The Hanoi Hilton
3,500 feet above the ground, John had just released his bombs over his target. As he began to pull back on his stick to climb to a safer altitude, a SAM (surface-to-air missile) hit his plane. The “flying telephone pole” struck the right wing of John’s A-4 bomber. He radioed, “I’m hit,” reached up, and pulled the ejection seat handle. Striking the burning plane as he ejected out, John broke his left arm, his right arm in three places, and his right knee, the force also briefly knocked him unconscious (McCain 189). Villagers watched as John’s chute briefly opened before he plunged into the shallow water of the Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi, North Vietnam. He landed in the middle of the lake, in the middle of the capital city, in the middle of the day. He regained conscious when he struck the water. Wearing fifty pounds of gear, he touched the bottom of the shallow lake and kicked off with his good leg. “I didn’t feel any pain as I broke the surface, and I didn’t understand why I couldn’t move my arms to pull the cord on my life vest,” John said. Failing to inflate his life vest, John quickly sank back to the bottom, and then broke the surface again. He managed to pull the cord with his teeth, inflating hi
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2416
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)
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