From a speech made by Capt. John S. McCain, USN, (Ret) who
represents Arizona in the U.S. Senate:
As you may know, I spent five and one half years as a prisoner
of war during the Vietnam War. In the early years of our imprisonment,
the NVA kept us in solitary confinement or two or three to a
cell. In 1971 the NVA moved us from these conditions of isolation
into large rooms with as many as 30 to 40 men to a room.
This was, as you can imagine, a wonderful change and was
a direct result of the efforts of millions of Americans on behalf
of a few hundred POWs 10,000 miles from home.
One of the men who moved into my room was a young man named
Mike Christian. Mike came from a small town near Selma, Alabama.
He didn't wear a pair of shoes until he was 13 years old. At
17, he enlisted in the US Navy.
He later earned a commission by going to Officer Training
School. Then he became a Naval Flight Officer and was shot down
and captured in 1967.
Mike had a keen and deep appreciation of the opportunities
this country - and our military - provide for people who want
to work and want to succeed. As part of the change in treatment,
the Vietnamese allowed some prisoners to receive packages from
home. In some of these packages were handkerchiefs, scarves
and other items of clothing. Mike got himself a bamboo needle.
Over a period of a couple of months, he created an American
flag and sewed on the inside of his shirt.
Every afternoon, before we had a bowl of soup, we would
hang Mike's shirt on the wall of the cell and say the Pledge
of Allegiance. I know the Pledge of Allegiance may not seem
the most important part of our day now, but I can assure you
that in that stark cell it was indeed the most important and
meaningful event.
One day the Vietnamese searched our cell, as they did periodically,
and discovered Mike's shirt with the flag sewn inside, and removed
it. That evening they returned, opened the door of the cell,
and for the benefit of all us, beat Mike Christian severely
for the next couple of hours.
Then, they opened the door of the cell and threw him in.
We cleaned him up as well as we could.
The cell in which we lived had a concrete slab in the middle
on which we slept. Four naked light bulbs hung in each corner
of the room. As I said, we tried to clean up Mike as well as
we could. After the excitement died down, I looked in the corner
of the room, and sitting there beneath that dim light bulb with
a piece of red cloth, another shirt and his bamboo needle, was
my friend, Mike Christian. He was sitting there with his eyes
almost shut from the beating he had received, making another
American flag.
He was not making the flag because it made Mike Christian
feel better. He was making that flag because he knew how important
it was to us to be able to pledge allegiance to our flag and
our country.
So the next time you say the Pledge of Allegiance, you must
never forget the sacrifice and courage that thousands of Americans
have made to build our nation and promote freedom around the
world. You must remember our duty, our honor, and our country.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of
America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
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