Visit Our PX for Veteran and POW/MIA Related T-shirts, Hats, Pins and much more.

John McCain Is No Hero
By Former POW Mike Benge

I was a civilian POW in Vietnam from 1968-73, and held in South Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos and North Viet Nam. I spent 27 months in solitary confinement, of which most of a year was in a black box (a brick SH with the inside walls painted black), and one year in a cage.

After release in Operation Homecoming in 1973, I was often asked about the conduct of other POWs. My response then, as it is today, is that each man has his own breaking point.

As the old saying goes, "Don't judge another `till you've walked a mile in their moccasins."

After our return, at times I was called a hero. My answer then, as it is today, is that we, the returned POWs, are not heroes; we are just survivors.

The heroes are the ones who gave their all, and their names are etched on that somber black granite wall called the Vietnam Memorial. The heroes are those who never came home and are still POWs in some God forsaken hole. The heroes are the ones who lost part of their bodies from the ravages of war. The heroes are those that still suffer from the horrors of war. The heroes are the mothers, the wives, the children or families who still wait to find out the fate of their love ones.

No we are not the heroes, we are just survivors.

Is John McCain a hero?

No he is just a survivor like the rest of us. I respect John for the pain and suffering he went through as a POW. I respect John, as I do the other POWs, for surviving the depravity of incarceration by the brutal communist Vietnamese.

Is John McCain a hero because he made the moral choice not to take an early release?

No, John McCain is not a hero for doing this for he was just following orders from the Senior Ranking Officers (SROs) in the camp. John was doing no more, nor no less, that every service person does several times each day. He was just following orders.

For those of you who have seen the movie about the POWs "Return with Honor," at the beginning you would have heard the SROs state that they gave the order that no one was to take an early release.

John McCain is not a hero for making that choice, for he was just following orders. John McCain is no more of a hero that the rest of the POWs who stayed to the last, and were released in 1973.

I salute and have a special reverence in my heart for those POWs who were Medal of Honor recipients, as I do for my former SRO Col. Ted Guy who resisted to the last, for they are much, much closer to being my kind of heroes than JSM.