Your editorial Wednesday concerning Donald Trump’s criticism of John McCain’s heroism was spot on. Trump’s snide remarks are way out of line.

My old Navy buddy, the late Al Stafford, was flying A-4s off the USS Oriskany when he was shot down over Hanoi in 1967. His replacement pilot was John McCain, who was shot down a few months later. Years later in 1990, Al collaborated with author Geoffrey Norman and published the book “Bouncing back, how a heroic band of POWs survived Vietnam.” In it he relates an interesting anecdotal insight into McCain’s character.

Like many Naval Aviators, Al was a bit of a renegade. He delighted in pushing his captors’ patience to the limit. Not surprisingly, he was rewarded with more than his fair share of time in solitary confinement. He was enduring an extended stay in an isolated cell the prisoners called the Corncrib at the prison they called Plantation when he first encountered John McCain. The following excerpt describes that encounter.

“Then, one morning as he (Stafford) stood at the door, watching through the cracks, he saw a POW on crutches being led slowly across the yard by a guard. The man had shockingly white hair, almost as though he had suffered some traumatic fright. Stafford knew that the man had to be John McCain. Nobody else in the Navy had hair like that.

“…As Stafford watched, McCain detoured out of his assigned path and hobbled a painful fifteen or twenty feet on his crutches before the guard could stop him. By then he was standing directly in front of Stafford’s cell.

“‘Hey, Al, baby,’ he said, cheerfully, as though they were meeting on the street somewhere. ‘You hang in there, now. Don’t let the bastards grind you down.’”

The Vietnam POWs networked in many ingenious ways. One method was by hiding notes to each other in secret stashes. Al found one such note from McCain when he went to bathe. It explained that he (McCain) had been Stafford’s replacement in VA-163 on the Oriskany, that he had been through the Green Knobby Room, in a cell at Hoa Lo, and finally moved to Plantation, just like Stafford. The note ended with these words: “Listen Al, since I seem to be following you around I would appreciate it if you didn’t do anything stupid and get us both in real trouble.”

With these acts, John McCain put himself at considerable risk to cheer a fellow prisoner suffering through an extended period of solitary confinement. Yes Mr. Trump, these men were and are true heroes, and your belittling of them is a disservice to you, not them.

BOB LaRUE

Hauser