Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Last night’s speech by Gov. Sarah Palin had many solid points and answers, even if the MSM the day after is refusing to recognize them. She also had several “kisses” she blew at the American people.

The one ‘kiss’ you all probably thought stuck the hardest hockey mom lipstick print with me was the one where she looked directly into the TV camera … directly into mine and my husband’s eyes … and vowed to us that ‘if’ she and John McCain get into the White House we, as families of special needs children, WILL have a friend and an advocate. Yeah, that one pulled a bit of moisture from the corner of my eye, when you consider the opposing political party believes such children should be dumped in soiled laundry bins in a hospital closet to die in the darkness cold and alone.

No, she didn’t actually put hand to mouth and peck and blow into the camera … but that ‘kiss’ was still there, just the same.

The kiss we all saw … that LONG over due kiss Gov. (and future VP) Sarah Palin placed lovingly on her hand and blew to a man, to an entire generation of men called to duty at that time in our history, was a collective kiss from all of us to our Vietnam Veterans, and to our Vietnam military POWs … MIAs and those who did not make it home.

That “silly little female” gesture … that soft and feminine signal of singled-out affection from afar … that sweet and quiet recognition, and the allure of all things wonderful, warm, and divine and womanly … to a man, a survivor of all the filth and pain of this world’s cruelty and evil, and to all his fellow captive brothers … Sarah Palin delivered that airy kiss to Tom Moe and to ALL our POW/MIA and Veterans from Vietnam.

And THAT ‘kiss’ brought more than one tear from the corners of my eyes.

(Palin’s dedication to Moe at about 37:00 of the video)

A fellow prisoner of war, a man named Tom Moe of Lancaster, Ohio, recalls looking through a pin-hole in his cell door as Lieutenant Commander John McCain was led down the hallway, by the guards, day after day.

As the story is told, “When McCain shuffled back from torturous interrogations, he would turn toward Moe’s door and flash a grin and thumbs up” - as if to say, “We’re going to pull through this.” My fellow Americans, that is the kind of man America needs to see us through these next four years.

Moe, McCain’s friendship forged in Vietnam’s infamous Hanoi Hilton

By Laura A. Bischoff - (Dayton Daily News)

LANCASTER — As a prisoner of war, Tom Moe refused early release from the “Hanoi Hilton” and stuck by his compatriots.

A few men left. Now, Moe wouldn’t give them the time of day. But for those who endured torture and beatings year after year and who refused to abandon their fellow Americans, Moe shares a special bond.

It’s a bond he shares with John McCain.

A few months into his five years as a POW, Moe met McCain, Navy aviator. Although he doesn’t remember the specifics, he said it was probably just a quick exchange of names while the guards were moving them through the prison camp. Soon enough, McCain made an impression on Moe, who lived across the hall. The two “communicated” by flashing their hands along the bottom of their doorways, working out signals.

Moe used a tiny wire to poke a pinhole into his cell door so he could watch guards and prisoners in the hallway. When McCain shuffled back from torturous interrogations, he would turn toward Moe’s door and flash a grin and thumbs up.

“I look back and that vision of him looking over at me and going ‘we’re going to pull through this’ under terrible, terrible conditions is a great memory for me,” Moe said.

Conditions were horrific.

Moe was forced to huddle on a stool in the same position 24 hours a day for 10 straight days. Guards stuffed a rag into his mouth, draped another rag over his mouth and slowly poured water onto his face until he thrashed in panic and passed out. They shackled him so tightly his arms turned black. They beat him so badly his kidneys shut down, ribs cracked and eyes swelled shut. Six feet tall, his weight dipped below 100 pounds.

Moe spent nine months without seeing, hearing or talking to another American. He lived in a 6-foot by about 4-foot concrete cell. In his head, he made lists, designed homes, derived mathematical formulas, reviewed the German he had learned in college. Anything to pass the time.

Moe and McCain were released together, along with dozens of other POWs in March 1973. Moe walked off a plane at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base into the arms of his wife, Chris, and his daughter, Connie, who had grown during his captivity from a baby to a 6-year-old girl.

Moe, 64, is now coordinating Ohio veterans for McCain and plans to offer his home on 37 acres in Fairfield County for a McCain campaign fund-raiser.

“I’m going to suggest it. We got the space. He’s probably booked up to the convention but I’ll put a bug in his ear — come to Fairfield County and get some support,” Moe said.

McCain can probably appreciate the home. It’s a composite of the ones Moe designed in his head during their stay at the Hanoi Hilton.

Ex-POW buddy campaigns for McCain

By Laura A. Bischoff - (Dayton Daily News)

LANCASTER — Tom Moe was a 23-year-old Air Force fighter pilot in Vietnam in January 1968 when a bomb fuse malfunctioned and blew up his F-4C jet over enemy territory.

Moe ejected, parachuted into a tree, scampered down and ran from enemy fire. He hid under a log and awaited rescue.

Instead, the North Vietnamese soldiers captured him and marched him into hell.

That’s where he met John McCain.

“He was my next-door neighbor,” Moe said.

Moe, now a 64-year-old retired Air Force colonel, was held for five years in prison camps in Hanoi, where he got to know McCain and other “guests” of the Hanoi Hilton.

Now that McCain is the presumptive Republican nominee for president, Moe’s friendship with the senator from Arizona — forged in a POW camp — is being extended to the campaign trail.

Eighteen months ago, Moe agreed to campaign for McCain when another former POW asked him to come on board. Moe, who lives in Fairfield County near Columbus, is coordinating the veterans for McCain group in Ohio and spends hours each day on the phone and computer, campaigning for McCain.

He’ll be a delegate for McCain at the GOP convention in Minneapolis later this year.

“I’ve never been in politics before in any form or another, but when I was called by John McCain’s right-hand man, Orson Swindle, to work for John McCain in Ohio, there was no question I wanted to do this,” Moe said. “I wanted to work with him, for him, because I believe in him. It’s a new experience for me.”