On Friday, Communities all over the nation paused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and salute America’s military veterans and honor them for their service.
Irrespective of where you stand on the National Anthem or Pledge of Allegiance and people who want to protest a particular cause by declining to stand for them, I have a story which I think is instructional about how veterans feel about it and how deeply they revere the flag and the song that honors it and our country.
The scene for this inspirational story is set in the notorious Hoa Lo Prisoner-of-War Camp in North Vietnam, better known as “The Hanoi Hilton.” Former POW, now Arizona Senator John McCain has told a story often about one of his cellmates whose bravery and defiance in the face of horrific conditions and mistreatment is the stuff of legend.
His name is Mike Christian. He grew up dirt poor in Alabama and enlisted in the Navy at 17. He worked hard to get a commission as a naval flight officer flying A6 Intruders off the USS Kitty Hawk. He was shot down and captured winding up in the same cell with McCain and other POWs.
Using the remnants of cloth he could scrounge, dying it with crushed roof tiles and ink, Christian fashioned a US flag with a bamboo needle and stitched it to the inside of his prison shirt. Each night, Christian would hang the flag on the wall as the men would come to attention to say the Pledge of Allegiance. It was, by all accounts, the most important part of their day. One day Christian’s contraband flag was discovered by guards, and he was promptly removed from the cell and severely beaten. When finally dragged back to his cell his fellow Americans tended his wounds as best they could. Within hours, with his eyes still nearly shut from the brutal beating he received, Christian began work on another flag.
Fellow captives say Mike Christian didn’t make the flag to make himself feel good, according to McCain, he was doing it because he knew that pledging allegiance to the flag and the country was important to every American in that cell.
When McCain tells the story, he ends it this way: “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.”
I believe Mike Christian’s story is one that should be taught in every school so youngsters never forget him or his connection to our flag and the pledge.
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