One Mans Struggle to Stay Alive
Over the years John Sidney McCain, the white haired Senator from Arizona has survived many things. He has endured three plane crashes, a firestorm at sea, and a North Vietnamese prison camp, to emerge as a major player in the national political scene. The Vietnam War had a significant impact on Senator McCain. McCain spent five and a half years in North Vietnamese prisons, thirty-one months in solitary and was brutally tortured. Yet, almost immediately upon his release in 1973, he began putting Vietnam behind him. This lighthearted man has rarely lost sight of what he has called "the shadow of Vietnam" (Timberg 12). Due to his continuing contributions to the United States, John McCain has become a true American hero and would make an excellent president for our country. . John McCain grew up in a family rich with Navy heritage. John McCain's grandfather was one of the navy's greatest commanders and led the strongest aircraft carrier force of the Third Fleet. McCain's father who was a submarine commander during World War II was equally distinguished by heroic service in the navy. Both McCain's father and grandfather rose to the rank of four-star admiral, making the McCain's the f
McCain, John. Interview. 20/20. ABC News. 8 Sept. 1999 After McCain's two years with McGovern, he decided it was time for a change. Carol and John moved to Arizona to gain residency so he could run for Congress in 1982. The year leading up to McCain's congressional victory in Tucson, Arizona, he took an active role in the state Republican Party. He helped with fund raising, local campaigns, and dinner speeches to raise his profile. McCain also led a grueling schedule of door-to-door campaigning six hours a day, six days a week. In the end the hard work paid off and on Election Day, McCain won. McCain had done it! Over the next sixteen years, John McCain would win two more elections, not as a congressional representative, but as a US Senator of Arizona. McCain's political success does not end yet, on April 13, 1999, McCain announced that he was a candidate for President of the United States. Although McCain's Presidential candidacy was short-lived, he continues to be a prominent figure on the American political landscape. It was Christmas Eve 1968, and the prison guards set up a church service for the prisoners. After being ordered to participate, McCain spoiled the service because he knew that it was propaganda. Returning to his cell, he received the beating he knew would come. Then on Christmas Eve 1970, McCain was finally let out of solitary and placed with fifty other American soldiers. McCain could not believe his good fortune; it was the perfect Christmas present (Timberg 102). McCain spent most of his remaining imprisonment there, though he was moved for a time to a small camp near the Chinese border. Orson Swindle remembered the John McCain of this period: John McCain's new assignment had finally come on October 26, 1967, when he took flight to Vietnam to bomb a power plant in Hanoi. Little did McCain know that Hanoi was now more heavily defended against air attacks than any other city in history. Just as McCain had released his bomb, a missile locked onto his aircraft. The missile took out his right wing, sending his plane into a violent downward spiral. Ejecting before his plane spun wildly out of control, he smashed his right knee into the instrument panel shattering his kneecap. He also broke both arms due to the uneven air pressure in the cockpit and atmosphere. McCain landed in a small lake in the center of Hanoi. Before he had time to inspect his wounds, Vietnamese soldiers grabbed him and pulled McCain to shore. They then interrogated him and inflicted more wounds to his body. The uniform soldiers threw McCain in the back of a truck, headed for Hao Lo prison, North Vietnam's largest Penitentiary. Once there, they bandaged his wounds and proceeded to interrogate him until he provided military information. Receiving none, the Vietnamese soldiers left McCain for dead. Aware that he might die, McCain struggled to stay alive. Then a glimmer of hope arose when the camp official walked in. The official asked McCain, "Your father is a big admiral," McCain replied, "Yes, my father is an admiral." Rochester, Stuart I. And Frederick Kiley. Honor Bound: The History of American http://www.johnmccain.com/index2.htm
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Approximate Word count = 2450
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)
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