![]() Hanoi also released at this time the last contingent of the more than 600 Americans taken prisoner during the war. Today, on National Vietnam War Veterans Day, VBA joins the rest of the nation in honoring the service and sacrifice of all Veterans who served in the Armed Forces from 1955 to 1975. ![]() More than 58,000 of them paid the ultimate price and another 153,000 were wounded over the course of the conflict. Vietnam War Veterans surely shouldered that burden. Kennedy affirmed that the United States stood ready to pay any price and to bear any burden to preserve freedom and liberty. I had reached mine,” he said, according to the report.During his inaugural address in 1961, President John F. Looking back on his decision, McCain reflected “I felt just terrible about it… Every man has his breaking point. After holding out for four days, McCain, at the point of suicide, agreed to write a confession. The North Vietnamese wanted a confession for crimes committed against the North Vietnamese people. My left arm was broken again and my ribs were cracked,” he said according to U.S. “For the next four days, I was beaten every two or three hours by different guards. McCain says his torture began in August of 1968. ![]() When McCain was brought to the senior North Vietnamese officer -– a man he refers to as “The Cat” –- he refused the offer of an early release yet again. McCain has said he refused the offer on the condition that he would only accept if every man captured before him was released as well. The North Vietnamese hoped to score a propaganda victory by offering McCain an early release. When he was moved into solitary confinement in March 1968 and when his father was named commander-in-chief of all US Pacific forces several months later, McCain’s troubles were just beginning. He just looked like he was absolutely on the verge of death,” the report quoted him as saying. Day, who survived the ordeal, said of McCain: “He was in this great big white case, and his hair was snow white. John McCain is administered to in a Hanoi, Vietnam hospital as a prisoner of war in the fall of 1967.Īfter receiving less than adequate treatment, McCain says he was moved to a prison camp known as “The Plantation” and locked in a cell with George “Bud” Day and Norris Overly, two Air Force majors. “I was in such a bad shape that when they hit me it would knock me unconscious,” he said. “I refused to give them anything except my name, rank, serial number and date of birth,” McCain said in the U.S. Over the next few days, he “lapsed from conscious to unconsciousness” while the North Vietnamese interrogated him, he said. He was then bayoneted in the abdomen and foot. When he noticed the injuries to his right leg –- which he says had fractured at the knee –- one of his captors slammed a rifle butt into his right shoulder, shattering it, the account said. Once he reached the surface, he was pulled ashore by some North Vietnamese, the account said.Īs his captors tore at his clothes in the wake of the crash, McCain recalls realizing the extent of his injuries. Able to kick to the surface momentarily for air, he somehow managed to activate his life preserver with his teeth. McCain came to as he landed in a lake, but burdened by heavy equipment, he sank straight to the bottom. But the sheer force of the ejection broke his right leg and both arms, knocking him unconscious, the report said.
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