Posted on 07/20/2017 3:19:34 AM PDT by calvincaspian
His North Vietnamese captors told him he’d never go home.
They beat and tortured him to no end, but the Navy flyer’s patriotism manifested itself in historic defiance, refusing to do the easy thing for his own reward.
He would not accept freedom before other prisoners who’d been there longer than he: It wasn’t the right thing to do, he thought.
Instead, he gave the enemy hell.
Now he has brain cancer.
And he’s 80 years old.
It’s the appropriate time to loudly honor this war hero for his toughness and resolve in combat and captivity, but subsequently during his political career.
He has shown an integrity and individualism that goes unduplicated in modern politics.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...
Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2006;15(9). September 2006 says there is no association and a possible protective effect on esophageal cancer
Did Admiral Denton feel that way?
“The cruelest enemy could not break him.”
I assume she’s talking about the North Vietnamese. They didn’t have to break a collaborator. McCain was never tortured by the North Vietnamese.
He and John Kerry are abandoned our POWs.
I don’t wish any ill will on Kerry - leave it to God. But, remove him from office. If it takes death from cancer for that to happen, so be it. I hope he seeks forgiveness soon.
I don’t wish any ill will on McCain...it is supposed to read.
The same was said 2 years ago when they announced 90 year old Jimmy Carter also had brain cancer and had just weeks to live.
Just last week, he was building another Habitat home, but collapsed do to the overwork.
Perhaps soon he may need to slow down.
Or to put it another way, go back in time almost 50 years and find yourself in the jungles of Viet Nam. You're on patrol, and suddenly the guy in front of you gets hit in the face with an AK round tearing off part of his lower jaw. He drops, and you drop and there's incoming fire. Now for the multiple choice question. You do which of the following:
President Carter didn't have glioblastoma (GBM) as Senator McCain does. It's one of the most aggressive types of cancer out there. Carter had melanoma that spread to his liver and brain in very small lesions that were removed.
Hopefully Kelli Ward gets his seat. The sooner the better.
Seek help immediately for your obvious mental problems. The day’s still young, go for it!
He was one of the Keating Five, and he more or less abandoned Sarah Palin when the tough got going for her- even if he was the one who propelled her to prominence.
Of course, cancer is nasty foe, and I wish him the best.
Oh PLEASE! Age means something. He is NOT immortal. You always hear this with famous people in their 80’s-90’s. Full recovery expected...as if they can live another 40 years. They can’t, they won’t. Being famous, or ‘beloved’ means nothing. The man has been brain damaged for years-now his brain is cancerous-and he’s 80!! Possible, but unlikely, he’ll get more time but old ‘maverick’ is heading for the last roundup.
Yeah like installing his daughter megan.
Your posts reek of sanctimony and hypocrisy. You love McCain - an enemy of everything American, but you insult me because I point that out. You smarmy sanctimonious hypocrites usually show your true colors when pressed, and BTW Why won't you answer the question? Too hard for you or are you too afraid it will show you for what you are.
It doesn’t bother me in the slightest that your point of view and mine are different. It seems to disturb you to the point of repetitive unanalogous hypotheticals. “What if we were in the jungle of Vietnam, etc.” Well, we’re not, end of discussion.
Have a nice day.
I haven't seen any evidence he didn't. Have you?
Would have to do some research on this. I think Denton was the senior ranking POW. I am not sure what he said or did not say.
Dude - I worked very closely with one of the Vietnam POWs, and was in the company of many of them (at least the USN types) in the late 70s. Those that I knew best stuck tightly together and would never say a bad word about a fellow POW to an ‘outsider’ because, after all was said and done, how could anyone who didn’t have that experience understand what they went through? Yes, many of us went through a classified school which was supposed to introduce us to the ‘POW experience’ but, as my closest POW associate put it, “How can you learn UTTER DESPAIR in a one-week class?”
He has since passed, and our great country is lessened without him. I refuse to convict ANY one of those gentlemen based on anything said by anyone who wasn’t there. I personally saw the aftermath of the injuries inflicted by the torture administered by their North Vietnamese jailers. I broke bread with some of them (POWs) in later, happier times. Some are more broken than others, but they are, to a man, great Americans.
Excellent & very informative post. Thanks.
Yep; I too interacted with many former POWs who served as Resistance Training instructors at the Air Force Survival School. I have interacted and interviewed these great men and I agree, the brotherhood that exists between them is necessarily insular and, to an outsider, impenetrable.
That’s why I regard the words of those who disparage the behavior of those who endured years of torture as mere bunk. If you weren’t there.. you don’t know.
Amen, brother!
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