Please bear with me here. I think it might have been 1975. I was like six. I recall like it was yesterday. My father was a professor at the Army War College. Fort Levenworth. I remember being told we were going to hear a "great" American speak.
That man was John McCain.
I recall like it was yesterday walking with my father, hand in hand. We got there and McCain took the stage and the place just erupted! It is one of my most powerful and early memories I have. I can't put to words what he said, how he told of how he was tortured. How he even joked about it.
I left that hall thinking McCain was a great American.
I have since questioned that. So has my father. I find that sad at levels I can't wrap my mind around. He seems to be a bitter old man.