RIP, Jeremiah Denton, Vietnam Prisoner of War, Model Catholic and Hero

Jeremiah Denton at his homecoming in 1973

I have admired and loved Jeremiah Denton since I read years ago his personal testimony, When Hell Was in Session, about the "Hanoi Hilton." He became famous for blinking in Morse Code the word torture during a propaganda interview televised internationally. I'm not sure whether he wrote this in his book or I saw it in a later article, but I was struck by his description of the trauma of returning to the U.S. After eight years as a POW he arrived home and driving from the airport was shocked at billboards and other signs of a growing depravity in our country.

Suppose someone who died in the '50s was miraculously raised and returned today? What do you think he would say about the country and world we live in? How would he respond to front page news? What would he say about security at our airports, not to mention in our schools and many public buildings? What would he think about the terrorist barriers erected around the White House and the Capitol? How would he respond to billboards advertising XXX adult bookstores and "gentlemen's clubs?"

If someone showed him videos and articles from Waco, Ruby Ridge, 9/11, the Boston marathon bombing, police murder of innocent people, etc. how would he react? What would he think about public officials shilling for abortion and sodomy?

He would probably think he was dropped into an X-rated, depraved Twilight Zone.

Read Denton's obituary at the Washington Post (linked below). It mentions his establishment of the Coalition for Decency and his efforts to strengthen the American family. I pray he is not the end of a dying breed of courageous Catholic men, but that his heroic example will encourage others to pick up the baton and move forward! May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Jeremiah A. Denton Jr., Vietnam POW and former U.S. senator, dies at 89