Capt. Martin evaded immediate capture but was subsequently captured by the Pathet Lao and
ended up imprisoned in the Houai Het Prison. The Houai Het Prison was located about 1.5 kilometers from the village Ban Kantalouang, Khammouan Province, Laos.
This camp already housed Eugene DeBruin, Prasit Promsuwan, Prasit Dhanee,
To Yick Chiu and Pisidhi Indradat; the surviving five crewmen from an Air
America C46 aircraft shot down in 1963. At some point prior to February 1966, a
Navy A-1 Pilot Lt. JG Dieter Dengler arrived at the camp. Immediately upon arrival,
Dengler urged that an immediate escape attempt should be made. All of the other prisoners, with the exception of
Martin, argued that it would be better to wait for the Spring monsoons. They maintained that it would be easier to travel.
Martin and Dengler agreed with this decision.During the waiting period a new commandant whom the prisoners nicknamed "Little Hitler" took over the camp. The conditions at the camp worsened under the control of this new commandant. Food, mostly rice, became scarce. Sometimes the prisoners were able to supplement their meager rations with snakes and rats. At other times they were given raw rotten meat. Capt. Martin who had previously evaded capture was constantly
harassed by the guards and was shackled day and night. The physical condition of all the prisoners deteriorated as a result of repeated attacks of
dysentery and other diseases.
On June 29, 1966 the prisoners decided to execute their escape plan. At approximately 4:00 p.m. the prisoners overpowered the guards, gathered up some food and then headed for the top of a small mountain west of the prison camp. It was very slow going to the top of the mountain, especially after dark. All seven of the escaped prisoners reached the top of the mountain around midnight and settled down to rest in the bushes. All seven men slept shoulder-to-shoulder to ward off the cool air which became cold as it started to rain. Early the next morning, the men shook hands and split into three groups.
Martin and Dengler remained together. Both were bare-footed.
Soon after the escape, Capt. Martin was stricken with malaria and several days after that
Dengler contracted jaundice. The two men mindful of their impaired physical condition decided to risk travel along a creek rather than through the dense jungle.
On the evening of July 1, 1966, they managed to build a lean-to and slept there most of the night. During the second day they survived on a handful of rice which they had taken from the prison guards and some snails which they had found along the way. The creek on which they were traveling had high waterfalls with steep walls and cliffs. They followed the creek for two more days. Their travel became increasingly difficult due to the high ridges and cliffs. Painfully they constructed a raft, but lost it in a waterfall.
On what they estimated to be the tenth day after their escape, the two men found an abandoned village. Capt. Martin was now desperately ill with malaria. They decided to stay together in a deserted hut.
The night of the eleventh day and the morning of the twelfth, they floated down a river on a small raft that they had found near the deserted village. As they floated in the darkness, the raft bumped into a man fishing in the river. The fisherman fled and
Dengler and Martin floated for several hundred yards, discarded the raft, then traveled by foot until dawn.
On the afternoon of the twelfth day, they continued to travel until they found another small abandoned village with two or three huts in it. The next morning they found some corn. After eating this, they traveled east over the mountain and to their shock found themselves back at the village where they had picked up the raft. Because Capt. Martin now was too sick to travel, they decided to stay and attempt air contact.
On the morning of the fourteenth day,
Dengler left Martin to locate material to use to make contact with an aircraft. On the fifteenth day he returned and made a signal fire. They prayed that their fire had been seen, but the next day no rescue aircraft came.
On the seventeenth day after their escape, the two men walked and crawled toward what they thought was another abandoned village. They moved on their hands and knees to within twenty feet of a hut. Someone shouted and suddenly a villager leaped from a hidden hut on the right. He carried a long machete which was curved at the end.
Without warning the villager attacked
with his machete. Capt. Martin was slightly ahead of the Navy Lt. in a crouched position. The villager struck Martin twice with his machete. The first blow hit Capt. Martin in the left leg and the second blow hit him at the junction of his left shoulder and neck. Martin collapsed, mortally wounded. The villager swung the
machete at Dengler, but missed. Gathering his strength, he dove into the bush and fled up a gully.
This location was later
determined to be near a Teile Village along the Xe Bangfai, approximately 9 kilometers west of the Lao and Vietnam border, Khammouan Province.
Captain Martin's remains have yet to be repatriated.
Map locating Hoi Het Prison and location where
Martin was killed.
