Of all the tales of wartime courage peppering John McCain's presidential campaign trail, there is one example of selfless heroism that stands out. Only in this story, the hero is not McCain but a humble Vietnamese peasant. On October 26, 1967, Mai Van On ran from the safety of a bomb shelter in Hanoi at the height of an air raid and swam out into the lake where Lieutenant Commander McCain was drowning, tangled in his parachute cord after ejecting when his Skyhawk bomber was hit by a missile.
In an extraordinary act of compassion at a time when Vietnamese citizens were being killed by US aerial bombardments, he pulled a barely conscious McCain to the lake surface and, with the help of a neighbour, dragged him towards the shore.
Then, when a furious mob at the water's edge began to beat and stab the captured pilot, On drove them back.
Nearly three decades later, the Vietnamese government confirmed he was indeed the rescuer and, in a 1996 meeting in Hanoi, McCain embraced and thanked On and presented him with a Senate memento.
From that brief encounter to his death at the age of 88 two years ago, On never heard from the senator again, and three years after their meeting, McCain published an autobiography that makes no mention of his apparent debt to On.
It is a snub On took to his death. His widow, Bui Thi Lien, 71, said: "In his last years, my husband was very sad sometimes. He would say, 'Mr McCain has forgotten me.' Mr McCain would be dead if it weren't for my husband. He would never have returned to his family and he wouldn't be in the presidential race today."
In his 1999 autobiography, Faith Of My Fathers, which laid the ground for his first, unsuccessful run for president in 2000, McCain wrote a Boy's Own-style narrative of his rescue: "When I came to, I was being hauled ashore on two bamboo poles," he wrote.
Things got ugly when he reached dry ground, the book recalls. "A crowd of several hundred Vietnamese gathered around me as I lay dazed before them, shouting wildly at me, stripping my clothes off, spitting on me, kicking and striking me repeatedly.'
What followed, according to McCain, was five-and-a-half years of torture and brutal beatings as a prisoner of war - an account that has given a steely edge to his candidacy by establishing him as a true American war hero.
But the story is at odds with the version uncovered by Vietnam veteran Chuck Searcy, who lives in Hanoi and is in charge of the Vietnam Veteran Memorial Fund.
"In 1995, Mr On gave me a letter he wanted me to deliver to McCain." said Searcy. "It said, 'I am the guy who pulled you out of the lake and I have followed your progress over the years. I wish the best for you and your family and I hope some day you will be president of the United States.'
"No one thought of McCain as a future president at that time. I thought it was endearing. I sent the letter to McCain's office and I got back a sniffy response from some assistant saying, 'Mr McCain isn't interested in these fanciful stories.'"
The reason for the response was that, now he was a prominent senator, claiming to have saved McCain had become something of a cottage industry in Hanoi.
Searcy, 63, said: "There had been a lot of preposterous claims and I was skeptical at first. But I asked the neighbours around the lake if it was true and they said that was exactly how it happened."
Later the same year, Searcy met McCain at a veterans' reunion in Washington. "I mentioned the story of Mr On to him," he said. "He said 'Do you think this guy is for real?' and I said 'Yes, all the neighbours have confirmed it'. And he said 'Hell, I would like to meet this guy - next time I come over there, I'll set it up'."
McCain, then closely involved in rebuilding US-Vietnam relations, visited Hanoi in 1996, and a meeting was arranged with Searcy and On.
The get-together was overseen by Vietnamese government officials who, Searcy said, set up a commission of inquiry and confirmed On as the rescuer before allowing the meeting.
Searcy said: "Mr On was a wiry little guy. He looked as if he had only ever shaved once or twice and he had his old uniform on. He raced up to McCain and kept repeating his name as he embraced him."
Then, through an interpreter, On recounted the events of that day as McCain listened. "He launched into a very emotional description," said Searcy. "Mr On told him that suddenly they had seen this parachute coming down into their small lake.
"Everybody was afraid because they knew it was an American pilot and they didn't know what to do. He said he just instinctively grabbed this big bamboo log and threw it into the water and jumped in after it.
"One of his neighbors joined him and the two of them swam out to the parachute. Apparently McCain had broken both arms and one leg, and had sunk to the bottom, but they pulled him out of the lake.
"When they got to the bank, a couple of men attacked McCain, breaking his shoulder with a rifle butt and stabbing his leg. Mr On and a nurse who was at the scene both intervened.
"Mr On pushed them back and said: 'Stop. Leave him alone. When he was in the air bombing us, he was the enemy, but now he is on the ground, he is a helpless human being and you are not going to hurt him'. The crowd immediately backed away.
"That day, Mr On saved McCain twice - once from drowning and a second time from maybe being killed by the mob.
"McCain listened to Mr On. then he just nodded, said, 'Thank you very much,' and gave On a little Senate seal.
"It was the kind of thing you buy in the souvenir shop in the Senate basement. But Mr On, to the day he died, treated it as if it were a Congressional Medal of Honour."
Although McCain appeared to believe the story, it was one he would later seem to ignore in his autobiography and there was no more contact between the two men.
A decade later in 2006 when On died, an email was sent to McCain's office by a family friend requesting a message of condolence for the family. There was no response.
Article from earthtimes.org.If this is true ...well...nothing to say..
Saturday, October 25, 2008
My dear Soldiers--Poem By APJ
Oh! Defenders of borders
You are great sons of my land
When we are all asleep
You still hold on to your deed
Windy season or snowy days
Or scorching sun's sweltering rays
You are there guarding all the time awake
Treading the lonely expanses as yogis
Climbing the heights or striding the valleys
Defending the deserts or guarding the marshes
Surveillance in seas and by securing the air
Prime of your youth given to the nation!!
Wind chimes of my land vibrate your feat
We pray for you brave men!!
May the Lord bless you all!!
APJ Abdul Kalam-President of India from 25thJuly2002-25thJuly2007
Post Courtesy abdulkalam.nic.in
Friday, October 24, 2008
Gilchrist slams Tendulkar of being a liar !!!!
The Australian Cricket team reeling under one of their heaviest defeats
(320 runs to be precise) to India has got one of their retired chatterbox
Adam Gilchrist to selectively leak extracts from his autobiography.
He might be having 2 distinct goals here.One is obviously to create a
controversy and dilute the high moral of the Indian Cricket Team.The other
goal is surely aimed at filling his own pocket.
Mr Gilchrist is surely hoping that his autobiography sells like
hot potatoes.He is accusing no less than a person of the stature of
Sachin Tendulkar of cheating.Surely his autobiagraphy is going to make
him richer.
Mr Adam Gilchrist thinks he is the owner of the word honesty.He might
be thinking that by walking even when umpires gave him not out,he had
earned a name for himself for his honesty during his playing days.And so,
now,he can judge who is honest and who is not honest.He convinently
forgets the number of instances he appealed for obvious no-outs in his
capacity as a wicketkeeper.
Sachin Tendulkar,the world knows is a player of impeccable behaviour
and credentials on and off the field.Even Australia's greatest player
Sir Don Bradman was impressed with Sachin so much that he invited
Sachin to meet him and famously said that Sachin reminds him of his
own batting.Sachin's career spanning almost 19 years is an open book
and except for a wrong accusation of ball tampering,no one ever had
any bad thing to say about him.
Mr.Gilchrist should know that Indian Cricket lovers who hugely admired
Gilchrist are terribly disappointed and are seething with anger at these
unwarranted autobiographical lies.Sachin is one of India's National Icons
and people like Gilchrist should be careful about his own personal security
if he is planning to visit India after this mud-slinging.
Have a look at the news report in smh.com.au on extracts of his
autobiography:-
"
Former Australian vice-captain Adam Gilchrist is set to further inflame tensions between the two most powerful cricketing nations by questioning India's sportsmanship - singling out their greatest player, Sachin Tendulkar.
The retired wicketkeeper claimed the biggest difference between Australia and India was that his former teammates left hostilities on the field while many of their antagonists including Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh often snubbed their opponents.
The explosive claims in Gilchrist's autobiography, to be released next week, centre on the hostilities between the two cricketing powers last summer which escalated after the Indians claimed Australia had not played in the spirit of the game.
Gilchrist surprisingly hinted at tensions with Tendulkar, revealing he was "hard to find for a changing room handshake after we have beaten India", and questioned his honesty during the Monkeygate scandal.
He also continued the Australians' attack on off spinner Singh, who was accused of racism, and criticised both the Indian and Australian boards for their handling of the scandal, which he said drove "a stake through the entire summer".
Writing about the dramatic final moments of the SCG Test when the last two batsmen, Anil Kumble and Ishant Sharma, walked off without any Australians offering a handshake, Gilchrist said: "We went into the Indian changing room and shook hands.
"Not all their players could be found, which points to another subtle cultural difference. In the Australian mentality, we play it hard and are then quick to shake hands and leave it all on the field. Some of our opponents don't do it that way. Sachin Tendulkar, for instance, can be hard to find for a changing room handshake after we have beaten India. Harbhajan can also be hard to find.
"I guess it's a case of different strokes for different folks. But the criticism of us for not immediately shaking hands with Kumble and Sharma was unfair, and typified a moment when everything we did was wrong."
In his book True Colours, serialised in tomorrow's Good Weekend Magazine, Gilchrist also took aim at the Indian players and officials over the major scandal of the tour - Symonds's claims that Singh called him a monkey, which began after the off spinner patted Brett Lee on the backside as they passed mid-pitch.
Recalling the events of the day which seem to have tarnished the relationship between the nations, Gilchrist said: "The next thing I saw, Symo … said to Harbhajan something like, 'Don't touch him, you've got no friends out here."'
Gilchrist said he next heard Matthew Hayden tell Harbhajan, "You've got a witness now," before overhearing the spinner telling skipper Ricky Ponting, "Sorry, I apologise, it won't happen again."
"The look on Harbhajan's face was very telling," Gilchrist said. "He looked like he was thinking, 'Oh shit. What have I done here? They're all over me."'
Gilchrist, Australia's leading gloveman when it comes to dismissals and one of the most exhilarating batsmen of his generation, saved some of his harshest criticism for officials from both countries following Monkeygate, accusing the Indian board of "playing politics" and Cricket Australia and the ICC of "caving in" when the spinner's original charge was downgraded and his suspension quashed.
"The Indian board made threats that they would take the team home - a disgraceful act, holding the game to ransom unless they got their way," Gilchrist said.
He also took aim at Tendulkar for changing his story in an appeal he described as a "joke".
"Tendulkar, who'd said at the first hearing that he hadn't been able to hear what Harbhajan had said - and he was a fair way away, up the other end, so I'm certain he was telling the truth - now supported Harbhajan's version that he hadn't called Symo a 'monkey' but instead a Hindi term of abuse that might sound like 'monkey' to Australian ears," Gilchrist said. "The Indians got him off the hook when they, of all people, should have been treating the matter of racial vilification with the utmost seriousness."
".
Now these are all his versions.Who is he.How can anybody believe him.
He himself says here that the Australian Team did not shake
hand with the last Indian batting pair on the field.He is talking about
incidents in the Sydney test,a test Australia won by CHEATING.
He himself appealed for a catch of Dravid which was upheld by the
umpire when it was very clearly not out.From the TV footage taken from
stump camera,it's clear to every one who watched it that it
would have been clearly visible to him that the ball came off the pad.
He himself was accused by many of bad sportsman spirit in that game.
Where was he when his own captain Ricky Ponting claimed a bump catch.
TV footages showed clearly that it was a bump catch.Ponting surely would
have known because his hand hit the ground with the ball hitting the
ground first.What about Michael Clarke,he gave a catch to second slip,
still he waited as though he was not out.
All these incidents prompted the Indian captain Anil Kumble,who
normally,rarely accuses any one,to say that only the Indian team was
playing in the spirit of the game in that ill-tempered match.
Hope Mr.Gilchrist is accusing his teammates also of cheating in his
going-to-be-money-spinner-autobiography!.It's ok if he does not mention
that he himself cheated.After all it's his autobiography.
The Australian teams always had some thing to say,some times creating
ugly scenes.Instances are so many.Who can forget McGrath's behaviour on
the field on many occassions,Slater's angry words to Dravid etc etc...
One of their greatest player,Steve Waugh,even gave a pet name for this
onfield ugly-talking business.Mental disintegration.
The problem now is this:When the Australians started to get a taste of
their own medicine from teams like India they are not able to tolerate.
They are crying like napkin babies.
It's a fact that Harbhajan is not famous for his good behaviour on the
field.But the player involved,Andrew Symonds, in the incident with him
is not a Saint for sure,every body knows that.People have seen his on
field behaviour.
There are around 10 to 12 teams playing International cricket and it's
absolutely sure that none of the teams who played Australia for atleast
a few games will be having a good impression of Australian players'
behaviour. Even their cricket board had some programme to improve the
image of their national team.During this period when the Australian
behaviour was at its worst this "great honest man"
was part of the Australian cricket team as Vice-Captain!!!.He could have
given lecture to his team mates on onfield behaviour and HONESTY tricks
and tips.
Now to conclude this :
SACHIN does not need a certificate in honesty from "Adam Gilchrist University".Sachin is a GEM.Once in a generation Cricketer.A great
player,a great human being,still very humble,very polite.He is a role
model for all cricket lovers.Hope Sachin does not get upset with what
Gilchrist "The Honest Man" says.Afterall when we walk on the roads,some
times we see stray dogs barking.
What do we do..We walk away without minding it....
(320 runs to be precise) to India has got one of their retired chatterbox
Adam Gilchrist to selectively leak extracts from his autobiography.
He might be having 2 distinct goals here.One is obviously to create a
controversy and dilute the high moral of the Indian Cricket Team.The other
goal is surely aimed at filling his own pocket.
Mr Gilchrist is surely hoping that his autobiography sells like
hot potatoes.He is accusing no less than a person of the stature of
Sachin Tendulkar of cheating.Surely his autobiagraphy is going to make
him richer.
Mr Adam Gilchrist thinks he is the owner of the word honesty.He might
be thinking that by walking even when umpires gave him not out,he had
earned a name for himself for his honesty during his playing days.And so,
now,he can judge who is honest and who is not honest.He convinently
forgets the number of instances he appealed for obvious no-outs in his
capacity as a wicketkeeper.
Sachin Tendulkar,the world knows is a player of impeccable behaviour
and credentials on and off the field.Even Australia's greatest player
Sir Don Bradman was impressed with Sachin so much that he invited
Sachin to meet him and famously said that Sachin reminds him of his
own batting.Sachin's career spanning almost 19 years is an open book
and except for a wrong accusation of ball tampering,no one ever had
any bad thing to say about him.
Mr.Gilchrist should know that Indian Cricket lovers who hugely admired
Gilchrist are terribly disappointed and are seething with anger at these
unwarranted autobiographical lies.Sachin is one of India's National Icons
and people like Gilchrist should be careful about his own personal security
if he is planning to visit India after this mud-slinging.
Have a look at the news report in smh.com.au on extracts of his
autobiography:-
"
Former Australian vice-captain Adam Gilchrist is set to further inflame tensions between the two most powerful cricketing nations by questioning India's sportsmanship - singling out their greatest player, Sachin Tendulkar.
The retired wicketkeeper claimed the biggest difference between Australia and India was that his former teammates left hostilities on the field while many of their antagonists including Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh often snubbed their opponents.
The explosive claims in Gilchrist's autobiography, to be released next week, centre on the hostilities between the two cricketing powers last summer which escalated after the Indians claimed Australia had not played in the spirit of the game.
Gilchrist surprisingly hinted at tensions with Tendulkar, revealing he was "hard to find for a changing room handshake after we have beaten India", and questioned his honesty during the Monkeygate scandal.
He also continued the Australians' attack on off spinner Singh, who was accused of racism, and criticised both the Indian and Australian boards for their handling of the scandal, which he said drove "a stake through the entire summer".
Writing about the dramatic final moments of the SCG Test when the last two batsmen, Anil Kumble and Ishant Sharma, walked off without any Australians offering a handshake, Gilchrist said: "We went into the Indian changing room and shook hands.
"Not all their players could be found, which points to another subtle cultural difference. In the Australian mentality, we play it hard and are then quick to shake hands and leave it all on the field. Some of our opponents don't do it that way. Sachin Tendulkar, for instance, can be hard to find for a changing room handshake after we have beaten India. Harbhajan can also be hard to find.
"I guess it's a case of different strokes for different folks. But the criticism of us for not immediately shaking hands with Kumble and Sharma was unfair, and typified a moment when everything we did was wrong."
In his book True Colours, serialised in tomorrow's Good Weekend Magazine, Gilchrist also took aim at the Indian players and officials over the major scandal of the tour - Symonds's claims that Singh called him a monkey, which began after the off spinner patted Brett Lee on the backside as they passed mid-pitch.
Recalling the events of the day which seem to have tarnished the relationship between the nations, Gilchrist said: "The next thing I saw, Symo … said to Harbhajan something like, 'Don't touch him, you've got no friends out here."'
Gilchrist said he next heard Matthew Hayden tell Harbhajan, "You've got a witness now," before overhearing the spinner telling skipper Ricky Ponting, "Sorry, I apologise, it won't happen again."
"The look on Harbhajan's face was very telling," Gilchrist said. "He looked like he was thinking, 'Oh shit. What have I done here? They're all over me."'
Gilchrist, Australia's leading gloveman when it comes to dismissals and one of the most exhilarating batsmen of his generation, saved some of his harshest criticism for officials from both countries following Monkeygate, accusing the Indian board of "playing politics" and Cricket Australia and the ICC of "caving in" when the spinner's original charge was downgraded and his suspension quashed.
"The Indian board made threats that they would take the team home - a disgraceful act, holding the game to ransom unless they got their way," Gilchrist said.
He also took aim at Tendulkar for changing his story in an appeal he described as a "joke".
"Tendulkar, who'd said at the first hearing that he hadn't been able to hear what Harbhajan had said - and he was a fair way away, up the other end, so I'm certain he was telling the truth - now supported Harbhajan's version that he hadn't called Symo a 'monkey' but instead a Hindi term of abuse that might sound like 'monkey' to Australian ears," Gilchrist said. "The Indians got him off the hook when they, of all people, should have been treating the matter of racial vilification with the utmost seriousness."
".
Now these are all his versions.Who is he.How can anybody believe him.
He himself says here that the Australian Team did not shake
hand with the last Indian batting pair on the field.He is talking about
incidents in the Sydney test,a test Australia won by CHEATING.
He himself appealed for a catch of Dravid which was upheld by the
umpire when it was very clearly not out.From the TV footage taken from
stump camera,it's clear to every one who watched it that it
would have been clearly visible to him that the ball came off the pad.
He himself was accused by many of bad sportsman spirit in that game.
Where was he when his own captain Ricky Ponting claimed a bump catch.
TV footages showed clearly that it was a bump catch.Ponting surely would
have known because his hand hit the ground with the ball hitting the
ground first.What about Michael Clarke,he gave a catch to second slip,
still he waited as though he was not out.
All these incidents prompted the Indian captain Anil Kumble,who
normally,rarely accuses any one,to say that only the Indian team was
playing in the spirit of the game in that ill-tempered match.
Hope Mr.Gilchrist is accusing his teammates also of cheating in his
going-to-be-money-spinner-autobiography!.It's ok if he does not mention
that he himself cheated.After all it's his autobiography.
The Australian teams always had some thing to say,some times creating
ugly scenes.Instances are so many.Who can forget McGrath's behaviour on
the field on many occassions,Slater's angry words to Dravid etc etc...
One of their greatest player,Steve Waugh,even gave a pet name for this
onfield ugly-talking business.Mental disintegration.
The problem now is this:When the Australians started to get a taste of
their own medicine from teams like India they are not able to tolerate.
They are crying like napkin babies.
It's a fact that Harbhajan is not famous for his good behaviour on the
field.But the player involved,Andrew Symonds, in the incident with him
is not a Saint for sure,every body knows that.People have seen his on
field behaviour.
There are around 10 to 12 teams playing International cricket and it's
absolutely sure that none of the teams who played Australia for atleast
a few games will be having a good impression of Australian players'
behaviour. Even their cricket board had some programme to improve the
image of their national team.During this period when the Australian
behaviour was at its worst this "great honest man"
was part of the Australian cricket team as Vice-Captain!!!.He could have
given lecture to his team mates on onfield behaviour and HONESTY tricks
and tips.
Now to conclude this :
SACHIN does not need a certificate in honesty from "Adam Gilchrist University".Sachin is a GEM.Once in a generation Cricketer.A great
player,a great human being,still very humble,very polite.He is a role
model for all cricket lovers.Hope Sachin does not get upset with what
Gilchrist "The Honest Man" says.Afterall when we walk on the roads,some
times we see stray dogs barking.
What do we do..We walk away without minding it....
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