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."
