Ask a veteran, and most will tell you they are not heroes. I share this sentiment. I do not feel like a hero, and I do not call myself one—I reserve that title for my fellow veterans who fought and paid the ultimate sacrifice with their lives. I reserve that title for my wife, Shirley, who held our family together while I was rotting in a cell in the Hanoi Hilton for nearly seven years during the Vietnam War. They are heroes. They served our country faithfully and with all their heart. I am grateful for them.
If not a hero, I am, however, a proud American veteran. I hold the deep conviction that our country should respect the service of all our faithful troops and veterans. Diminishing the courage and patriotism it takes to leave your family, face the enemy and even—God forbid—endure wartime torture has no place in a post-Vietnam America. Comments like those of Donald Trump, or any other American, suggesting that veterans like Senator John McCain or any other of America's honorable POWs are less brave for having been captured are not only misguided—they are ungrateful and naïve. I’m reminded of a phrase I will never forget that was etched on the prison wall by a fellow captive in Vietnam. It read, “Freedom has a taste to it to those who fight and almost die that the protected will never know.”
