| I cannot say which injury it was but he had major injuries twice in his naval career .
The first time was from a misfiring of a missile from a nearby jet on the carrier Forrester hit McCain's plane at the fuel tanks . McCain crawled out of his jet and jumping into the fire on the deck .Then rolled through the fireball .He then tried to save his fellow pilot but was blown back 10 feet by additional detonations . In all ;134 men were killed in the incident and 20 planes were destroyed before the fire was contained. It was the worst non-combat related accident in USN history .
McCain survived ,and then volunteered to continue his service.
The incident surrounding his time as a POW is even more heroic. He was on his 23rd bombing sorte 3 months after the Forrester incident when a Soviet SAM struck his plane taking off the right wing. He ejected but the force of the ejection broke both his arms and his kneecap . He was unconscious but came to as he plunged into a lake near his target . A mob gathered .The dragged him out of the lake ;broke his shoulder with a rifle butt and repeatedly bayonetted him. He was put in a truck and thrown into the Hanoi Hilton to die.
His condition deteriorated and he would've dies except for the ministery of his fellow POWs . A few months after his capture his father ,Adm Jack McCain ,was named commander of the Pacific . Now the N Vietnamese realized they had a propaganda tool in their possession. He was tortured ;finally broke and gave a "confession" .
The North Vietnamese offered him early release . He refuse citing a code of conduct that said POWs should be released in the order they were captured. He was again beaten for this defiance. In all he spent 51/2 years in the Hanoi Hilton. He rehabbed and again regained flight status.
I have not found any evidence of facial injuries during this time but it would not suprise me that he sustained injuries of that kind during the beatings he took. |