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In reply to the discussion: He's OUR Hero Now [View all]Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)As a retired Sailor, I served with another P O W (whose name I will not put here out of respect for his privacy), who spent six and a half years in the Hanoi Hilton. He was already there when John McCain arrived, and he acted as a big brother to the young Lt. The two men would become life-long friends. He was also a "high-value" captive for the Viet Cong and was brutally beaten to give up sensitive, vital information. He repeatedly fed them lies and was beaten senseless for it.
Not one of us here at DU has the first iota of an idea of what it was like to survive in that hell hole. Nor have any of us ever seen, much less lived - and survived - that kind of barbaric, relentless, savage depraved brutality. The man that I knew spent two years in solitary. Does anyone here have any idea what that does to the human mind or the soul ? For those unfamiliar with the torture methods of the Viet Cong, I will refer you to the vast volumes that have been written on the subject. It's not for the faint of heart.
But don't for one fucking minute think that any of you have any idea what men like John McCain and the man that I knew had to endure just to survive, never knowing from one minute to the next if it would be their last.
Semper Fortis, John McCain. A patriot to the very end. A man of extraordinary courage and bravery.