- Joined
- Jan 19, 2004
- Messages
- 551
The other thread got me re-interested in Dieter Dengler. So, I picked up HERO FOUND and read it yesterday.
It's definitely the most comprehensive work I've seen on Dengler's life, starting from when he was a kid in Germany. It's not just backstory filler, his upbringing really played a part in his escape from Laos.
A very interesting character, I feel the book portrayed him honestly, the good and the bad.
From a survival standpoint, there are many things to learn. Dengler developed a survival mindset early on, by far the most important piece of "gear" you can ever have. When he went to SERE school, he graduated with the distinction of the only one to ever gain weight during the course. He puts Bear Grylls to shame as to what he'd eat. It's funny that when Dengler was rescued, one of the helicopter crewman was so startled when he opened Dengler's ruck, he jumped back and almost fell out of the chopper--it was a half-eaten raw snake:thumbup:
One of the things that struck me about Dengler was while on the carrier in between missions, he was constantly working on contingency plans if shot down and captured. This led to him developing a cover story, custom-making gear and hiding E&E tools on his body. The other pilots sort of thought he was nuts as the prevailing mindset was that pilots don't spend time planning to get shot down. Ironically, Dengler ended up losing much of his gear almost immediately and his cover story wasn't all that effective, primarily because the Laotians didn't know German from English. But he had the mindset of preparation and so much of success is just that--menial, tedious preparation. I've always been a believer that what people call "luck" is just preparation manifesting itself.
The other thing that I noticed in the book was how quickly the government stopped looking for him, even though they inspected his downed plane, saw there was no blood and saw that the straps had been released, not cut. So, obviously he walked away. This was primarily because the government was not acknowledging that we were bombing Laos. There was even some speculation that he just ditched his plane so he could escape the military.
Even once he was finally rescued, the government gave him the 3rd degree, even polygraphing him and giving him "truth serum" to see if he ever did anything against the US while he was in captivity. Like if, in between suffering 2 different types of malaria, hepatitis, dysentery, malnutrition, escape and re-capture, contracting every infection known to man and getting tortured and beat unconscious on a routine basis, he might have signed something saying he didn't approve of the military's actions. Again, even once rescued, the government tried to keep it quiet for awhile.
Those parts just brought home the fact that if you are in a bad situation overseas, you're survival is up to you. Particularly if you're a civilian, don't think everyone in the State Department is running around wringing their hands over just how to get you out of your predicament.
There are many other good parts to the book and I won't bore you guys but if you're interested in survival and the accompanying mindset, you will probably enjoy this book.
It's definitely the most comprehensive work I've seen on Dengler's life, starting from when he was a kid in Germany. It's not just backstory filler, his upbringing really played a part in his escape from Laos.
A very interesting character, I feel the book portrayed him honestly, the good and the bad.
From a survival standpoint, there are many things to learn. Dengler developed a survival mindset early on, by far the most important piece of "gear" you can ever have. When he went to SERE school, he graduated with the distinction of the only one to ever gain weight during the course. He puts Bear Grylls to shame as to what he'd eat. It's funny that when Dengler was rescued, one of the helicopter crewman was so startled when he opened Dengler's ruck, he jumped back and almost fell out of the chopper--it was a half-eaten raw snake:thumbup:
One of the things that struck me about Dengler was while on the carrier in between missions, he was constantly working on contingency plans if shot down and captured. This led to him developing a cover story, custom-making gear and hiding E&E tools on his body. The other pilots sort of thought he was nuts as the prevailing mindset was that pilots don't spend time planning to get shot down. Ironically, Dengler ended up losing much of his gear almost immediately and his cover story wasn't all that effective, primarily because the Laotians didn't know German from English. But he had the mindset of preparation and so much of success is just that--menial, tedious preparation. I've always been a believer that what people call "luck" is just preparation manifesting itself.
The other thing that I noticed in the book was how quickly the government stopped looking for him, even though they inspected his downed plane, saw there was no blood and saw that the straps had been released, not cut. So, obviously he walked away. This was primarily because the government was not acknowledging that we were bombing Laos. There was even some speculation that he just ditched his plane so he could escape the military.
Even once he was finally rescued, the government gave him the 3rd degree, even polygraphing him and giving him "truth serum" to see if he ever did anything against the US while he was in captivity. Like if, in between suffering 2 different types of malaria, hepatitis, dysentery, malnutrition, escape and re-capture, contracting every infection known to man and getting tortured and beat unconscious on a routine basis, he might have signed something saying he didn't approve of the military's actions. Again, even once rescued, the government tried to keep it quiet for awhile.
Those parts just brought home the fact that if you are in a bad situation overseas, you're survival is up to you. Particularly if you're a civilian, don't think everyone in the State Department is running around wringing their hands over just how to get you out of your predicament.
There are many other good parts to the book and I won't bore you guys but if you're interested in survival and the accompanying mindset, you will probably enjoy this book.
