Little Dieter Needs to Fly

Dengler remembers Allied fighter-bombers flattening his village in the postwar years, an event that left him with a sense of hunger and deprivation. He says seeing a fighter pilot fly past his house inspired him to want to be a pilot. The memory frames his later pursuit of flight as a response to hardship.

As a young man, Dengler leaves Germany and relocates to the United States. The move marks the first step in his long military career and new life in a country offering opportunity. His experiences of displacement later inform his resilience as a prisoner of war.

Dengler signs up for a two-year enlistment in the U.S. Air Force. Despite serving, he struggles to gain a pilot slot, facing barriers even as he trains. His frustration leads him to leave the Air Force and seek other routes to flight.

After leaving the Air Force, Dengler attends college and later joins the United States Navy. He pursues flight training and sets his sights on becoming a naval aviator.

Dengler completes flight training and is assigned as an A-1 Skyraider pilot in Attack Squadron 65. He serves aboard the aircraft carrier USS Constellation, taking on hazardous missions during the early days of his naval career. The Skyraider's heavy, propeller-driven role suits the era's air warfare.

In 1966, Dengler serves on USS Ranger with Attack Squadron 145, operating the AD-6/A-1H Skyraider. He launches on an interdiction mission near the Laotian border, but poor weather complicates the operation. During the mission he becomes separated from his flight and is hit by anti-aircraft fire.

The morning of February 1, Dengler's flight loses sight of wingmen in bad visibility and is hit by anti-aircraft fire. He is forced to crash-land his Skyraider in Laos. The crash leaves him stranded behind enemy lines and his crew mates dispersed.

Dengler is captured by Pathet Lao soldiers and handed over to the North Vietnamese Army. He endures torture and starvation, shackled to six other prisoners in a bamboo stockade. The brutal conditions test his endurance and resolve.

Dengler makes a perilous escape from captivity and evades pursuit through the jungle. His survival is aided by a combination of resourcefulness and luck, and he is ultimately spotted by USAF pilot Eugene Deatrick, who coordinates his rescue. The escape marks a turning point in his ordeal.

The core of the film follows Herzog's on-location trip with Dengler to Laos and Thailand to recreate the ordeal decades later. Herzog hires locals to portray the captors and has Dengler narrate his experiences while retracing the steps he endured. The on-location re-enactment blurs memory, memory, and reality.

A postscript using footage from Dengler's funeral in 2001 was later added to the documentary, providing closure for the narrative. The footage links Dengler's life to his memorial and reflects Herzog's reflective approach to his subject. It adds a final, poignant note to the story's arc.

Herzog later directed Rescue Dawn, a feature-film adaptation of Dengler's capture, imprisonment, escape, and rescue. Christian Bale stars as Dengler, bringing the harrowing events to a broader audience. The film was released on July 24, 2007.