AMERICA ATTACKED

Subject: I pledge allegiance

I pledge allegiance...

>From a speech made by Capt.  John S.  McCain, USN, (Ret) who represents Arizona in the U.S.  Senate<

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 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."

click here to enter our web site

e-mail link

(I thought the theme to "Braveheart" was fitting here.....)