hotrodgrany
Well-known member
In light of the recent appeals court ruling in California,with respect to the Pledge of Allegiance, the following recollection from Senator John McCain is very appropriate:
"As you know , I spent five and a 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 cells. In 1971 the NVA moved us from these conditions of isolation into a large rooms with as many as 30-40 men to a room. This was, as you can say imagine, a wonderful change and was a direct result of the efforts of millions of Americans on behalf of a fewe hundres 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 Traing School. Than he became a Naval Flight Officer and was shot down and was captured in 1967. Mike had a keen and deep appreciation of the opportunies this country and our military provide for people who wanted to work and wanted to succeed. As part of the change in treatment, the Vietnamese allowed some prisoners to recieve 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 months, he created an American flag and sewed on the inside of his shirt. Every afternoon, before we had a bowel of soup, se would hang Mike's shirt on the wall of the cell and say the Pledge of Allegiance. I know the Plege of Algiance may not be important part of our day now, but I canassure you that in that stark cell it was indeed the most important and meaningfull event. One day the Vietnanese searched our cell, as they did periodiically, and found Mike's shirt with the flag sewn inside, and removed it. That evening they returned, opened the door of the cell, anf for the benifit of us all of us. beat Mick Christian severely for the next coulpe of hours. Than, they opened the doo 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 in 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 Chrisrian. He was sitting there with his eyes almost shut from the beating he had recieved. making another American flag because it made Mike feel better. He was making that flag because he knew how important it was to us to be able to to Pledge our 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.
"As you know , I spent five and a 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 cells. In 1971 the NVA moved us from these conditions of isolation into a large rooms with as many as 30-40 men to a room. This was, as you can say imagine, a wonderful change and was a direct result of the efforts of millions of Americans on behalf of a fewe hundres 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 Traing School. Than he became a Naval Flight Officer and was shot down and was captured in 1967. Mike had a keen and deep appreciation of the opportunies this country and our military provide for people who wanted to work and wanted to succeed. As part of the change in treatment, the Vietnamese allowed some prisoners to recieve 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 months, he created an American flag and sewed on the inside of his shirt. Every afternoon, before we had a bowel of soup, se would hang Mike's shirt on the wall of the cell and say the Pledge of Allegiance. I know the Plege of Algiance may not be important part of our day now, but I canassure you that in that stark cell it was indeed the most important and meaningfull event. One day the Vietnanese searched our cell, as they did periodiically, and found Mike's shirt with the flag sewn inside, and removed it. That evening they returned, opened the door of the cell, anf for the benifit of us all of us. beat Mick Christian severely for the next coulpe of hours. Than, they opened the doo 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 in 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 Chrisrian. He was sitting there with his eyes almost shut from the beating he had recieved. making another American flag because it made Mike feel better. He was making that flag because he knew how important it was to us to be able to to Pledge our 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.
