Little Dieter Needs to Fly

While growing up in desolated post-WW II Germany, all Dieter Dengler, the son of a Nazi slain during the war, dreamed about was becoming a pilot. At age 18, he left his country with only a few cents to his name and emigrated to the U.S. Landing in San Francisco, he worked odd jobs until he was ...more

More than a tribute to a naval hero, Little Dieter Needs to Fly is an existential biography about one man's dream to become a pilot and how that leads to the unfathomably horrific trial he endures after being shot down and escaping a POW camp in Vietnam. Dieter Dengler's journey through the jungle, battling starvation and the killing of his friend Duane, is engagingly retold as Dengler returns to Vietnam and retraces his steps. The nuances of his emotional journey are open to interpretation. ...more