McCain’s whole life has exhibited courage

Folks who want to learn a little about honour and courage would do well to pay attention to Sen. John Sidney McCain III.

McCain comes to any debate on honour well equipped.

Both his father and grandfather served as four-star admirals in the United States Navy. McCain followed in the family tradition, graduating from the Naval Academy and becoming a Navy fighter jet pilot.

Not surprisingly, McCain asked for a combat mission. He got more than he bargained for. On good days landing a fighter jet onto the pitching deck of an aircraft carrier is not for the faint of heart.

Flying repeat combat missions over a well-defended capital city is downright reckless. McCain flew 22 successful combat missions over Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam. On Oct. 26, 1967 his luck ran out. Shot down by a missile, the severely injured McCain parachuted into Truc Bach Lake and nearly drowned.

He was pulled from the water, beaten, and sent to the infamous Hoa Lo Prison.

Last year, I spent an afternoon touring the prison its American captives nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton. It’s a remarkably small place to have earned such a notorious reputation. The French tortured Vietnamese prisoners in its cramped, medieval confines. The Vietnamese returned the favour with captured American pilots.

McCain spent 5½ years as a guest at the Hanoi Hilton. He was tortured, nearly died and spent a full two years in solitary confinement.

From this awful vantage point McCain learned a lot about courage.

Beaten every two hours for days on end, he finally signed a confession.

He later wrote, “I learned what we all learned over there: every man has his breaking point.” True enough, but few of us are ever forced to reach it.

In these circumstances, no one would blame a prisoner for taking the easy way out. As the son of a navy admiral, McCain provided the North Vietnamese with a propaganda opportunity to appear to be merciful. McCain was offered an out-ofsequence release date that would have shortened his time in captivity. He refused. When he was finally released McCain had sustained physical injuries that plague him to this day.

His courage would be tested again as he embarked on a new career as a politician. He is now in his 30th year serving as a United States senator and will be 81 on Aug. 29.

Over his many years of political life, McCain has earned the reputation as a political maverick, often disagreeing with his Republican party on important matters. He has never taken the easy path. He has never allowed his party to do his thinking for him as we saw again last week. Come what may, McCain has his own moral compass and the conviction to follow it.

That resolve was fully tested in 2008 when he lost his bid for the United States presidency to Barack Obama. McCain is candid in his reflections of the moments in that campaign where he felt he caved in to political expediency — for example, his refusal to condemn the flying of the Confederate flag over the South Carolina capital.

McCain’s failed bid for the U.S. presidency and his remarkable candour, make his 2004 book Why Courage Matters all the more interesting.

McCain has recently been diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour. He is literally in a fight for his life. Days after this devastating news, he travelled to Washington to address his fellow senators.

His message to “stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths on the radio, television and internet – to hell with them” is worth a listen.

The guy knows something about courage.