During five and a half years of torment as a POW in Vietnam, the late great war hero John McCain suffered life changing injuries and years in solitary confinement
WHEN John McCain was dragged in front of his Vietnamese captors to be released, he knew they were only letting him go because of his high ranking father.
The decision he made to remain a prisoner with his fellow Americans almost cost him his life - but turned him into a cult hero in his home country.
McCain's ordeal began when his A-4 Skyhawk bomber plane was blasted out of the sky over North Vietnamese territory in 1967.
The 31-year-old Navy pilot's aircraft entered an "inverted, almost straight-down spin" after a surface-to-air missile tore off its right wing. He immediately ejected.
The sheer force of the ejection broke his right leg and both arms, knocking him unconscious as he landed in a lake near Hanoi.
McCain - who died yesterday at the age of 81 - came to as he struck the water and his heavy equipment dragged him to the depths.
Somehow McCain managed to activate his life jacket with his teeth and used his uninjured leg to kick to the surface.
But almost as soon as he gasped for air he was mobbed by Vietnamese soldiers who pulled him ashore and viciously attacked.
He suffered a shattered shoulder as he was hit with a rifle butt and was bayoneted in the stomach and foot.
For the next five and half years McCain endured brutal torture as a prisoner of war in a story of bravery that would come to define the US senator's legacy and earn him international fame.
During that time, he would suffer life changing injuries and face years of torment in solitary confinement - all while remarkably refusing to be released before his POW pals.
In the days after he was shot down, McCain "lapsed in and out of consciousness" while the North Vietnamese interrogated him.
Still seriously wounded, he was transported to the infamous Hoa Lo Prison, nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton, where he was beaten, lost 23kg and his hair turned white as snow.
"I refused to give them anything except my name, rank, serial number and date of birth," McCain said in an interview with US News shortly after his release.
His captors initially refused to give him any medical treatment but this changed when they learned his father was a US Admiral in the in Navy.
A lifeless McCain was then placed in a cell in a different camp with two other American POWs, who didn't expect him to live longer than a week.
In March 1968, he was placed in solitary confinement, where he would remain for two years.
During that time, however, his father was promoted and became the commander of all US Pacific forces.
Hearing the news and hoping to gain a propaganda victory, the North Vietnamese offered him early release from the hellish camp.
But brave McCain repeatedly refused, saying he would only accept if every other US soldier captured before him was freed as well.
A Vietnamese commandant, angered by his response, ordered guards to immediately beat him and knock his teeth out. McCain still refused to leave without the other POWs.
Then they started routinely torturing him.
“For the next four days, I was beaten every two or three hours by different guards. My left arm was broken again and my ribs were cracked,” the war hero said.
McCain said he reached "breaking point" and was reportedly considering suicide after the horrendous abuse.
He eventually agreed to write a confession for crimes committed against the North Vietnamese, but would still not accept the offer to escape.
Years later, in 1970, he was released from solitary, but remained in captivity for the rest of the war.
He was finally released after US officials signed the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973.
McCain's strength during captivity earned him admiration from officers at the Hanoi Hilton, who have come forward after his death to remember the uncompromising American soldier.
"It was his stubbornness, his strong stance that I loved when arguing with him," retired colonel Tran Trong Duyet told AFP.
The war hero's wounds left him with lifelong physical disabilities, including the inability to raise his arms above his head and a slight limp.
He was awarded the Silver Star, Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Following months of rehabilitation and years studying a the National War College, McCain retired from the army at the rank of captain in 1981.
A year later he became an elected representative for Arizona and then served in the US Congress for thirty-six years.
McCain ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000, then won it in 2008 before losing the general election to Obama.
When asked how he wanted to be remembered, the war veteran said: "That I made a major contribution to the defence of the nation."
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