RIP @senjohnmccain These are some images of Senator #johnmccain of #Arizona from the Hoa Lo Prison museum, where he was a POW. From upper left (clockwise): (1) photo of him being treated by a doctor (not representative of how any of them were treated generally; see below); (2) interior of a regular cell; (3) a video still of him revisiting the prison (you can see the windows in the video are the same as the room where you watch the video now as a tourist); (4) him on another return visit. I hope it helped him come to terms with what happened to him there, to the extent that’s possible. . . You’re probably familiar with the story, but when I visited #hoaloprison a/k/a the #hanoihilton , I couldn’t help recalling Sen. McCain’s ordeal. . . In being shot down during a bombing run over Hanoi, both his arms and one leg were broken and he had a concussion as he fell into a lake. The soldiers who fished him out stabbed him in the crotch with a bayonet and broke his shoulder with a rifle butt. Given how hated American bombers were then, it’s a miracle they didn’t just kill him. . . For a week after he was taken to the prison, he received no medical treatment while, at the same time, being tortured. And even when he finally received medical care, it was minimal (some bone setting) and without anesthesia. . . After the powers that be realized that he was the son of an admiral, they offered to release him, but he refused because military code dictated that POWs should be released in the order of capture and other prisoners had been there longer. . . He spent a total of five and a half years in the prison, two years of that in solitary. . . Regardless of one’s politics or views of the war, I hope people can agree that he demonstrated tremendous honor in service to his country. I hope his loved ones find solace in this time of grief. . . . #hanoi #vietnam #vietnamwar #history #discoverearth #discoverglobe #natgeoexpedition #aroundtheworld #photographylife #globeshotz #visualambassadors @adventurerfeatured @eye_on_the_shot @cntraveler @condenasttraveller (at Hanoi)
