Trent Lott from Mississippi? No way!! Are you thinking of Jeremiah Denton?
From Wikipedia: (snip)
Jeremiah Andrew Denton, Jr. (July 15, 1924 – March 28, 2014) was a Rear Admiral and Naval Aviator in the United States Navy and, following his retirement from naval service, was a United States Senator from the state of Alabama.
He spent almost eight years as a prisoner of war (POW) in North Vietnam and later wrote a book that became a film about those experiences. Denton is best known from this period of his life for the 1966 televised press conference in which he was forced to participate as an American POW by his North Vietnamese captors. He used the opportunity to communicate successfully and to confirm for the first time to the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence and Americans that American POWs were being tortured in North Vietnam. He repeatedly blinked his eyes in Morse code during the interview, spelling out the word "T-O-R-T-U-R-E".
It appears you are correct. I had the wrong name. Thank you. I wanted to make a point, but not with incorrect information.