McCain And My Captive Cadets

Last Thursday night John McCain accepted the Republican nomination for president by offering a detailed account of his experiences as a prisoner of war. Please don't think me dismissive in saying that I have heard some version of that speech at least a dozen times before.

Of course, many speakers in St. Paul told John McCain's story, turning his resilience in the Hanoi Hilton into the defining narrative of today's GOP. And the candidate himself habitually invokes this story when caught in a political tough spot. But ten years ago I was inundated with speeches that addressed the Republican national convention. Many of them recounted POW experiences that were comparable to Senator McCain's.

From 1995-1999, I taught at the U.S. Air Force Academy. One of the few civilians in the English department, I taught a required upper-level course on writing and public speaking. The final assignment was a ten-minute speech in which, projecting themselves some twenty years into the future, cadets announced their retirement after a successful career in the Air Force. It was a terrific assignment, designed by a lieutenant colonel who had graduated from the Academy, served as an Air Battle Manager in the First Gulf War, and then earned his PhD in American literature. Across multiple sections, these senior-level cadets envisioned who they wanted to be, and what they hoped to accomplish, by the end of their military careers.

I cannot speak to what happened in my colleagues' classrooms, but in mine, the pattern was clear. While a few cadets saw themselves transitioning from the service to jobs in banking, teaching, medicine, or the ministry, an overwhelming majority "retired" from the Air Force to accept the Republican nomination for president. From semester to semester, the speeches described stunning acts of heroism and bravery. My cadets would fight air battles over Baghdad, Sarajevo, and Moscow. They would fly stealth bombers over Cairo and Beijing. A handful of wags recounted their triumphs over Martian invaders or recalled how they had pacified a belligerent galaxy. Then the battles would end, and one by one, the cadets would return home to greet their supporters at the RNC.

I was charmed by the confidence and brio of these speeches. The sky did not limit these young men and women; it was the site of promise and possibility.

And yet, for many of my students, the central moment of their imagined military life was being a prisoner of war. In remarkably graphic detail, they described how they had resisted torture and beatings. At twenty, twenty-one years of age, they saw themselves surviving years inside enemy prisons and they spoke freely about what they discovered through their suffering. In the lives they imagined, captivity transformed anonymous soldiers into military celebrities. It was as if POWs possessed a special currency that allowed them to exchange life as a retired officer for life as a presidential candidate.

My cadets had absorbed the lessons of John McCain.

Americans have a long history of valorizing the experience of prisoners of war. Dozens of captivity narratives were rushed into print during the American Revolution, encouraging colonists to identify with the heroic men and women who had been captured by the Indians. Perhaps because pilots are so vulnerable, the Air Force Academy had a particularly keen interest in POW narratives. The Academy had named a dormitory after Lance Sijan, an Academy graduate who had died in a Vietnamese prison camp in 1968. Sijan's resistance was legendary. The football coach praised his tenacity and his refusal to give in. The art gallery featured a show of oil paintings that contemplated different moments in Sijan's internment. Each canvas possessed the gravity of a station of the cross, the clean-shaven pilot dumped in his cell wounded but never broken.

Though he was an Annapolis graduate and had flown for the Navy, McCain's story was like scripture to the officers and cadets at the Air Force Academy, and there was genuine excitement after he announced his presidential exploratory committee in 1998. McCain's reputation was inseparable from an experience that my cadets worshipped, feared, and sometimes craved.

As the senator delivered his acceptance speech, I wondered how long he had dreamed about the moment and whether it had haunted him for many years. My mind drifted back to those uniformed cadets, brimming with bravado and their romantic visions of the world. How sad, I thought, how terribly tragic, that the presidency seemed attainable to them only after torture and imprisonment. Captivity marked the threshold between service and publicity.

Teaching at the Air Force Academy gave me profound respect for men such as Lance Sijan and John McCain, but it also made me suspicious about the way nations can use such stories to justify aggression and dampen political debate. Jessica Lynch was the face of the Iraq War until we discovered that the Pentagon had faked the details of her captivity and rescue. And somewhere in the Anbar Province, stories circulate about Abu Ghraib.

The experience of being a POW may - or may not - make one a better commander-in-chief. But as my cadets supposed a decade ago, it is awfully useful in framing a political campaign.

Comments

[Cannongrape]

When I look at John McCain's "smile" during his speeches, I wonder if he is not still a POW. There's something eerie about an Irishman who will not face the world with a genuine smile. His eyes seem to say, "let me out." It's as if somebody is pulling his strings.

[RichardLowry]

Nice article until you started talking about Jessica Lynch. "Jessica Lynch was the face of the Iraq War until we discovered that the Pentagon had faked the details of her captivity and rescue."

The Pentagon faked nothing. It was the media that ran with an unverified story. If you look back at the official announcements, PAOs repeatedly cautioned that the details of Jessica's ordeal were not clear. In fact, the Army conducted an investigation of the "ambush" of the 507th Maintenance Company. By the time that investigation was complete, America's media had lost interest in Jessica.

As for her rescue; American military commanders would have been remiss had they not gone into that rescue with enough force to overcome any contingency. If it had been your daughter, would you have expected anything less? Saddam Fedeyeen had been using ambulances to transport fighters since the beginning of the battle and the enemy had been firing across the Euphrates River all week. During the rescue, not a single Iraqi or American was hurt. At 70lbs and near death, Jessica was whisked away to safety and much needed medical attention.

If you are interested in the real truth about the 507th "ambush" and Jessica's rescue, read "Marines in the Garden of Eden," which is the only book to tell the complete story of the battle for an Nasiriyah.

[oldgoose]

In some societies people who are taken prisoner are not heroes, in fact they are despised for their cowardice because they let themselves be taken alive. We have to be grateful for John McCain's service but he was not alone in the Hanoi Hilton! I would hazard a guess that with a handful of exceptions the men who shared his time in the prison are not trying to use their incarceration for political gain. Not having filled the shoes of his father and grandfather and like them attained the rank of admiral I suspect this is his way of showing them "one better". We have to assume his choice of running mate proves he does not take the responsibilities of the position seriously otherwise he would have been more discriminate in the choice of the one person who may have to replace him........ Of all people he should know life has a way of providing unexpected surprises. If it is not the case then he has replaced his honor with cynicism and unequivocal political opportunism which might unfortunately cost us all a great deal more than it will cost him..

[koolwoman]

Continued. My God would favor peace and for the needs of all people to be met. I simply believe that the republican ticket does not measure up. It is really scary for me to envision another 4 years like the last 8. Thanks for listening. It is my desire that all people do well, be civil to each other and commit random acts of kindness at every opportunity. Be well, my friends.

[twolusky]

Professor Blake, I graduated from the Air Force Academy back in 1980, a bit before your time, and the story you tell about cadets describing the capstone of their career as running for President under the RNC banner nearly knocked me out of my chair. I am certain my classmates would have enjoyed this thoughtful classroom exercise and our conjectured careers would have included many of the same heroic exploits, but it would have ended in air to air combat leading a fighter squadron over enemy territory or retiring as a wing commander with a respected reputation of living the martial virtues of duty, honor and country. It was General MacArthur's speech to the Corps of Cadets at West Point on May 12, 1962 http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/douglasmacarthurthayeraward.html that moved us to be worthy to serve as officers, not the transient speeches of a political aspirant from the GOP.

[koolwoman]

I am sick and tired of John McSame talking about being a prisoner of war.. I am sure it was horrible. Yet I cannot see how this would qualify him to be president. As a matter orf fact, I would rather elect a man who does not enjoy war, and who will use every resource to negoiate a fair and peaceful agreement. In my bible and in Senator McSames bible, there is a verse that goes something like this. " When you pray,go into your closet and pray in secret, do not pray for others to hear, and the Lord, thy God will reward you openly. So what I am saying is that if we all constantly paraded our good deeds, they would cease to have meaning. We all know what he did, but is that his main credential for being elected president? His age is not ideal, he is beginning to show signs of confusion and memory loss. His prison of war experience may have contributed to his flashes of rage, and no doubt has affected his emotional balance . He selected a running mate whyo absolutely frightens me. Those people who think they get their direction from God, they scare me. The God that I know would not instigate a war. My God would give unconditional love to all mankind, my God would be concerned about feeding the children and the poor, and providing health care, and for true compassuion for all people., To be continued

[Old-Surveyor]

Another Dim claims the protectiion of God. And you know what , maybe he does have it!. For certain I cannot judge that. Only God can. But I can be a fruit inspector. The fruits of a Christian life is measured by the number of souls you have witnessed to and turned it on to Jesus that he might claim that soul as his own and not let it go to the devil. No Christian should take one verse from the Bible and try to prove a point!. If a verse says one thing to you in one place and another verse in another place and the same context says another thing , then you mave missed the point of one of them. The Bible is not contradictory, only misunderstood!!

[rose london]

just wondering..Is mcsame's POW file sealed???. if yes . WHY.

[websmith]

Getting shot down and captured is not an act of heroism.

[howdyfromtexas]

Having the guts to get inside a jet, fly over enemy territory and get shot because you were ordered to is heroic.

[saami]

Well in both cases that was his duty not heroic. That was his job. Any soldier, sailor or air force pilot will tell you he was merely doing his job; the job he signed up for. Don't confuse duty with heroic. The man in NYC who threw himself over a complete stranger who had fallen on the subway tracks and kept him from being killed that was heroic. A hero goes on and beyond the call of duty.

[Artos]

howdyfromtexas,

Is this your perspective as someone who has actually been in the situation? Let me tell you what my perspective as a former Grunt is. We sometimes got in situations where having a fighter or bomber come in and save our butts was a live or die moment, but that would be or should be as a last resort. If you look at it from the perspective of a grunt who is getting the treatment from a guy who shoots at you or bombs you with impunity from on high it isn't such a good deal. We (Americans) haven't had to endure being treated to that kind of firepower in some time. Probably WWII was the last time. So we don't really know how it feels of late. As a grunt I can say this, I wouldn't appreciate some cowboy fighter jock giving me the treatment while I had to take it so in my book it is totally unfair as far as warfare is concerned. That is why I have little sympathy for the guy who can treat war as a game. Go shoot at someone or bomb them and still have time for a hot meal and a nice warm comfortable bed at night. So as far as I am concerned McCain got what he deserved. At least he lived to talk about it. Why don't you check and see how many enlisted men, grunts or otherwise who were captured, lived to see the next day.

[idest]

McCain was ordered to get shot? I think they ordered him NOT to get shot, but he failed.

[howdyfromtexas]

Also waiting to go home until it was his turn and not being used as a communist propaganda tool is also heroic.

[katheyquilts]

Um-m-m-m-
they DID use him at least once and they recorded and broadcast it.
So at least 660 POW's are going to run for Prez?

YOU GOTTA BE MORE THAN A POW TO BE MY MAN

[Greygolla]

As McCain commented, his love of Country commenced as a POW when he was obliged to suffer for it. Doing one's duty; in school, taking orders, dropping bombs is rather much like an ordinary job. One that likely entails a bit of resentment, as McCain has so often demonstrated by being a jerk. Every good thing that ever came his way he has taken with bad grace, his birthright, his education, his service, his women, and his political career. The bad boy POW image seems to be his redeeming trait, let it be so, for the good of the service. The thinking of the old Vet that encourages his young to immerse in the horror of war is a mystery. Self sacrifice for the good of the tribe, I guess.

[BenjitheWolfdog]

The very fact that someone is a prisoner of war reveals a failure in national leadership. Without wars there can be no POWs. Unfortunately, rather than being used only as a last resort, the current resident of the White House apparantly sees the use of military force as a noble and patriotic tool of first resort that can be used rather than the hard and difficult work of real diplomacy. I guess war seems to be much more attractive when you don't have any skin in the game.

[charleydan]

Why not tell the other half.

The many that never came home. And many here do not remember, but many came home from that same war and were spat on, flags burned at tarmac, cussed at, and humilated by the crowds.

Of those that came home, many committed sucide, or murder resulting in life imprisonment. Psychological ruin by the war.

McCain is one out of many that survived the horrors of war. inprisonment. A dream. Yes, a dream of hope that many do not get to take the journey of . Not strong enough, enduring, focused, and hold on in health and physical and mental accomplishments that few endure even in a group like Johns.

Your class dreamed a dream they have not experienced and would not dream if they understood the real agony and then be rejected when you got home for a war that no one wanted to win, except you.

So if his imprisonment rewards John now. I congratulate him. The rest of us will settle for the Wall of Remembrance of our buddies left behind. Because it was a war that the heroes came back and disgraced by most to this day.

[saami]

My father was in the special forces and struggled with PTSD until his suicide. Although he was never a POW, he was wounded and saw and did terrible things. POW's automatically, do not pass go... do not get $200, have PTSD. It goes with the territory. I can honestly say that being a POW probably should keep you from a high elected office. It is my belief that John McCain thinks we owe him the presidency, after all he was supposed to come home and be an admiral and that didn't happen. Despite what happened to him in Hanoi and his father and grandfather being admirals the Navy passed over him for the admiralty. Do you suppose they recognized that he was poor command material?

[idest]

They actually didn't pass over him for the admiralty (although did he really deserve it?), he decided to get out of the military after serving as the Navy Liaison to the Senate. During his time as liaison he formed a close bond with a Senator Tower, and went on trips and such with him. He basically fell in love with the graft and corruption in politics, and has said so himself in so many words. He liked that foreign dignitaries feted the Senator, he liked all the free stuff the Senator got from his "friends" in industry. He loved the glamour. Not a man we want in the White House.

[Artos]

charleydan,

I can get behind at least half of what you have said, but not all. I came back and wasn't spat at or harrassed. As a Vietnam vet I didn't come home expecting parades, because my view of the war after having been there was that it was all a lie. We didn't belong there. How can we justify wanting to win a war that should never have been. Later after having come home I did a little research and found out the truths. These truths were later supported by the Pentagon Papers. I have concluded that it is useless to argue for winning a war that was never honorable in the first place, unless you were North Vietnamese. They at least had a just reason, they were defending the idea of a soveriegn nation, a nation that had been subjected to domination by one nation or another for hundreds of years. This is something we can't possibly understand since it has never happened to us. I am proud to have served in the Corp for seven years honorably, it wasn't my fault that our nations leaders chose to misuse that honorable service.

[ColleenHarper]

Yep. That's what McCain has become. Noun, verb, POW.

If being a POW was the prerequisite for being President, then we would not have had W for 8 years. George the 41st would have barely qualified, for being shot down during WWII in the Pacific - but he was rescued from the ocean after the battle. Any other Presidents qualify by way of Noun, verb, POW?

[mjc]

Not that I am going to pull the lever for McCain/Palin, but it is scary when you think of the recent president and his vice president and his secretary of defense early on and realize that all of them had absolutely no military experience and avoided it like the plague. To be fair, Clinton was also one to opt out of military service. Doesn't seem to be important these days, either. Obama never served and think when asked about it he had some answer about HIS future plans and the fact that a war was not going on then. Maybe it should be a requirement since as CIC the president has the fate of millions in his hands in making decisions about defense and preemptive war.

[idest]

This is pretty silly. How many of our Presidents have served in the military? Grant (terrible), Eisenhower (not bad for a conservative), Bush I (terrible), JFK (great). Why is it people think you have to have served in the military to understand military matters? There is a very good reason that our founders set up civilian control of the military, and if we made service in the military a prerequisite for service as a President we'd get a military dictatorship pretty quick.

FDR guided us through WWII, Lincoln guided us through the Civil War and neither of them had any military experience to my knowledge. So your notion really is pretty silly.

[berkeleygirl1962]

This is fascinating. Thanks for posting it.

[Zeroes]

Great story.

[Adenophora]

You have to realize that we, in America, and in other Christian countries and societies have a powerful role model for transfiguration after extreme torture - we have Christ on the Cross being taken up into heaven after having his side pierced, his head crowned with thorns and his body racked on the cross. Aren't the dreams of your cadets surviving torture more of the same?

[Manchurian]

Interesting observation - especially in light of Mr Blake's commentary on the "stations of the cross" depictions of Lance Sijan. The military, and the service academies in particular, are skewed to religious (overwhelmingly Christian) and Republican mindsets. But I'm guessing the POW fantasy came more from the simulated POW camp experience all USAF Academy cadets once went through following their freshman year (the training has since been discontinued for all but future air crew members).