"The Pledge of Allegiance"
- by Senator John McCain
As you may know, I spent
five and one half years as a
prisoner of war during the
Vietnam War.
In the early years of our
imprisonment, the NVA kept
us in solitary confinement or
two or three to a cell.
In 1971 the NVA moved us
from these conditions of
isolation into large rooms
with as many as 30 to 40
men to a room.
This was, as you can imagine,
a wonderful change and was
a direct result of the efforts
of millions of Americans on
behalf of a few hundred POWs
10,000 miles from home.
One of the men who moved
into my room was a young man
named Mike Christian.
Mike came from a small town
near Selma , Alabama He
didn't wear a pair of shoes
until he was 13 years old.
At 17, he enlisted in the US
Navy. He later earned a
commission by going to Officer
Training School Then he became
a Naval Flight Officer and was
shot down and captured in 1967.
Mike had a keen and deep
appreciation of the opportunities
this country and our military
provide for people who want to
work and want to succeed.
As part of the change in
treatment, the Vietnamese
allowed some prisoners to
receive packages from home.
In some of these packages
were handkerchiefs, scarves
and other items of clothing.
Mike got himself a bamboo needle.
Over a period of a couple of
months, he created an American
flag and sewed on the inside of his
shirt.
Every afternoon,before we had a
bowl of soup, we would hang
Mike's shirt on the wall of
the cell and say the Pledge of
Allegiance.
I know the Pledge of Allegiance
may not seem the most important
part of our day now, but I can
assure you that in that stark cell
it was indeed the most important
and meaningful event.
One day the Vietnamese searched
our cell, as they did periodically,
and discovered Mike's shirt with
the flag sewn inside, and removed
it.
That evening they returned,
opened the door of the cell, and
for the benefit of all of us, beat
Mike Christian severely for the
next couple of hours, then they
opened the door of the cell and
threw him in. We cleaned him up
as well as we could.
The cell in which we lived had a
concrete slab in the middle on which
we slept, four naked light bulbs hung in
each corner of the room.As I said, we tried
to clean up Mike as well as we could.
After the excitement died down, I looked
in the corner of the room, and sitting there
beneath that dim light bulb with a piece of
red cloth, another shirt and his bamboo
needle, was my friend, Mike Christian.
He was sitting there with his eyes almost
shut from the beating he had received,
making another American flag.
He was not making the flag because it
made Mike Christian feel better.
He was making that flag because he
knew how important it was to us to be
able to Pledge our allegiance to our flag
and country.
So the next time you say the Pledge of
Allegiance, you must never forget
the sacrifice and courage that
thousands of Americans have made
to build our nation and promote
freedom around the world
You must remember our duty,
our honor, and our country
"I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
and to the republic for which it
stands, one nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice
for all."