First, in an interview with U.S. News and World Report in the May 14, 1973 issue, John McCain told this story about being offered early release by his captors:

“Suddenly, [he] said to me, "Do you want to go home?"

I was astonished, and I tell you frankly that I said that I would have to think about it.  I went back to my room, and I thought about it for a long time.  At this time, I did not have communication with the camp senior ranking officer, so I could get no advice.  I was worried whether I could stay alive or not, because I was in rather bad condition.  I had been hit with a severe case of dysentery, which kept on for about a year and a half.  I was losing weight again.  But I knew that the Code of Conduct says, "You will not accept parole or amnesty," and that "you will not accept special favors."  For somebody to go home earlier is a special favor.  There's no other way you can cut it.  I went back to him three nights later. He asked again, "Do you want to go home?"  I told him "No."  He wanted to know why, and I told him the reason.  I said that Alvarez [first American captured] should go first, then enlisted men and that kind of stuff.

[He] told me that President Lyndon Johnson had ordered me home.  He handed me a letter from my wife, in which she had said, "I wished that you had been one of those three who got to come home."  Of course, she had no way to understand the ramifications of this.  [He] said that the doctors had told him that I could not live unless I got medical treatment in the United States.  We went through this routine and still I told him "No."   Three nights later we went through it all over again.  On the morning of the Fourth of July, 1968, which happened to be the same day that my father took over as commander in chief of U. S. Forces in the Pacific, I was led into another quiz room.  [Both of them] were sitting there.   I walked in and sat down, and [they] said, "Our senior wants to know your final answer."

"My final answer is the same. It's 'No.' "

He turned, went out and slammed the door, leaving me sitting there. [The other one] said "Now, McCain, it will be very bad for you. Go back to your room.

John McCain turned down an early release for 3 reasons: 1. He didn’t think it was fair to be released ahead of men who had been there longer. 2. He knew they would try and make him sign a confession to war crimes before releasing him. 3. He knew they would use his release as propaganda that would hurt the war effort. As a result of his refusal to be released early, his treatment worsened and his beatings intensified.

In 1988, at the Republican National Convention, John McCain spoke and his story about Mike Christian:

One of the men who moved into my room was a young man named Mike Christian.

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 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 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 allegiance to our flag and our 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.

Senator John McCain, like many who have served and sacrificed, is a true American hero. His love for this country and what it stands for sets him apart from the other candidates in this Presidential race. God Bless Americans like John McCain.

...more columns by Todd Carges