1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,520 [dramatic music] 2 00:00:02,840 --> 00:00:06,820 [explosions] 3 00:00:06,940 --> 00:00:09,440 (Kathy Ensch) I had no idea he was being shot at. 4 00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:12,200 (Jack Ensch) There were two MiG-19s coming right at us. 5 00:00:12,300 --> 00:00:13,780 [explosions] 6 00:00:13,780 --> 00:00:16,420 (Kathy Ensch) Because I remember a cocktail party when they came home, and we were all 7 00:00:16,420 --> 00:00:17,880 standing around talking and -- 8 00:00:17,880 --> 00:00:21,240 (Jack Ensch) We could pull back in like that -- got a shot on him, shot him down. 9 00:00:21,600 --> 00:00:24,720 (Kathy Ensch) The guys were talking about being shot at and that kind of thing. 10 00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:27,660 (Jack Ensch) We rolled over behind him, shot him off at his tail and 11 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:29,660 saved them from getting shot down. 12 00:00:29,750 --> 00:00:33,840 (Kathy Ensch) To me, he was on a ship, he wasn't in combat, you know, that kind of, that was the way 13 00:00:33,850 --> 00:00:35,190 I was thinking about it, anyway. 14 00:00:35,190 --> 00:00:37,500 (Jack Ensch) I think we got two desserts in the ward room that day. 15 00:00:37,500 --> 00:00:38,480 [chuckles] 16 00:00:39,420 --> 00:00:42,100 [narration] Sidewinder missile response. [explosion] 17 00:00:44,660 --> 00:00:49,560 (Jack Ensch) As we crossed the beach this time, we didn't get a vector, we 18 00:00:49,560 --> 00:00:54,080 got greeted by a number of surface to air missile batteries firing at us. 19 00:00:54,080 --> 00:00:56,500 (Kathy Ensch) And I knew immediately what it was, the black car. 20 00:00:56,500 --> 00:01:00,800 (Jack Ensch) I had my hand up in the handhold like this to pull myself up from the G's we were pulling. 21 00:01:00,860 --> 00:01:03,400 (Kathy Ensch) And all they could tell me that night, was that -- 22 00:01:03,400 --> 00:01:04,680 (Jack Ensch) And then all of a sudden -- 23 00:01:04,680 --> 00:01:06,900 (Kathy Ensch) The plane went down, and they had seen two chutes ... 24 00:01:06,900 --> 00:01:11,880 (Jack Ensch) There's this huge explosion, and everything, and one of the SAMs went off right over the cockpit. 25 00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:14,600 (Kathy Ensch) ... and that Jack's status was missing in action. 26 00:01:15,660 --> 00:01:24,220 (Jack Ensch) Next thing I know, I'm sitting there, in my cockpit, and my hand here was, the shards 27 00:01:24,229 --> 00:01:30,003 of the canopy, and the shrapnel had partially severed my left thumb, and it just landed 28 00:01:30,003 --> 00:01:31,500 in my lap, and bleeding all over the place. 29 00:01:31,500 --> 00:01:33,450 I can remember my words that day too. 30 00:01:33,450 --> 00:01:36,170 I said, "Oh my god, no." 31 00:01:36,170 --> 00:01:40,080 So I reached down with my good hand, and ejected us both out of the airplane. 32 00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:43,920 (Kathy Ensch) One minute you're thinking, "Well, I'll never see him again, what am I gonna do with my 33 00:01:43,920 --> 00:01:47,630 life? What's the future, that, what am I gonna do with these children?" That kind of thing, 34 00:01:47,630 --> 00:01:50,620 and then the next minute I'm thinking, "Oh no, he'll make it, I know he's gonna make it." 35 00:01:50,620 --> 00:01:57,000 (Jack Ensch) I can remember the kick in the butt from the ejection, and then, the next thing I remember 36 00:01:57,009 --> 00:01:58,860 is hanging in my chute. 37 00:01:58,860 --> 00:02:03,280 (Kathy Ensch) And after that, I just couldn't handle it any longer, I finally said to myself, "As far 38 00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:06,920 as I'm concerned, Jack is alive until the Navy tells me he's dead." 39 00:02:06,920 --> 00:02:12,600 (Jack Ensch) The wind blast when I hit the windscreen, dislocated both elbows, and pushed them about 40 00:02:12,600 --> 00:02:20,340 half way up inside of each armpit, and of course, this mangled hand is hanging with it like that. 41 00:02:20,340 --> 00:02:22,700 So I couldn't do anything. 42 00:02:22,700 --> 00:02:23,940 I heard some strange noises, like pew, pew, pew, 43 00:02:23,940 --> 00:02:24,900 [guns firing] 44 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:28,840 going around me, and I realized what that was, was the people on the ground 45 00:02:28,840 --> 00:02:30,319 were shooting at me. 46 00:02:30,320 --> 00:02:37,060 So, I pretty much put myself in the hands of God, right there I thought, "This is it," you know. 47 00:02:39,780 --> 00:02:44,860 I landed in a rice paddy, the water around me continued to splash where they were shooting 48 00:02:44,870 --> 00:02:48,530 at me still, and they're yelling and they're screaming, and a bunch of them come over, 49 00:02:48,530 --> 00:02:54,240 pull me up on the dry land. They strip me of all my equipment and my flight suit, down 50 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:59,739 to my shorts and tee shirt, blindfolded me, threw me in the back of a truck, and covered me 51 00:02:59,739 --> 00:03:01,750 up with a tarpaulin and drove all night. 52 00:03:01,750 --> 00:03:07,989 I ended up at the Hanoi Hilton, and they took me into this operating room, strapped me down 53 00:03:07,989 --> 00:03:14,650 to the table, took the gauze off like that, and looked at it, and took a scalpel and amputated my thumb. 54 00:03:14,650 --> 00:03:18,459 The doctor came over and put his foot on my chest, and started grabbing my arms, and pulling 55 00:03:18,460 --> 00:03:22,320 on them until they were snapped back into place like that. 56 00:03:22,320 --> 00:03:25,340 Blindfolded me, took me back, and put me back in that room. 57 00:03:25,340 --> 00:03:30,380 I was in with a group of other POWs for the rest of my time there. 58 00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:36,060 (Kathy Ensch) My one-year-old, she didn't understand at all. 59 00:03:36,069 --> 00:03:37,680 The four-year-old was just confused. 60 00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:44,989 (Jack Ensch) Does she know that I'm even alive, you Know? Because as it turns out, I was listed as missing 61 00:03:44,989 --> 00:03:49,981 in action from August until December of that year. 62 00:03:49,981 --> 00:03:53,310 (Kathy Ensch) But the seven-year-old was quite involved, and she, she was very upset. 63 00:03:53,310 --> 00:03:58,240 (Jack Ensch) I figured that my fight time was over, you know, I'd probably never get back in a cockpit. 64 00:03:58,340 --> 00:04:00,940 (Kathy Ensch) And Beth hadn't done any of her work. 65 00:04:00,940 --> 00:04:06,820 Her workbooks had pictures of planes crashing, and parachutes coming down. 66 00:04:06,980 --> 00:04:12,000 (Jack Ensch) So a lot of that stuff went through my mind, "What am I gonna do, am I gonna be able to continue my career? 67 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:16,760 What are ... what is the family gonna think of me when I get back?" 68 00:04:16,760 --> 00:04:18,650 (Kathy Ensch) I was so disappointed in that 69 00:04:18,650 --> 00:04:22,000 teacher, because she really didn't -- she should have let me know. 70 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:25,840 (Jack Ensch) And also thoughts about, you know, "Are we gonna be released," you know. 71 00:04:27,880 --> 00:04:32,610 (Kathy Ensch) I remember the phone call, that was what I remember -- that I was so happy to hear his 72 00:04:32,610 --> 00:04:36,250 voice, I mean, it had been almost a year since I've talked to him, and heard his voice. 73 00:04:36,250 --> 00:04:43,210 (Jack Ensch) They outfitted us with our own service uniforms, and got to make a phone call home, 74 00:04:43,210 --> 00:04:45,680 and get some real, real food. 75 00:04:45,680 --> 00:04:48,070 (Kathy Ensch) We had to wait, and it was cold. 76 00:04:48,070 --> 00:04:51,180 (Jack Ensch) Throngs of people standing there to welcome us home. 77 00:04:51,180 --> 00:04:54,440 (Kathy Ensch) We waited, and then when the plane landed, it was so exciting, and there were 78 00:04:54,440 --> 00:05:00,340 only two men coming home that day, Jack and Ted Triebel, and the girls just couldn't get 79 00:05:00,340 --> 00:05:04,700 enough. They were climbing all over daddy's legs, and so on, and his mother, 80 00:05:04,700 --> 00:05:05,200 and I'm sure we were all in tears. 81 00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:12,400 (Jack Ensch) We all came home together, in the last group of POWs on 29 March, 1973. 82 00:05:14,140 --> 00:05:21,020 (Kathy Ensch) I think it was really good for me to, um -- it helped my self confidence, and I think it helped our 83 00:05:21,020 --> 00:05:26,820 relationship, in that I think Jack appreciated me, and I certainly thought 84 00:05:26,820 --> 00:05:32,685 the world of him. I always have, but admired his experience that he had, 85 00:05:32,685 --> 00:05:35,780 and admired how he handled it as well. 86 00:05:35,780 --> 00:05:40,860 [soft piano music]