I was thinking of him...

and if he could do it,
so could I do it.

[ Speaking in Vietnamese ]

Oh-oh. This feels a little bit
too close to home.

[ Speaking in Vietnamese ]

Of course, Dieter knew
it was only a film,

but all the old terror returned
as if it were real.

I thought, "You guys behind me
with your camera

can only see my back,

but you can't know how
my heart is thumping inside."

I told myself,
"Okay, play along with them."

"Running like this might chase
the demons away."

♪♪

Almost everything that I learned
in survival school back at...

in California, I couldn't
use in the jungle.

I watched my guards,
they taught me a lot.

They taught me how to set traps.
They taught me how to make fire.

In the jungle, it's quite easy
to find an old piece of bamboo.

Which is right here.
You split it in half.

And then you mount... half...

in a vertical position.

You take four
or five sticks and just...

to hold it into place.
Then you take the other half.

And you need to cut
a grove in the other one,

from the top.

Cut this grove
just far enough in,

so it just barely
comes back on the other side.

Then you take a machete...
or anything else,

and you make some...
scrapings of the bamboo.

As you can see,
it looks like a little wool.

Now, I have prepared
this a little bit already,

but you take this wool...

and you put it over this crack,
then you start rubbing.

Okay.

Being a prisoner,
all of Dengler's thoughts

were focused on another escape,
and on survival.

Back in the mid-'60s,

American strategic thinking
was turned against Russia.

So, all survival meant survival
in Russia and Siberia.

A jungle war didn't factor much
in their thinking.

And that's why
their instructional films

look somewhat funny.

You know,
when it rained that hard,

you didn't have to
collect water.

Of course, our man immediately
comes across heart of palm.

The film hints, as easily
as in the supermarket.

Very important is...
that you have got a knife.

Of course, our man also
has his whetstone on him.

And you better look
hard for the enemy.

♪♪

And now, the knife seems
to be sharp as a razor.

You've got to put it
to the test.

A leaf should slice
easily in two.

Now, if the leaf
doesn't cooperate,

you can still chew it.

Let's suppose you are wounded.

It's always smart to have
your medicine kit on you.

You apply the right ointment.

Rub it in, sleeve down,
and done.

And it's a good idea to bring
your radio transmitter along.

You make your position known
to the planes above.

And then you shoot a flare.

The rescue helicopter spot it,

and you better scramble
for a clearing.

The helicopter is
already waiting.

But now, this is very odd.

What for God's sake is
our man signaling

so frantically
to the helicopter

right above him?

♪♪

As we were walking
through the jungle,

we always had fire with us.

One of our guards had this
little container on wires.

It was full of charcoal.

He would swing it back and
forth, so it wouldn't go out.

Some of the other guards would
have a fan made out of bamboo.

They would cut it on top
with a machete,

then they would beat it flat
with a rock.

They knew exactly
what rind to cut,

some white sap
would come out.

It was really sticky,

they would smear it
all over the surface here.

And as we were walking along,

they would just see
a small or a big bug

way up on a branch
or on a leaf.

They would reach up
very carefully,

and the wings of this bug
would stick on it.

They would take it off,

and they would lay it
on top of this charcoal.

And it was--
we were walking along,

they were
barbecuing all the time.

In fact, one time
I turned around,

and they had
a small bird barbecuing.

When we got there in the
evening, they weren't hungry.

[ Birds chirping ]

I was shot down over Laos,

and of course I was captured
by the Pathet Lao.

We started walking towards
the east, towards Vietnam,

and about 2 1/2 weeks later, I
was turned over to the Vietcong.

Even though later on
I was kept in a Pathet Lao camp,

it was clear to me

that the North Vietnamese
were running the show.

They were a different
breed of people.

I was frightened of them.

They were very, very honest.
They were very, very precise.

When I walked with them,
we would come into a village...

They would line up
all the people.

They would count the people.

They would write down
the name of the village.

They would look at their
watches, it would be 7:28.

They would know the time.

They would tie me down
different at night.

There was no chance
that I could escape.

In fact, there is one incident
that's very vivid in my mind.

Initially, when
I was captured...

they took everything
away from me...

except my engagement ring.

I insisted on keeping it,
and they let me have it.

And here, about 2 1/2
or 3 weeks later,

we arrived in this village.

We came to a hut, it just looked
something like this.

There was a villager
in the corner, he was cooking.

Next thing, he's next to me.

He gave me a plate of rice.

He smiled at me,
he was very friendly.

All of a sudden, he grabs over,
he grabs my hand.

He gets a hold of my ring, and
he starts pulling my ring off.

And, of course,
I'm pulling back.

And it's going back and forth,
and back and forth like that.

There was no way this
guy's gonna get my ring.

He got up, he left.
I thought it was all over.

All of a sudden,
a few seconds later,

he's coming back with a machete.

He raises his arm.

I realized then
I better let him have my ring.

The North Vietnamese,
they were in a corner.

They were doing something
over there,

they were not
aware what was happening.

They got up.

Got our stuff together,
and off we went, we left.

I was disappointed.

I was unhappy. And the longer
we walked, the angrier I get.

And about 1 1/2 or 2 hours
later, I stopped them,

I showed them my finger,

it was all white
where the ring had been.

At first, they didn't understand
what I was talking about.

I made stealing gestures.
They got together, they talked.

Then they turned around

and started walking back
towards this village.

Of course, I was happy.

I was thinking
I'm getting my ring back.

But I wasn't prepared
for what happened next.

We got in this village...

Next thing,
they find this villager,

they just beat
the hell out of this guy.

And then, they grabbed
this guy's hand.

Violently
they grabbed his hand.

They put it on top of the table,
they put his finger there.

They chopped his finger off!

I'm leaping back!
The blood is squirting out!

The... finger's
laying on the ground.

The North Vietnamese bends down,
he picks up this finger.

He pulls off this ring,
he sticks it on my finger.

I was speechless.

I caused this misery,
I felt horrible.

He nodded to me,
we turned around, we walked off.

I realized right then and there,

you just don't fool around
with the Vietcongs.

It's just a movie.
Don't worry about it.

And you still got your fingers
and everything.

[ Rooster calls ]

Finally, after 3 1/2 weeks,
I arrived at a prison camp.

I looked forward
to coming to the camp.

I had been
beaten so much.

I had lost so much blood.

I had been unconscious
so many times.

I wanted to share my misery
with someone else.

Other pilots.

I was hoping to see someone,

maybe meet someone
that I've known before.

Maybe a doctor would be there,

but it was totally different
than what I expected.

First of all,
I thought I was all alone

in this...this camp.

High bamboo walls on the side.

The huts were built out
of grass and out of bamboo.

I was let in, they threw me
into one of the huts.

And only three hours later
they opened the door

and let the other guys come out.

I couldn't believe my eyes,

the first guy was carrying his
intestines around in his hand.

There was six of them.

There were four Thais,
two Americans...

Duane Martin,
who became my friend later on.

The next guy came out,
he had no teeth.

With a rusty nail
and a rock

they would knock
each other's teeth in.

...to let the puss out.
They'd been there 2 1/2 years.

It was just awful. I looked
at them, and I realized,

that's exactly what I'm
gonna look in six months.

So, I said,
"I'm leaving tonight."

No. I was advised
not to because of the rain.

We needed the water to drink.

At nights, we would
be handcuffed.

Sometimes we would get
cross-handcuffed,

sometimes straight-handcuffed.

Cross-handcuffed,
this is a more modern handcuff,

would be like that.

Left wrist would go

to the right wrist
of the guy on my right.

My right wrist would go

to the left wrist
of the guy on my left.

This way we'd be together.
Everybody had dysentery.

20 times a night,
this guy made the motion,

this guy had to make the motion.

On top of it,
our legs were in foot blocks,

big wooden blocks they made.

Our feet would be
driven through there,

a pin would come in-between.

Some sides were be longer,
sometimes it would be shorter.

And this is the way
they expected you to sleep.

If you had no blankets,
it was miserable cold.

In the misery of those nights,

Dengler often dreamt of oceans
and foreign shores.

And I dreamt
that a boat appeared.

And the whole American Navy
came to rescue me.

And I waved. And I shouted.
But they wouldn't listen.

They just kept on going
and went somewhere else.

♪♪

As far as food,
they themselves were very poor.

At the beginning, we were given
a handful of rice,

then later on a handful of rice
for all of us.

Sometimes they
would catch a deer.

They would cut a deer open,

they would take the grass
out from the inside.

That's what we would get to eat.

They would keep the meat.

They would take the meat and
stuff it in a bamboo container.

After 4 or 5 days, it would rot
so bad for themselves.

They would come in with a towel.

They would pour it out, it would
be white, it was covered smack,

and it would stink
to high heaven.

First time I tried it,
I vomited.

But if you didn't eat it,
you just died.

We were lucky, though,

because we couldn't go
to the bathroom.

So, once every 3 or 4 weeks
they would let us out.

We would go to the
bathroom right below us,

it would stink to high heaven.

I mean it was awful,
but there were rats down there.

And we couldn't catch the rats,
but there was a snake there.

And every so often we were
lucky to catch that snake.

We would look, we would
lay on our bellies,

we watched this snake
line up on the rat.

Get a hold of the rat.

We had a stick,
we would get the snake,

we pulled the snake up,
we pulled the rat out.

We cut the rat apart, and
everybody got his share.

We lost, of course,
a lot of weight

waiting for the rain to come.
But...

We had to supplement
our food

for the day
that we left for freedom.

Well, initially... initially,
February or March...

we were allowed to go to
the bathroom in the morning...

for about two minutes.

And... we had...

We have a couple of tubes you go
in at night and you can imagine,

you're in a big block
in the woods,

and you're handcuffed like that,

and you got to go
to the bathroom at night

with a guy
having diarrhea or dysentery.

So, it was a real mess,

but while we walked down,
we run down like hell.

There's about a 20- or 30-foot
walk to the hole.

And while we did this, they...
they shot at us.

And it got so close that some
of the prisoners came back

with black in the face,

or greased their hair
with a bullet, and...

So, we didn't even want
to go anymore.

We... we rather
stayed with the tubes.

MAN: Why were
they shooting at ya?

MAN 2: The question is, why were
they shooting at you?

Just harassment.

They will take a gun, and they'd
show it to you, they put a...

a round in it,

and they put it right
onto your head, and they...

take the safety off and they go:
click, click, click, click.

And they'll laugh...
Stuff like that. So...

I'm lucky to be here!

The camp was inside Laos,

and the shortest way out would
have been east to the ocean.

But there were
impassable mountains

and, of course,
North Vietnam.

What made most sense
for them was to go west.

To float down
the river to the Mekong,

and then cross
to freedom in Thailand.

Our plan to escape from
this prison camp was planned

right down to the last detail.

We had six months, we're waiting
for the monsoon rain.

We had a little problem
amongst ourselves.

Some of the other prisoners
didn't want to escape.

In 1966, there was
really no war in Laos.

They were hoping to be released
pretty soon, and also

they were afraid to be shot
on the way out.

This changed pretty
dramatically, real quick,

because the Thais,
who spoke the language,

in this hut overheard the
guards outside talking about

that they would take us
in the jungle,

shoot us, so it would look
like we'd escaped,

because they wanted to go
home anyway,

because they had hardly
anything else to eat.

Of course, now we all
thought alike.

And we had to move really,
really quick. And the plan was

that if I would make
it out of my hut

into this hut over here,
without being seen,

the other guys would follow me.

Now, we had...

for the last 2 or 3 weeks,
we had a little diagram.

We had little squares
with names on it

for the people
and for the rifles.

We would look
through the cracks.

We would observe them.
We would listen to them.

And pretty soon we knew
exactly where every rifle was,

where every person was,

because this was very,
very important.

That they would all be
in the kitchen at the same time,

because our plan was

that while they were in the
kitchen, we would encircle them.

We would capture them.
Lock 'em up. Hold the camp.

Signal the airplanes at night

and be rescued
right out of there.

Now, during the day,

there was only one time
that we could do this.

We had about two minutes,
120 seconds to do this.

And this is when the cook
over here would yell,

"Chow time! Food time!"

Only then would the guards
leave their rifles behind.

The next problem was to get out
of the handcuffs.

It's quite simple. Nowadays
everybody ought to know

how to open a handcuff.

If you come a little closer
with your camera,

I can show you how to do that.

With this small key,

I'm gonna open the handcuff to
show you the functions inside.

As you look in there,

you see this small spring
going back and forth.

You'll also see
a few teeth in there

that holds
the handcuff in place.

Now, just with a regular
paperclip...

you can open this handcuff
quite simply by inserting...

one of these ends
into the opening.

Apply pressure to the spring,
pulling the handcuff open.

The day came.
The cook yelled, "Chow time!"

I stripped my blocks,
I let myself to the floor.

I was underneath my hut now.

I crawled quickly over
to the logs, those heavy logs

that I had to lift out. I...

actually loosened them
the day before.

My heart
was really pounding.

I crawled across. I came to this
fence. I untied the rattan.

Slipped the bamboo up

and rushed through this door,
and I leaped into this hut.

There were three rifles
in there, two I passed away,

and the other one I kept.

I ran out into the open.

Nobody came from this side
except the guards,

running in my direction.

They must have heard
or seen the other guys.

This big shootout started.

All of a sudden,
the bullets were flying.

Somehow
we had miscalculated.

Somebody
had a rifle in there.

I had this sub-machine
gun in my hand.

I never shot one before.

When I pulled the trigger, it
practically flew out of my hand.

It raised up like that,

and this allowed them to close
this distance real quick.

They came within
2 or 3 feet from me.

The morron, one of the guys,
had a machete in his hand.

He came within 4 or 5 feet,

I shot him through the hip.

It lifted him up, it threw him
down to the ground.

Next thing I'm looking up,
he's getting up again.

He still had the machete,
he's still coming at me.

Of course this time
I couldn't miss.

He was right 2 or 3 feet
in front of me.

I couldn't believe it.

I didn't have a scratch.

There was five dead guards
laying on the ground.

Two of them got away.

They ran a zigzag pattern,
and they got in the jungle.

I knew then,
right then and there,

they would get help...
and we had to get out of there.

Where was Duane?

I saw him behind this bush
over here, he had vomited.

I yelled to him,
"Duane, let's get out of here!

Let's get out of here!"

We took off. We ran down
between this kitchen. We ran...

ran amongst those dead guys
laying on the ground.

And it was very important

because our shoes
were tied together in a bundle,

were hanging
on this hut over here.

The shoes we needed
in the jungle,

but when we got there,
they were already taken.

The other guys must have taken
them and run off with them.

And then, Duane and I, we had
no choice but to turn around,

barefoot we ran into the jungle.

Of the seven of us
that escaped,

I was the only one
that came out alive.

The other ones disappeared
in the jungle,

and nobody ever heard
from them again.

God! How I ever made it
through this jungle,

barefoot, for weeks.
I'll never know.

Dieter and Duane were
struggling to make their way

through the jungle.

Weak and starved, their feet
badly cut by thorns.

After ten days
they reached a river,

somewhat like this one.

Only the river was much higher
because of the monsoon rains.

We were ecstatic.
We felt like dancing,

and we thought that this was
our highway to freedom.

Exhausted as they were,

they managed to build a small
raft and climbed aboard.

There we were on this river,
this beautiful river,

drifting down between hills
and mountains for a couple--

hour and a half,
down towards Thailand.

I thought I heard something.

I said, "Duane,
do you hear anything?"

But then it got quiet again,

but when we came
around the next hill,

we heard it at the same time.

We both yelled, "Waterfalls!"
He leaped off.

I jumped in the water.

I was actually in the water,
I grabbed the rifles.

I kicked as hard as I could.
I was taken off.

I was going
then towards... this side.

Duane was already
nearly over there,

but I had these rifles
in my arm,

and I couldn't really swim
that fast.

And the current shot,

picking up, and quicker
and quicker!

And I thought
I wouldn't make it,

and finally there was
a couple of rocks sticking out.

I clung on this rock, and
I looked over the side and...

our raft had tumbled and tumbled
and tumbled down 300 feet.

It disintegrated on the bottom.
I was speechless.

I looked at Duane,
he was snow-white.

We had just... escaped death.

I mean, it was truly
touch and go.

We were speechless. We just sat
there after I made it to shore.

Trying to decide
what to do.

One of the rifles,
we threw away.

It was vertical going down,
on both sides.

We had a very difficult time,

because it was full
of green mud.

During the rainy season.

The ground was very muddy,

and on the vines we were sliding
down, helping each other down.

And late in the evening
we arrived on the bottom.

We were totally exhausted.
We were totally disillusioned.

Then barefoot,
over rocks and sticks we...

Down the river we went, looking
forward towards freedom.

♪♪

To this day, I often think
about Duane Martin.

We shared so many hardships,
hopes and despair.

And this made us
grow very close.

By the end, Duane was closer to
me than anyone else in my life.

Even closer than my mother
and my brothers.

Behind me is the Mekong.
We called it "The Big Muddy".

Over there is Laos. I was
a prisoner of war over here.

Over here is Thailand.
Freedom.

We talked about this river
so many times.

We dreamt about this river.
This river was our target.

But we never reached it.

When I think about it now, even
though it's over 30 years ago,

it's just like it
happened yesterday.

I remember,
Duane and I, we had...

nearly starved to death
when we escaped the camp.

We were barefoot in the jungle.

Within the first mile, our feet
were cut to shreads.

In fact, they swelled up
to big white stumps.

We had found a single sole
of a tennis shoe.

And we alternated wearing it,

and we would tie it to one
of our foot with rattan.

And then came the monsoon.
The monsoon is something else.

I mean, you have to
really be there to...

to know what I'm talking about.
It's just deafening.

You can scream on top of your
lungs, and nobody can hear you.

The water comes down like
somebody turned on... a bathtub.

It goes for hours,
for days. The mud!

The bamboo!

All the stuff that comes
down from the mountains.

In fact, Duane and I, we had
to look for high grounds.

We would tie ourselves down
to a stump or trees.

Not to be swept down
with this mud overnight.

Of course, we would hug
each other.

We needed each other
for warmth.

We needed each other
for friendship in this misery.

And then came dawn.

I would look over there, and
I couldn't even recognize Duane.

Duane would be covered
from top to bottom

with mud and blood.

I looked the same.

We had leeches, not 20, not 50.
Hundreds. It was like a belt.

It was black around there.

Our legs were covered
with leeches.

They were looking
for the soft spots.

Between our fingers,
underneath the arms,

and the nose and the ears.
It was awful.

They're tiny, tiny creatures.

Like a needle, they find
every tiny, little hole.

They attach themselves,

they suck themselves full with
blood, as big as this finger.

We would then take our rags off,
we would take bamboo,

and we scraped them off,
and on we went.

But then, there were
a couple of times

we thought
we really had it made.

One time, we built a raft.
We had to abandon the raft.

The raft went over
the waterfall.

But then, later on,
we made this beautiful fire.

We waved at night
to the airplanes.

They saw us,
they circled overhead.

And we knew, we're gonna
be rescued, that next morning.

We were elated. We hugged
each other, we cried together.

We talked about who's going
in the helicopter first.

What are we gonna eat?
Who are we gonna call?

And then moning came,
and we waited and waited,

and nothing happened.

It was a blow.
What a disappointment.

But then we had to move on

because we were
starving to death.

In fact, we couldn't even
walk anymore.

We were crawling
and lay on our knees

down this small little trail.

And all of a sudden there
was this small boy on our left.

He was carrying a water
container over his shoulder.

And all of a sudden,
there was all this comotion.

People were running...
all over each way.

There was noise.

Duane and I right away
we were on our knees,

and we put our hands together.
We said, "Hello. Sabai."

Duane then starts sitting back
and started getting up.

And all of a sudden,

out of the corner of my eye,
I saw something.

I looked over there,
a villager was standing there.

He had a machete in his hand,
high above his head.

He just hesitated for a second,
and then he swung.

He swung for me, I ducked,
it missed me by a few inches.

He hit Duane in the upper leg,
the blade was deeply buried.

And then Duane screamed.

He reached down,
he grabbed his leg, screaming!

And with the next swipe...

Duane's head came off.
Blood squirting out!

I start screaming. I leaped
towards this villager.

He turned around, he ran.

In fact, they all
started running,

and unknownst to me,
I had reached down and grabbed

this rubber sole from his foot.

I turned around and ran,

where 30 seconds before
I was crawling along.

Duane, my friend, he was gone.

And from then on, my motions,
my progress, became mechanical.

In fact, I couldn't care less
if I would live or die.

But then later on,
there was this bear.

This beautiful bear
that was following me.

It was circling me.

In fact, sometimes when
it was gone, I missed it.

It was just like a dog.
It was just like a pet.

Of course, I knew,
this bear was there,

he was waiting to eat me.

When I think about it...

This bear meant death to me.

And it is really ironic...

That the only friend I had
in the end was death.

♪♪

How Dieter Dengler
has been able

to cope with all this

remains a mystery.

He hides behind
the casusal remark

that this was
the fun part of his life.

Dieter took an early retirement
from the Armed Forces

and became
a civilian test pilot.

He survived four more crashes
and flies to this day.

Death did not want him.

What's that, about 20 pounds?

No, 30, actually.

30 Pounds. Wow!

My God, he'll be surprised.

How long did it take
to cook that thing?

-A good five hours.
-Five hours.

Dieter! God,
my suspicions were true!

-It's good to see you!
-Happy Thanksgiving, friend!

This is Eugene Deatrick,

to whom Dieter Dengler
ultimately owes his life.

Dieter wanted to surprise him
on Thanksgiving.

I wouldn't be here
without you,

and I really appreciate
what you did for me.

And that you
followed it up and...

Sit down, tell me all about it.

My God!

You're losing hair.
Both of them.

Tell me did you have any
suspicion, even a little bit?

I had, a little bit.

You don't come down here for...

no one telling you what it is,
but bygod it's good to see you.

All right, I haven't done that
too many times, but...

What a turkey.

It seems like yesterday that...

Andy and I started to take
off that morning.

I have said many times
to people

that this was
a million in one shot.

If everything hadn't gone
exactly right,

we never
would have found you.

Just step by step.

We were late getting off.
Supposed to leave at eight.

Didn't get off
until about noon or 1:00.

We came up, and it was
an armed wrecking area.

Which meant that you could
bomb anything in the area

if you thought it was enemy.

Right.

And I left Andy high, to stay
in contact with Danang.

And I went down on the deck.

And I saw this big river
coming out of the mountain.

And I thought I'll go up that
as a first shot.

And again, if it hadn't been
that you were right in the bend,

because as you fly straight,
I couldn't see down.

But just where you were,
there was a bend in the river.

I made that 90-degree bank

and looked down,
and there on that rock...

A split second!

And this nut sitting down there,
waving at me.

And I thought that was nice
and flew on.

I must have gone
5 or 10 minutes,

and I'll never know
whatever made me come back.

But something just didn't
settle right, that...

I guess you, it wasn't
a conscious effort, but...

Natives don't...

Hang on and wave to you.

Wave to me
on a fully loaded airplane.

So, I came back,

and when you were there
the second time, waving...

I really wasn't
sure what it was...

And...

You know that piece
of white material,

you know where it came from?

-The flare.
-The flare.

Actually, it wasn't the flare.
About five days before...

You know,
I had gone down to a village,

and the Americans saw it,

and they dropped flares, and it
was one of those parachutes.

And I had already given up...

It looked like fishing nets
from where I was.

Well, I'll tell ya,
I pulled that sucker down,

and I had that thing
in my little backpack.

And when I heard an airplane,
I didn't even look up.

All I could do
is reach back there.

That's when I pulled that
white piece of material out.

I was thinking,
"SOS. SOS."

"How does it go,
does the S go this way?

Or the S go this way?"

And I ripped my pants off,
trying to lay it down.

And every so often I would
look up and you were

way in the corner
between the clouds.

I thought, "Oh, God.
Please don't let him leave.

Please don't let him leave."
I was laying out this SOS.

And as I came back
around the next time,

I asked Andy
if he could see anything,

and that's when
he saw the parachute

and said, "It looks like he
has an SOS." Well, that...

gave us both the clue that...
someone was down there,

and the fact that you were there
after three passes...

So, we pulled off
to the side,

and I called the crown aircraft,

which is the C-121 controller
in that area.

And I asked them if anyone
had been shot down.

They said there was no
Air Force, no Navy, no Marine,

no Laotians, no Thai.

And I said, well... insisted
that someone was down there,

and they said,
"Well, it couldn't be."

And a long
conversation went on.

But we finally got approval,

and they got the rescue
helicopters, two of them.

And the aircraft on the coast
escorted them in.

I took the lead helicopter
when they got in sight.

Put him down and told him
where you were, and went out.

And that's when he dropped
his long range tank

up the river from you.

That's the first time I realized
it was for real.

Because, you know, I was
hallucinating all this time.

And when I smelled
that gasoline,

I knew it was for real.

And he couldn't get down very
low because of the mountain.

And he dropped
the penetrator cable down,

and I saw you climbing aboard.

And it was then that my heart
began to beat, I'll tell you.

Well, you know,

I couldn't even pull down
the zip on the penetrator.

I had it in my armpit
as I was going up.

The helicopter had come in, and
all the trees and the bushes...

...blowing me around down there,

and I had a hard time
catching that.

As I was going up, I was just
going around and around.

They were taking off
because the Vietcongs,

they were shooting up at them.

The guys up there
had the machine guns,

not only on them,
but also on me,

because they thought
that I might be a Vietcong.

They probably had
the same idea I had.

Not recognizing
Dieter as an American,

and fearing he
might be a Vietcong

on a suicide mission,

a black corporal on board
the helicopter

threw his weight of 300 pounds

upon the skeleton
that was left of Dieter,

and wrestled him to the floor.

The previous day

Dieter had seen a snake
swimming in the water,

and had bitten it in two
from hunger.

Searching for explosives,

the corporal pulled
out half a snake

from under Dieter's shirt.

It gave him such a shock

that he fell halfway out
of the helicopter,

and had to be rescued himself.

So, as he started to pull away,
and I saw you going in,

and the thing didn't blow up,

I gave a great sigh of relief,
I'll tell you that!

That scared me. I thought my
career would be over if that...

And as they went away,

I asked 'em if they could
identify you.

And they said that they didn't
know who it was,

but he claimed that
he was a Navy lieutenant

that had been shot down
several months before.

And I'll tell you, my heart
gave a sigh of relief.

♪♪

Dieter wanted to be back with
the fleet, back on his ship.

He had been taken
to the hospital in Danang.

He was safe now,

but he was sure
this was only a dream.

For him,
this was just a mirage.

He wanted to run, and they
had to tie him to his bed.

So, his friends came
and snuck him out

and brought him
back to the carrier.

The elevator took him down
to the hanger bay.

It was a drizzly day,

and there had been hardly
anyone on deck.

But there was
something strange,

something
almost eerie about the fact

that no one was there.

Unknownst to myself, the Admiral
had assembled about...

4,000 people up here
in the hanger bay.

They were waiting for me,

and I was thinking that nobody
would know that I was alive.

That this was going
to be a total surprise.

So, the airplane was...

The engine was turned off.
The airplane was pulled in here.

We came over here.

There was just a...
load of these people.

4,000 guys were waiting.

They opened... the door,
there was a red carpet.

And the yelling
and the screaming started.

It was such an emotional moment.
I just can't really describe it.

The tears!

All my friends that I'd been
through flight training with.

Norman, Spook...

Farcas, Lizard.
They all were there.

Tears were rolling... hugging.

And finally, I was
on the aircraft carrier,

they were all my buddies.

The other pilots there, they did
everything they could for me.

It was just unreal.
The Admiral packed his bag.

He left. He said, "Dieter, my
quarters are your quarters."

I slept in his bed.

At nights, I would have dreams,
I would yell and scream.

My friends would tie me down,

they even got
afraid of me sometimes.

So, they finally figured it out,

and they would take me
up in a cockpit.

At nights, they would take me up
on top of the carrier deck,

and they would pack
me into a cockpit,

put two or three pillows
next to me.

That's where I felt safe.

That's where
I felt... truly, truly safe.

And then I would sleep
in there.

In fact, later on,
when I was on different bases,

sometimes at nights
I would come down,

and I would go
to an aircraft cockpit,

and I would just bed in there,
and I would sleep in there.

And I brought you here to show
you all these airplanes.

I mean, this is a heaven
for pilots.

I mean, just look around.

In every directions,
there's just miles,

and miles and miles
of airplanes.

Everywhere! Here,
miles and miles...

God! Look at the cockpits!
These are just fantastic!

These are just really, really,
truly beautiful.

And one could really
feel at home here.

This is just a heaven
for a pilot.

♪♪