FREE ESSAY ON ONE MAN'S STRUGGLE TO STAY ALIVE

ONE MAN'S STRUGGLE TO STAY ALIVE

One Man's 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 first family in American
history to achieve that distinction. John McCain III followed in his grandfather and
father's footsteps when he entered the U.S. Navy Academy in 1951. McCain struggled during
his four years at the academy, but in June 1954, he graduated with 899 other young men.
The Class of '58 had been whittled down by 25 percent. Of the 899 who endured the four
years at the U.S. Navel Academy, John McCain was one of them, standing fifth from the
bottom. The Navel Academy was very rigid for McCain, but even as a teenager, he showed
presidential traits, perseverance being one of them. This feature is extremely important
for John McCain if he wants to be the man to lead our country. 
John McCain continued to press on and in August 1958, McCain reported to flight school at
Pensacola were he would begin his Navy career. Little did McCain know that his quick
thinking would be tested not just once, but three times during his flying. One Saturday
morning, as McCain was practicing landings, his engine quit and his plane plunged into
Corpus Christi Bay. McCain survived with minor injuries but that would be his first of
many brushes with death (Norman). 
The fall of 1965, John McCain had his second encounter with death where again, his quick
thinking would save him. He was flying solo to Philadelphia to watch the Army-Navy game
when his engine died. At one thousand feet, he ejected, landing on a deserted beach
moments before the plane slammed into a clump of trees. McCain's perseverance and quick
thinking has been tested and both times, he has shown true leadership qualities that
every president needs (Norman).
Once again, John McCain's skills would be tested. On July 29, 1967, he was where he
wanted to be, on the flight deck of a Navy Aircraft. Before taking off to bomb Hanoi,
McCain was going through his preflight checks, when a stray voltage from his plane blew
apart the exterior fuel tank on McCain's bomber. Two hundred gallons of highly flammable
gas streamed onto the flight deck engulfing everything in its path. McCain still strapped
in the cockpit of his plane was surrounded in a gulf of flames. McCain, quickly jumping
out of his plane onto the flight deck, escaped just before the burning fuel set fire to
his plane. When it was all over, 134 men were dead, missing, or injured. McCain and the
other pilots in his squadron lost all hope in fighting the Vietnam War. All hope was
restored when another Air Carrier had been losing pilots and where looking for volunteers
to fill the ranks. John McCain signed on to the new squadron (Timberg). 
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." 
"Now we take you to the hospital," said the camp official (Timberg 80).
After two weeks, McCain was shifted to another part of the hospital where a doctor
attempted to set his right arm with out anesthesia with no luck. Giving up, the doctor
placed a plaster cast on McCain that ran from his waist to his neck. After McCain was put
in the cast, he was moved to Hanoi where he would spend the next five and a half years. 
While in Hanoi, a French television crew interviewed him; it was later aired in America
on CBS Television. McCain's health was fading fast, until he was moved from the hospital
to a plantation where fellow American prison inmates nursed McCain back to health. When
McCain was finally able to get around by himself, his cellmate, Bud Day was removed from
the cell and McCain was left alone for the next two years. 
During the first month alone in his cell, the camp officer asked McCain, "Do you want to
go home?" (Timberg 92) McCain denied the offer, realizing that there was going to be hell
there on. McCain was correct, a week later fourteen guards beat him senselessly for
several days until he had signed a confession. Feeling that he had dishonored his
country, McCain tried to hang himself. Before he could get the rope around his neck a
guard burst into his cell pulling McCain away from the window. Two decades later, McCain
stated, "I don't know whether I would have actually gone through with it or not..." "I
have no idea. I kind of doubt it" (Howes 14). In the thirty-one months that McCain spent
in solitary confinement, he was let out only once.
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: 
He looked sort of funny when he talked to you. He just couldn't move his arms very much,
nothing above his shoulders. Yet, the rascal was over there doing push-ups. They were a
funny sort of push-ups, sort of tilted. And he would run in place. We occupied a lot of
our time with exercises, and he was stiff-legged, bouncing as best he could running in
place. And an absolute chain-smoker. I've seen John have two or three cigarettes lighted
at the same time. (Norman 189) 
On March 14, 1973, John Sidney McCain was released from the POW camp. He had survived
near death experiences and years of torture. Using the skills, he had learned, such as
perseverance and quick thinking, and believing that the United States is the best country
in the world, he was ready to put his dreams into action. 
The war and its aftermath ushered in troubled times for those who served in Vietnam.
Unlike veterans of other wars, many came home to hostility, hatred, laughter, and at best
indifferences. Yet, thousands of men came home maimed or emotionally shattered by the
war. In the confusing aftermath of the conflict, these veterans found little meaning in
their lives. John McCain belongs to yet another group, probably the largest, and the one
that waited patiently for America to come to its senses. Unlike most Vietnam veterans,
McCain and other POWs were welcomed home as heroes. To many Americans they were. To
others, they symbolized the national drama that effectively marked the end of the
nation's participation in the Vietnam War. As in Hanoi, McCain was also one of the
best-known prisoners. McCain using his fame and fortune returning to the United States
would use his POW experience as a stepping-stone to start his career in politics.
John McCain started the long process of a promising political career by taking odd jobs
in Washington. For four years, McCain did the dirty work for Senators. Never the less, he
gained the trust and admiration of the Senators, developing special relationships with
some of the Senate's most powerful figures. McCain's popularity was wide and deep, and he
was in demand for overseas escort duty of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations
committees. 
In the spring of 1979, McCain became a member of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations
committee to represent the United States. While on one of his overseas trips, McCain met
a beautiful woman by the name of Cindy. Cindy was the daughter of a wealthy
Anheuser-Busch distributor, who was teaching disabled teenage children. Before John met
Cindy, he had been previously married for fifteen years. McCain loved his first wife
dearly, but he lost five and a half years of his life to Vietnam. In an interview with
Sam Donaldson McCain said, "I'm responsible for the breakup of my first marriage, and I
will always bear that responsibility. And I am not proud of it" (McCain Interview).
However, how understanding would voters be if McCain decided to run for a political
office due to marital problems or would they not consider McCain as a hero, but rather,
as just another Vietnam veteran? 
McCain considered all the objectives, but he had decided to start his life over again. "I
think he was determined that his future was not going to be controlled by those five and
a half years and his POW experience," said former POW. "He saw Cindy as the focus for his
regeneration" (Timberg 132). After his Armed Services and Foreign Relations committee job
came to a halt, McCain went on with his political career quietly but effectively
assisting Senator Jim McGovern for the next two years.
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. 
Through all of John McCain's experiences in life, he exemplifies a true American hero.
His resistances to complacency with the guards made all of the other POWs respect him. As
the stories spread to the American people he went from a nobody at the bottom of his
graduating class at the United States Naval Academy, to a United States Senator from
Arizona, to a former candidate for the upcoming presidency. He has shown qualities like
no other U.S. presidential candidate before him. He has turned his experiences into
positives and has proven his leadership skills through each. Perseverance, quick
thinking, and the love of his country are just a few. John McCain is not only an American
hero but also the most qualified man for America as the next U.S. President. 
Bibliography
Works Consulted
Alter, Jonathon. "White Tornado." Newsweek 15 Nov. 1999; 43. 
(http://www.who2.com/johnmccain.html)
Howes, Craig. Voices of the Vietnam POWs: Witnesses to Their Fight. New York: 
Oxford University Press, 1993.
McCain, John. Interview. 20/20. ABC News. 8 Sept. 1999 
http://www.abcnews.go.com/onair/2020/transcript/2020_990908_mccain_trans.html
---. "Faith of My Fathers." Online posting. 4 April 2000 
http://www.johnmccain.com/index2.htm
---. From a speech "What So Proudly We Hail." Online posting June 1999. 4 April 
2000 http://www.bluejacket.com/pledge_of_allegiance.htm
Norman Geoffrey. Bouncing Back: How a Heroic Band of POWs Survived Vietnam. 
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990.
Rochester, Stuart I. And Frederick Kiley. Honor Bound: The History of American 
Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia. Washington D.C.: Historical Office of the Secretary 
of Defense, 1998.
Timberg, Robert. John McCain An American Odyssey. New York: Touchstone, 1999.