(3 Dec 1996) Eng/Viet/Nat
After nearly thirty years, U-S Senator John McCain returned to Vietnam to meet the man who saved his life.
McCain was shot down while flying sorties over Hanoi in 1967.
A Vietnamese man who witnessed McCain's plane crash into a lake rushed to the aircraft and pulled McCain to safety, risking his own life as bullets continued to rain down during the battle.
This is the place where U-S Senator John McCain fell out of the sky nearly thirty years ago.
His Navy fighter-bomber was hit from enemy fire as he was flying sorties over Hanoi.
McCain bailed out, hoping to safely land on soft ground near Truc Bach Lake.
Seriously injured, he landed instead in deep water as heavy fire continued to rain down around him.
McCain felt certain he would die.
Then he saw the face of the man who would save his life.
29 years later, McCain got to see that face again.
SOUNDBITE (Vietnamese)
"Oh my God, 29 years and now we see each other again!"
SUPERCAPTION: Mr. Mai Van On
In an emotional reunion, retired Vietnamese factory-worker Mai Van On met with the former Navy pilot whose life he saved during the war.
On, now 79, described how in October of 1967, he was eating lunch at his home next to Hanoi's Truc Bach Lake
Suddenly American fighter-bombers shrieked low overhead, followed by the destructive chaos of bombs, machine-gun fire, rockets and explosions.
A plane was hit and its pilot bailed out over the lake.
SOUNDBITE (Vietnamese)
"I looked up to watch it as I was sitting in the shelter. I wanted to run out of the shelter, but the people there didn't agree. They said I'd die if I went out when the aircraft were shooting crazily like that. The bullets were falling like rain on the lake.
SUPERCAPTION: Mai Van On
On's countrymen urged him to let the pilot die rather than risk his own life saving him.
But On didn't listen.
He jumped from the shelter, grabbed a large bamboo pole and plunged into the lake.
SOUNDBITE (Vietnamese)
"Four other American aircraft were coming down to look for him, but the Vietnamese guns were shooting so hard the aircraft had to fly back up."
SUPERCAPTION: Mai Van On
McCain recalls being semi-conscious, with his leg and collarbone broken.
He sank beneath the lake's surface, and all On found was his parachute.
SOUNDBITE (Vietnamese)
"I held the bamboo under my armpit, grabbed the parachute and pulled it, and then I saw the head of the pilot popping up."
SUPERCAPTION: Mai Van On
When they reached the shore, On rescued McCain again, this time
from an angry crowd who wanted to beat the pilot and push him back
into the lake.
Having survived his fall, McCain suffered for the next five years as a prisoner of war in the "Hanoi Hilton," .
But On's troubles were only just beginning - he faced isolation from neighbours who were angry with him for rescuing a hated American pilot moments after he'd been attacking them.
SOUNDBITE: (Vietnamese)
"I don't hate him. When he was in the sky, he shot at us. But when he fell into the lake, he was in danger. I had to save him. How can you hate someone who's in a situation like that?"
SUPERCAPTION: Mai Van On
McCain warmly thanked the man who rescued him, and expressed pleasure at meeting him under happier circumstances.
SOUNDBITE:
"Obviously he's in very good health; I can tell that by the way he greeted me."
SUPERCAPTION: U-S Senator John McCain
The American friend who arranged the reunion says that now, years later, On sees a larger purpose for what he did that day in 1967.
SUPERCAPTION:
SUPERCAPTION: Chuck Searcy
SOUNDBITE: (Vietnamese)
SUPERCAPTION: Mai Van On
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6 сен 2024
