Truth Revealed: McCain Free After 6 Months in Vietnam Prison, Chose to Stay 5 More Years
Arizona Sen. John McCain passed away Saturday at the age of 81. After suffering through numerous medical ailments, being tortured as a POW, and serving his country in Congress for 30 years, he declined further treatment for his brain cancer before dying surrounded by his family.
Now, people are recalling McCain’s most heroic moments and the horrible things he endured and somehow overcame. His story is a turbulent one, and he faced more troubles than most of us will ever see.
But he had three pillars that he relied on for strength in hard times, as revealed in an interview with People. “Three things kept me going. Faith in God, faith in my fellow prisoners and faith in my country,” McCain said.
He recalled the day that his trials in Vietnam started, which commenced after his plane was hit in 1967.
“The plane was gyrating violently and heading straight down, very fast, at about 500 knots,” he said.
“When I ejected, the pressure flailed my arms back and that’s what broke my arms. My knee obviously hit something on the way out and I ended up breaking my leg, too.”
When he was dragged out of the water, the attacks began. He was stabbed, spit at, and hauled off to prison.
The enemy did their best to make the 30-year-old’s life a living nightmare, but despite all their attempts, he said “They got nothing out of me.”
“They left me on the floor of a cell for four days, during which time I lapsed in and out of consciousness,” McCain recalled. “Their policy was that they wouldn’t provide any medical treatment unless you gave them military information.
“I would only give them my name, rank, serial number and date of birth. And so, after about four days on the floor of the cell, they got nothing out of me because I kept passing out.”
Eventually his captors treated his wounds and got him basic medical care, but when he made some progress and began to walk again, they threw him into solitary confinement.
They tortured him regularly, trying to get him to confess, give up information, or defame America. He was moved from bad to worse prison camps and was constantly battling dysentery in addition to his other ailments.
The time came when they offered to release him, but he knew they were doing it to discourage his fellow POWs, and he refused to go.
“They were astounded that I would refuse,” McCain said. “I’m not downplaying how difficult that decision was for me, but I did it because I thought I could survive — even though I was in pretty bad shape.”
But he made it through. He went home. He readjusted.
Through some miracle, he claims to never have experienced night terrors or other ill effects from the horrible treatment he endured — thanks to “Faith in God, faith in my fellow prisoners and faith in my country.”
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