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 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." 

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