On Tuesday, March 7, 2017, at 7:30 p.m. the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, chaired by Rep. Phil Roe, M.D., held a hearing entitled, “Shaping the Future: Consolidating and Improving VA Community Care.” This hearing examined the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Choice Program and the future of VA community care programs, authorities and budget impact. The Honorable John McCain, U.S. Senator (R-Ariz) testified on Panel 1. VA Secretary David J Shulin M.D.; Baligh Yehia MD Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Community Care-VHA; Michael J. Missal, Inspector General U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Randy Williamson- Director, Health Care, Government Accountability Office testified on Panel 2. (VA photo/ Robert Turtil)
BRIGHT editor Lisa De Pasquale shares a story from Phoenix radio host and author Mike Broomhead:
The best moments I’ve shared with Senator McCain were when he was just talking about his time as a POW. One of the best is when he talked about a code he and the other POWs would tap on the walls to each other. He tapped on the desk where we were sitting and showed me how they would communicate. I said, “Wait a minute. Wait a minute. We’ve got to talk about this on the air.”
We scrapped everything planned for the interview about foreign policy, and taxes, and everything else, and I just asked him about those stories.
Basically, he and the other POWs broke the alphabet into three segments. The first tap was whether the letter was in segment one, two, or three. Then, it was which letter it was in the alphabet from there. Instead of the word “and,” they would just hit the letter “N” to abbreviate it. I said to Senator McCain, “You guys were text messaging on the walls of the Hanoi Hilton.”
He laughed about it. “Yeah, I guess we were.”
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