"Let us, for one moment, set politics aside.
On October 26, 1967, at the height of the Vietnam War, Lt. John McCain was flying his A-4 Skyhawk on a mission to bomb a Hanoi power plant when a missile tore through his plane. As the Skyhawk flipped and plummeted toward a lake, he ejected from it upside down, breaking both arms and smashing his right leg so badly the bone protruded sideways from the skin. He struck his head and was knocked unconscious.
Waking deep underwater and unable to use his shattered arms, he used his teeth to deploy his life jacket, then used his unbroken leg to propel himself to the surface. He was dragged to shore, where a mob of Vietnamese soldiers stripped him naked, bayoneted him in the groin and foot, and rammed him so hard with a rifle butt that they broke his shoulder.
He was taken into captivity, deprived of medical treatment, and interrogated relentlessly, even as he repeatedly fell unconscious. On the verge of death, he refused to offer any useful information. Transferred to the notorious "Hanoi Hilton," he was beaten, then placed in a tiny cell alone. He would be there for two years.
When McCain's father received a promotion to the role of commander of Pacific forces, his captors, hoping to use him for propaganda, offered to release him. To accept would be a violation of the military code of conduct; no soldier could go before those captured before him. He replied that he would only go if all other POWs captured before him were released. An enraged Vietnamese commandant ordered soldiers to bash his teeth out. Still McCain refused.
The Vietnamese persisted, and the torture intensified. Attacked every two hours day after day, he was twisted and tied into excruciating "stress positions" and forced to lie in his own excrement. He was beaten so savagely that his body was a jumble of snapped bones. He attempted suicide, but was stopped by the guards.
After four days of this, he could go on no longer. He signed a "confession" to being a "black criminal" who was saved by the Vietnamese. Forced to read the confession on audio, he deliberately made grammatical errors and spoke awkwardly to signal that he was making the statement under torture. Feeling profoundly ashamed, he resolved to resist no matter what the consequence. When tortured to sign a second statement, he refused. He never gave in again.
He continued to be defiant. When beaten, he'd scream obscenities at his captors. Asked to name his squadronmates, he gave the names of the Green Bay Packers offensive line. During a fake church service filmed for propaganda, he called out that he was being tortured, gave the finger to the camera, and shouted "Fuuuuu-- you, son of a b----!"
McCain was good to his word, and remained until the Peace Accords of 1973 freed all prisoners. He'd been held for five and a half years. He returned to America severely crippled by his injuries, his hair having turned white. Physically, he would never recover. For the rest of his life, he would be unable to raise his arms high enough to comb his hair.
Yesterday, upon learning of his death, Hanoi residents floated flowers on the lake in which McCain had been captured.
True heroes are few and far between. John McCain was one. Godspeed." - Laura Hillenbrand
Blogs & Forums
