''When Hell Was in Session'' is a 1975

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on 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 autob ...

by U.S. Navy Rear Admiral

Jeremiah Denton 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 ...

, recounting his experiences as an American

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person 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 war for a ...

(POW) during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

Synopsis

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

North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; ; VNDCCH), was a country in Southeast Asia from 1945 to 1976, with sovereignty fully recognized in 1954 Geneva Conference, 1954. A member of the communist Eastern Bloc, it o ...

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 prim ...

, 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 May 1966, the North Vietnamese allowed a Japanese TV reporter to interview him, where he blinked out the word "torture" in Morse code, confirming the United States suspicions that prisoners were being mistreated during the Vietnam War.

Film adaption, documentary and updated version

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. He first received critical acclaim in 1954 for a one-man stage show that he developed called ''Mark Twain Tonight!'' while studying at Denison University. H ...

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

James Stockdale James Bond Stockdale (December 23, 1923 – July 5, 2005) was a United States Navy Vice admiral (United States), vice admiral and United States naval aviator, aviator who was awarded the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War, during which he was a pr ...

, Larry Guarino, and

James Robinson Risner Brigadier General James Robinson "Robbie" Risner (January 16, 1925 – October 22, 2013) was a 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 group of people that tries to resist or try to overthrow a government or an occupying power, causing disruption and unrest in civil order and stability. Such a movement may seek to achieve its goals through ei ...

from 1965 to 1973, helping POWs accomplish their sworn goal to "return with honor". '' Return with Honor'' was later used as the title of a

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

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 ...

. In November 2009, an updated version of the book was released with the following epilogue from Denton:

Reception

The ''

Library Journal ''Library Journal'' is an American trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey. It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional prac ...

'' said that "while the nature of the material is well calculated to hold the reader's interest, the narrative skips and jumps in a disruptive manner". They also noted that "the author at time becomes overbearingly righteous in his presentation, and the overall impression is one of haste".

References

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 differe ...

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