''When Hell Was in Session'' is a

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...

by U.S. Navy Rear Admiral

Jeremiah Denton Jeremiah Andrew Denton Jr. (July 15, 1924 – March 28, 2014) was an American politician and military officer who served as a U.S. Senator representing Alabama from 1981 to 1987. He was the first Republican to be popularly elected to a Sena ...

, recounting his experiences as an American

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

(POW) during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. A Navy pilot, Denton's jet was shot down over

North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...

in July 1965. Denton and his

navigator A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's primar ...

, Bill Tschudy, parachuted down and were soon taken prisoner. Both men spent seven years and seven months in North Vietnam as often-tortured POWs. In 1979, the book was made into a television movie starring

Hal Holbrook Harold Rowe Holbrook Jr. (February 17, 1925 – January 23, 2021) was an American actor, television director, and screenwriter. He first received critical acclaim in 1954 for a one-man stage show that he developed called ''Mark Twain Tonight!'' ...

. It was adapted by screenwriter Jake Justiz, also known as Lee Pogostin. Denton,

James Stockdale James Bond "Jim" Stockdale (December 23, 1923 – July 5, 2005) was a United States Navy vice admiral and aviator, awarded the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War, during which he was a prisoner of war for over seven years. Stockdale was the mos ...

(who graduated with Denton at the

Naval Academy A naval academy provides education for prospective naval officers. See also * Military academy A military academy or service academy is an educational institution which prepares candidates for service in the officer corps. It normally pro ...

Larry Guarino Lawrence Nicholas "Larry" Guarino (April 16, 1922 – August 18, 2014) was a United States Air Force officer, and veteran of three wars.Hubbell, John G. ''P.O.W.: A Definitive History of the American Prisoner-of-War Experience in Vietnam, 1964-1 ...

, and

James Robinson Risner James Robinson "Robbie" Risner (January 16, 1925 – October 22, 2013) was a Brigadier General, fighter pilot in the United States Air Force, and a senior leader among U.S. prisoners of war during the Vietnam War. During the Vietnam War, Risner w ...

, distinguished themselves as members of the American POW

resistance movement A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objective ...

from 1965 to 1973, helping POWs accomplish their sworn goal to "return with honor". ''

Return with Honor ''Return with Honor'' is a 1999 documentary film about U.S. prisoners of war during the Vietnam War. Among those profiled is Senator John McCain. It is narrated by Tom Hanks. Directors Freida Lee Mock and Terry Sanders won the Best Film award at ...

'' was later used as the title of a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

released in 2000 about American POWs during the Vietnam War, narrated and produced by actor

Tom Hanks Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Ha ...

External links

*Denton, Jeremiah (1976). ''When Hell Was in Session''.

Reader's Digest Press Reader's Digest Press was a United States publisher of the mid-1960s to early 1980s, owned by The Reader's Digest Association. It published full-length, original non-fiction books, often concerning military or political topics. (It thus differed ...

. . * *{{imdb title, id=0176093, title=Return With Honor 1976 non-fiction books Military autobiographies Vietnam War books Memoirs of imprisonment