Jeremiah Andrew Denton Jr. (July 15, 1924 – March 28, 2014) was an American politician and United States Navy two-star admiral who served as a U.S. senator representing Alabama from 1981 to 1987. He was the first Republican to be popularly elected to a Senate seat in Alabama.
During the Vietnam War, Denton spent almost eight years as an American prisoner of war (POW) in North Vietnam after the A-6 Intruder he was piloting suffered severe damage resulting from a defective bomb, which detonated as he released his payload in 1965. He was the first of the American POWs released by Hanoi to step off an American plane during Operation Homecoming on February 12, 1973. As one of the earliest and highest-ranking officers to be taken prisoner in North Vietnam, Denton was forced by his captors to participate in a 1966 televised propaganda interview which was broadcast in the United States. While answering questions and feigning trouble with the blinding television lights, Denton blinked his eyes in Morse code, spelling the word "T-O-R-T-U-R-E"—and confirming for the first time to U.S. Naval Intelligence that American POWs were being tortured.
In 1976, Denton wrote When Hell Was in Session about his experience in captivity, which was made into the 1979 film with Hal Holbrook. Denton was also the subject of the 2015 documentary Jeremiah produced by Alabama Public Television.
In 1980, Denton was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he focused mainly on family issues and national security, helping pass the Adolescent Family Life Act (the so-called "Chastity Bill") in 1981 and heading the Judiciary Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism.
In 2019, the United States Secretary of the Navy announced that an upcoming Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer would be named in Denton's honor. Construction on USS Jeremiah Denton (DDG-129) began in August 2022 and the ship was launched in March 2025. Additionally, an airport on Dauphin Island was named the Jeremiah Denton Airport in honor of Denton and his service in the military.
Jeremiah Andrew Denton Jr. was born July 15, 1924, in Mobile, Alabama, the oldest of three brothers, and the son of Jeremiah Sr. and Irene (Steele) Denton. He attended McGill Institute (Class of 1942) and Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama. His grandmother, Irene Claudia Jackson, was the granddaughter of Roxana Virginia Hollinger, the daughter of Alexander Hollinger. Alexander Hollinger was the brother-in-law of Congressman George Washington Owen, the first member of Congress elected from Mobile in a district containing Mobile. Alexander Hollinger was the brother of Owen's wife Sarah Louise Hollinger.
In June 1943, he entered the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and graduated three years later in the accelerated Class of 1947 on June 5, 1946, with a Bachelor of Science degree, the same class as future president Jimmy Carter.
His 34-year naval career included service on a variety of ships and on aircraft, including airships. His principal field of endeavor was naval operations. He also served as a test pilot, flight instructor, and commanding officer of an attack squadron flying the A-6 Intruder.
In 1957, he was credited with revolutionizing naval strategy and tactics for nuclear war as architect of the "Haystack Concept." This strategy called for concealing aircraft carriers from radar by intermingling with commercial shipping and avoiding formations suggestive of a naval fleet. The strategy was simulated in maneuvers and demonstrated effectiveness, allowing two aircraft carrier fleets thirty-five simulated atomic launches before aggressor aircraft and submarines could repel them. He went on to serve on the staff of the Commander, U.S. Sixth Fleet at the rank of Commander (O-5) as Fleet Air Defense Officer.
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. In 1964, he received the degree of Master of Arts in international affairs from George Washington University's School of Public and International Affairs in Washington, D.C.
Denton served as a United States Naval Aviator during the Vietnam War. In February 1965, he became the Prospective Commanding Officer of Attack Squadron Seventy-Five serving aboard aircraft carrier USS Independence (CV-62).
On July 18, 1965, Commander Denton was piloting his A-6A Intruder jet (BUNO 151577) while leading a 28-aircraft bombing mission over North Vietnam off the Independence which was stationed in the South China Sea. He and LTJG Bill Tschudy, his bombardier/navigator, were forced to eject from their plane, damaged by one of their own Mark 82 bombs exploding shortly after its release after which it went down out of control near the city of Thanh Hoa in North Vietnam. Both men were quickly captured and taken prisoner.
Denton and Tschudy were held as prisoners of war for almost eight years, four of which were spent in solitary confinement. During the Hanoi March in July 1966, he and over 50 other American prisoners were paraded through the streets of Hanoi and beaten by North Vietnamese civilians. In 1966, he was forced to participate in a televised press conference by his North Vietnamese captors. He used the opportunity to send a distress message confirming for the first time to the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence and Americans that American POWs were being tortured in North Vietnam. He repeatedly blinked his eyes in Morse code during the interview, spelling out the word "T-O-R-T-U-R-E". He was also questioned about his support for the U.S. war effort in Vietnam, to which he replied: "I don't know what is happening, but whatever the position of my government is, I support it fully. Whatever the position of my government, I believe in it, yes, sir. I am a member of that government, and it is my job to support it, and I will as long as I live." While a prisoner, he was promoted to the rank of captain. Denton was later awarded the Navy Cross for heroism and the Purple Heart for wounds incurred while a prisoner of war.
Denton was first sent to the Hỏa Lò Prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton", and was later transferred to the Cu Loc Detention Center, nicknamed the "Zoo". In 1967 he was transferred to a prison nicknamed "Alcatraz". Here, he became part of a group of American POWs known as the "Alcatraz Gang". The group consisted of George Coker, Harry Jenkins, Sam Johnson, George McKnight, James Mulligan, Howard Rutledge, Robert Shumaker, James Stockdale (who had graduated with Denton from the Naval Academy), Ronald Storz, and Nels Tanner. They were put in "Alcatraz" and solitary confinement to separate them from other POWs because their strong resistance led other POWs in resisting their captors. "Alcatraz" was a special facility in a courtyard behind the North Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense, located about one mile away from Hoa Lo Prison. Each of the American POWs spent day and night in windowless 3-by-9-foot (0.91 m × 2.74 m) cells mostly in legcuffs.
On February 12, 1973, both Denton and Tschudy were released in Hanoi by the North Vietnamese along with numerous other American POWs during Operation Homecoming. Stepping off the jet back home in uniform, Denton said: "We are honored to have had the opportunity to serve our country under difficult circumstances. We are profoundly grateful to our Commander-in-Chief and to our nation for this day. God bless America." The speech has a prominent place in the 1987 documentary, Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam.
Denton was briefly hospitalized at the Naval Hospital Portsmouth, Virginia, and then was assigned to the Commander, Naval Air Forces, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, from February to December 1973. In January 1974, Denton became the commandant of the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk (now known as the Joint Forces Staff College), to June 1977. His final assignment was as special assistant to the Chief of Naval Education and Training at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, from June 1977 until his retirement from the Navy on November 1, 1977, with the rank of Rear Admiral.