25 Years: Nephew Remembers P.O.W. Navy Pilot Dieter Dengler Who Escaped Vietnam

It’s been 25 years since P.O.W. Navy Pilot Dieter Dengler passed. It’s been decades longer since he was held as a prisoner of war in the jungles of Vietnam.

Dieter is one of the roughly 2.7 million Americans who served in uniform in Vietnam between 1955 and 1975. It’s been estimated that approximately 58,220 U.S. military members died in the Vietnam War, mostly between 1965 and 1973. That number exceeds 58,300 based on all the names listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., which includes those missing in action.

The German-born U.S. aviator has been hailed as a hero. After being shot down over Laos he was captured and imprisoned for six months, enduring torture. But he managed to escape out of the enemy's grasp, spending 23 days on the run and becoming the second captured U.S. airman to escape in Vietnam.

The escape was reenacted on the big screen in writer-director Werner Herzog’s 2006 war drama Rescue Dawn, which starred actor Christian Bale who played the role of Dengler.

Following the 25th anniversary of Dengler’s passing, Military.com spoke with Dengler’s nephew, Matthäus Dengler, about how he remembers his uncle before and after his valiant escape.

War-Torn Childhood in Germany

Matthäus Dengler’s parents came from Germany while his grandparents on his mother's side are from Ireland. He currently lives outside of Sacramento in a town called El Dorado Hills and works in the medical industry.

Dieter had two brothers, Klaus and Martin—the latter being the father of Matthäus.

Dieter lived in Vellberg, Germany, about 45 minutes outside of Stuttgart. There was a glider school there with about 500 people consisting of old men, women and children.

There were no young men as they were all sent to war. Every time an air raid would go off, some 500 people or so would go into the woods. Pilots would fly to Stuttgart, a heavy industrial area that would be bombarded by enemy forces.

“That's when Dieter fell in love flying by watching the bombing raids,” Matthäus said. “The planes would come down and head to Stuttgart, and he was just fascinated with planes. 

“And that's when he said, ‘OK, one day I'm going to be a pilot.' That was his dream, and that was at an early age, and it was because of the war. It was kind of ironic that these guys are bombing Germany, and it's inspiring him to do something similar, to be a pilot.”

At age 18, with barely a dollar in his pocket, Dieter went to the United States. He enlisted initially in the Air Force, but after “two years of changing tires” he transferred to the Navy.

A Positive Attitude

Even after what he went through, Dieter Dengler always had a sunny disposition.

“He always was pretty special and very unique…he was so fun,” Matthäus said. “He was always a center of attraction. He had enormous energy, like, he never slowed down. He was always doing something. 

“A lot of people were like, ‘Oh, he lives like that because he came so close to death.’ Like, just cherish every moment. But that's not true. He lived like that his whole life. He just was very optimistic, very energetic, and just pretty much like on the go.”

Matthäus recalled a story from when he was in first grade and Dieter was asked to come and talk to the class about his wartime experience. Dieter mentioned how he attained sustenance by eating bugs and spiders.

Naturally, the schoolchildren asked Dieter if he would eat spiders in front of the class. Dieter obliged and told them to go find some outdoors.

“So, the kids ran outside and got like four or five spiders,” Matthäus said. “I still remember today, Dieter ate that in front of the class. Like, ‘Yeah, this is good.’ He was entertaining, he was fun, he was kind of crazy that way.”

Thinking Outside the Box

Dieter was a fixture at family events and consistently maintained a strong relationship with his brother, Martin, who owned a bakery. He would always be around because as Matthäus described, “they only had each other.”

Financial creativity was also one of Dieter’s assets. In the 1970s, Dieter owned the Mountain Home Inn on the peak of Mount Tamalpais in Mill Valley, Calif. The inn, by then sold by Dengler in the 1980s, hit the market again 40-plus years later in August 2024 when it was listed for $4.9 million.

“It is a beautiful spot, [it] overlooks all of the Bay Area,” Matthäus said. “He parceled it off and built a house next door, and people went crazy. They're like, ‘Wait a minute, you can't build on the top of the hill.’ But he could because he bought the restaurant. 

“Nobody had thought about buying the restaurant and partitioning off a lot. He was very creative in making money.”

Dieter also purchased property in Sausalito. While a pilot and always on the go, he would rent out a separate garage-turned-living space to make more income.

A Full Life Combining Tragedy and Resoluteness

The story of Dieter Dengler shifted in the eyes of Matthäus as he himself got older.

While being told of his “hero” uncle throughout his childhood, the glitz and glamour of the stories became more chiseled. As Matthäus described, his uncle “barely made it out of Vietnam.”

“I think he was 170 [pounds] when he left and he was 93 pounds when he was finally rescued,” Matthäus said. “So, it was much more tragic. As I got older, I realized his World War II experience as a child.”

Dieter’s ability to survive, at least in Matthäus’ eyes, stemmed from his childhood and what his mother taught him in the Black Forest. 

“I 100% think that was a characteristic that changed the way he looked at life,” Matthäus said. “Being a kid and seeing death all around was probably a little bit easier to comprehend and process than somebody who never did [see those things].”

Matthäus’ mother would share how Dieter’s feet were gigantically swollen for months after his escape. Sometimes, he even had major welts that turned into pus—where bugs would crawl out of his skin.

As years passed by, Matthäus saw more truth behind his uncle’s experience. As he described, "It wasn't an action movie."

“My perception of Dieter changed from being like a Rambo, going to Vietnam, kicking everybody's a**** to no, it wasn't like that,” he said. “It was tragic. He was severely tortured, inhumane treatment. And it showed me kind of like how bad war is. … My family has been devastated from war.”

It piqued Matthäus’ own self-reflection about war and the world, saying that he developed an appreciation and understanding of how violent and terrible war can be. Dieter grew up in a war-torn environment and then barely made it out alive in another part of the world.

“As I learned what Dieter had to go through, I just became more educated on it and more aware,” he said. “And so even though I wanted to be a pilot, but my mom was so opposed to the military. She's like, ‘No, I never would want you to go through what Dieter went through.’

“And she didn't forbid it, but she was so against it. She's like, ‘I don't want you doing it.’”

On the other hand, Matthäus gained confidence just by having Dieter as his uncle. Public speaking, for example, became a bit easier because he compared that to what Dieter went through just to survive and it minimized the fear and maximized courage.

And 25 years later, the memories remain.

“That was the joke that my friends would always use: ‘What would Dieter do?’ Or, ‘If Dieter can do this, we can do this,’” Matthäus said. “We would use that as a little slogan to motivate us, to give us more passion, more results.

“I did use that a lot and I still use it to this day. Does it feel like it's been 25 years since he's been gone? No, because he was bigger than life; he had this enormous personality. I constantly think of him.”