When Hell was in Session is a memoir by Jeremiah Denton, recounting his experiences as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. A United States Naval Aviator, Denton was shot down and captured, spending the next seven years and seven months as a POW. The book was later made into a television movie starring Hal Holbrook. It was adapted by screenwriter Jake Justiz (AKA S Lee Pogostin.)
Denton, along with James Stockdale (another Navy officer who became the vice-presidential running mate of H. Ross Perot during his 1992 presidential campaign), Larry Guarino (an Air Force Major) and James Robinson Risner (an Air Force colonel), distinguished themselves as members of the American POW resistance from 1965-1973, and helped their men accomplish their sworn goal to "return with honor" – a POW battle cry that later was used as the title of a documentary film narrated and produced by Tom Hanks.