‘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 a s 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. 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.’
