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Duane Whitney Martin (January 2, 1940 - July 3, 1966) was an American Air Force officer and prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. On September 20, 1965, Martin took off from Thailand on a rescue mission with fellow Americans Captain Thomas J. Curtis, Sergeant William A. Robinson, and Crewchief Arthur Black. After reaching the border, their Kaman HH-43 Huskie received ground fire and crashed in the jungle. Curtis, Robinson, and Black were all captured by the North Vietnamese Army and taken to a POW camp in North Vietnam. They were later released during Operation Homecoming. Martin, on the other hand was captured by the Pathet Lao and taken to a POW camp in Laos. There, he joined fellow prisoners Eugene DeBruin (American), Pisidhi Indradat, Prasit Promsuwan, Prasit Dhanee (all Thai), and Y.C. To (Chinese). They were joined in February 1966 by Dieter Dengler. On June 29, 1966, while the guards were eating, the group slipped out of their hand and foot restraints and grabbed the guard's unattended weapons. The Pathet Lao guards spotted some of the other prisoners trying to escape. A shootout between the two sides ensued and Dengler killed at least three of the guards. The seven prisoners split into three groups: Indradat, and the other Thai prisoners; DeBruin stayed with To, who had been too ill to continue with the escape; Dengler and Martin headed for the Mekong River to escape to Thailand. Several days after the escape, Martin and Dengler were hiding out near a Akha village. Martin had a bout with malaria and was severely weakened. He was further demoralized when an attempt to signal a C-130 flareship that came over them produced no results. He told Dengler that he was going to die. Later that day he told Dengler that he was going to try to steal some food from the village. Dengler told him it would be suicide but accompanied him on the venture. As they neared the village, they encountered a boy playing with a dog. The boy alerted the village of their presence and a villager came running toward them with a machete. He knelt down on the trail with his hands clasped before them in supplication, but the man swung at Martin, first hitting him in the leg. His second swing struck Martin in the back of the neck, killing him. Dengler managed to escape back into the jungle and was rescued several weeks later. Other than Dengler, Indradat was the only known survivor. The rest of the prisoners are still unaccounted for. [edit] External links[edit] References
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