The Pledge of Allegiance - Senator John McCain 

From a speech made by Capt. John S. McCain, US,(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 it 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. 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."