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John McCain’s POW cellmate says his death is hard to accept | ‘I was devastated’

McCain was a Navy pilot who was captured during the Vietnam War and held prisoner for five years. One of his POW cellmates reflects on the kind of man he was and the legacy he leaves.
Credit: O'Keefe, PJ
Colonel John Fer remembers his POW cellmate, Sen. John McCain

NEW MARKET, Md. (WUSA9) -- Senator John McCain is remembered as much more than just a politician; he was also a war hero.

McCain was a Navy pilot who was captured during the Vietnam War and held prisoner for five years.

No one knows what that experience was like better than the soldiers who were held with him. One of those fellow prisoners was Colonel John Fer.

It was hard to hear the news that Senator McCain died on Saturday, which was one day after his family announced he was stopping treatment for brain cancer.

“That was the big shock for me,” Fer said. “That it happened so rapidly. No more treatment. Bingo. The next thing he’s died.”

Colonel Fer became friends with McCain in the unlikely place of imprisonment under extreme circumstances in brutal conditions

“You were isolated, and under great duress, and pain in many respects for a good bit of time,” Col. Fer described.

The men were both prisoners of war (POWs) and cellmates in North Vietnam.

“He was so badly beat up,” Col. Fer recalled. “He was in a body cast. He was in terrible shape.”

One year ago, Col. Fer sat down with WUSA9’s Bruce Leshan when McCain’s cancer diagnosis was first announced.

Col. Fer felt strongly that McCain was going to be able to beat the rare form of cancer.

“It makes me feel uncomfortable in the sense that I’m following up on what the doctors prophesied, so to speak, or predicted – what’s the inevitable,” Col. Fer reflected. “That’s was hard to accept I think.”

Colonel Fer remembered being a POW and hearing how McCain’s plane was shot down in 1967.

“He described to me how that rocket went off, struck his airplane, and there is this big sheet of flames, there’s fuel all over,” he said.

Colonel Fer also recalled the time he first learned – through secret code – that McCain was captured and at the camp.

“I said ‘wow John McCain. Admiral McCain’s son. I want to meet him someday. I would love to meet him someday,’" Col. Fer remembered.

The two became friends, served on the communications team in the camp, and kept in contact as much as they could after they were released.

Colonel Fer followed McCain’s political career.

“John, I never considered to be a politician,” he said. “I always considered him to be an upstanding, reputable individual (who) went into politics to do a better job for America.”

Colonel Fer thought one of McCain’s best speeches was when he returned to the Senate floor after the diagnosis.

“That is, I think, the biggest legacy he left himself: What we are capable of being in what we are not right now,” Col. Fer said.

“Well done good and faithful servant. You’ve made us all proud and you have done well for America. You’ve awakened America again. We’ll try to live up to your expectations."

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