"Find the Cost of Freedom..."

John McCain is on my mind this morning.

The reason is the following email from my son-in-law:  

I just recently had some of my negatives scanned from when I was living in Vietnam.

Surprisingly, in a roll were some photos from a visit to the infamous Hoa Lo Prison, better known as the "Hanoi Hilton."

Designed and built by the French to house political prisoners then converted to house American POW's, 2/3s of the site was demolished to make way for, get this, serviced apartments, basically a hotel which is where I usually stayed while in Hanoi.

They've preserved some of the prison as a museum, hence my visit there one weekend afternoon while I was there.

While the Vietnamese try to sugarcoat the way US prisoners were treated there, and emphasize the awful conditions that Vietnamese were subject to while there under the French, just visiting the place gave me an uncomfortable sense of dread.

I wasn't quite sure who to share these with, but figured you were the one closest able to appreciate these.

Thank you, John.

The Presidential race is in its final days.  Barak Obama has an increasingly commanding lead and John McClain appears to have lost his rudder. Should the lead hold, may we pray that Obama proves to be the best person to govern our country during these impossible times. The task will be daunting.

But John's email brings me back to John McCain. Not  the presidential candidate or senator, but the American role model who served us all with such distinction.

The son and grandson of US Navy Admirals, John McCain graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1958 and went on to become a naval carrier pilot.  

Nine years later, in July 1967, McCain nearly lost his life during a horrific fire on the deck of the USS Forrestal that did kill 134 sailors and wounded 161 others.  Hs Phantom jet destroyed and his carrier critically damaged, the war could have been over for John McCain.  

It was not to be.

McCain lobbied, influenced, begged, and used all that he could muster to be reassigned to a new jet on a new carrier in the Gulf of Tonkin - a highly improbable accomplishment.  Three months later, in October 1967, McCain's new jet was shot down while on a bombing mission over Hanoi. He was severely injured, captured, and, as we all now know, imprisoned in North Vietnam for the following five years.

John McCain is worthy of our admiration and thanks for his service on a wide variety of levels. Foremost in my mind, was his selfless determination to get reassigned to a combat support carrier after the Forrestal tragedy.  

Now, that took courage.

Thank you John McCain.

Thank you for the pictures, John.

And, thank you for visiting.

Jack