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Colorado delegate, McCain were fellow prisoners of war

By Lisa Ryckman, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published June 20, 2008 at 8:44 p.m.

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Tom Kirk returns home after 5 1/2 as a prisoner of war.

Tom Kirk returns home after 5 1/2 as a prisoner of war.

Tom Kirk a prisoner of war in Vietnam for five and a half years, shared a cell with Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

Photo by Judy DeHaas © The Rocky

Tom Kirk a prisoner of war in Vietnam for five and a half years, shared a cell with Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

Hoa Lo Prison also known at the Hanoi Hilton

Photo by Judy DeHaas © The Rocky

Hoa Lo Prison also known at the Hanoi Hilton

Kirk is shown next to his aircraft during his military service.

Kirk is shown next to his aircraft during his military service.

President Nixon greets John McCain after he was released from North Vietnam.

Photo by Getty Images

President Nixon greets John McCain after he was released from North Vietnam.

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At last month's Colorado GOP convention, 380 delegate-wannabes each had exactly 15 seconds to make a pitch for enough votes to win a seat at the national convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

For one man, that fraction of a minute was plenty.

"My name is Tom Kirk," he told conventioneers at the Broomfield Event Center in May. "I'm a retired Air Force colonel, and I was shot down over Hanoi during the Vietnam War. I spent 51/2 years as a POW. John McCain was one of my cellmates."

Enough said.

With his McCain connection, Kirk easily landed one of Colorado's 22 elected delegate spots to September's Republican National Convention, where he plans to cast an enthusiastic vote for the man he lived with for four months at the Hoa Lo Prison — the infamous "Hanoi Hilton."

"I feel very strongly about John," said Kirk, 79, a Vail resident for 16 years. "It's such a shame that more Americans can't get to know him better."

Very few people know Sen. John McCain the way Ret. Air Force Col. Thomas Kirk Jr. does.

A native of Portsmouth, Va., Kirk graduated from Virginia Military Institute in 1950, earned his wings from the U.S. Air Force a year later and flew 50 missions during the Korean War. He had completed 166 combat missions in Vietnam and was a squadron commander leading a raid when his F-105 fighter was shot down on Oct. 28, 1967 — two days after McCain's plane was shot down.

Kirk hit the ground unconscious and was captured immediately. From that time until his release on March 14, 1973, he was routinely tortured, beaten and kept in mind- numbing isolation, fed a single bowl of soup a day and forced to use a 5-gallon paint can for a toilet.

"There was nothing to do, nothing to read, nothing to write. You had to just sit there in absolute boredom, loneliness, frustration and fear," Kirk said. "You had to live one day at a time, because you had no idea how long you were going to be there."

During his imprisonment, Kirk lost half of his 185 pounds but managed to keep mind and body together with mental and physical exercise. He would walk in his cell — three and a half steps across, three and a half steps back — until he had covered four miles each day, followed by situps, pushups and knee bends.

A musician, Kirk kept sharp by using a stick as a faux flute to practice up to five hours a day. Always fascinated by numbers, he figured mortgage amortization tables in his head and created a complete business plan for a cattle ranch he hoped to start when he got home. And although they never saw each other, Kirk and other POWs managed to communicate by using a code tapped out on the wall.

On Christmas night 1970, the North Vietnamese moved Kirk into a 45-man cell at the prison Americans POWs dubbed the Hanoi Hilton, where he met McCain. They spent the next four months becoming close friends, talking politics and sharing memories of their college days, and Kirk remembers how McCain's quick wit often lifted the spirits of his fellow POWs.

"He's extremely intelligent and tells the greatest stories in the world," Kirk said. "He could almost be a stand-up comic. He's very funny, the life of the party. He has a wonderful personality."

Even more important, Kirk said: "He's a man of absolute integrity and honor."

Despite devastating injuries, McCain rejected the possibility of early release offered by the North Vietnamese because of his father's status as an admiral.

"He said, 'I will not go unless we all go,'" Kirk said. "I will always admire him for that."

After their release, Kirk and McCain lost touch, seeing each other at POW reunions held every two years. Kirk continued to serve in the Air Force but never bought the cattle ranch he had so meticulously planned in prison. He and wife Ann have two sons, Thomas and Robert, and now live in Vail, where Kirk works as a financial consultant.

Kirk spent 15 years as a ski instructor, still plays saxophone with the Tony Gulizia Trio and is working on his memoirs, but for his family's eyes only. Unlike McCain, who describes his time as a POW in Faith of My Fathers, Kirk has no intention of writing a book.

"Every book about prisoners of war seems to make us into heroes," Kirk said. "I don't think we were heroes. We had the misfortune to be shot down, and the good fortune to survive.

"We were doing what we believed in," he said. "And we were blessed to come home."

Comments

  • June 21, 2008

    7:09 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Fcarbone writes:

    "Every book about prisoners of war seems to make us into heroes," Kirk said. "I don't think we were heroes. We had the misfortune to be shot down, and the good fortune to survive."
    Finally someone who calls it what it is. John McCain is no war hero. He was captured and beaten because he was bombing civilians in a war that should have never been. Also was there any truth to the sketchy information that McCain received preferential treatment after he divulged his father and grandfathers military rank? Was one of his nicknames "songbird"? Did he really get to visit with ladies from time to time?

  • June 21, 2008

    9:27 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    mike35usmc writes:

    Col. Kirk's comments are welcome relief from what has become an endless campaign to promote POW's to the rank of "hero". And no one has been more vocal in that regard than Senator John McCain and his election staff. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't see an article telling the American people what a great Vietnam War hero John McCain is. As a combat veteran of that war, I have long puzzled over the staggering number of medals received by the Operation Home Coming POW's. I recently learned that, if those POW's were considered a "unit", they would be the most decorated unit in US military history! It is for that reason, together with McCain's despicable performance while serving on the Senate Committee for POW/MIA's that have convinced me that I'll never vote for him.
    Having said that, I must add that I find the comment by Fcarbone, that, "He was captured and beaten because he was bombing civilians in a war that should have never been", to be typical of the misinformed and uneducated.

  • June 21, 2008

    10:47 a.m.

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    rg writes:

    The misinformed and uneducated brought a fiasco to an end as the on-going fiasco must be brought to an end before it becomes as the quagmire Vietnam became with its 50,000 U.S. casualties which McCain seeks to impose on America with his 100-year occupation of Iraq. I join the misinformed and uneducated in rejection of "stupid" wars or was it "dumb" wars says Obama, a war in which Bush has created 5 million orphans: http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?op...

  • June 21, 2008

    10:50 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Fcarbone writes:

    Hey Mike,

    Sorry to inform you but the Viet Nam war was a tragic mistake. Show me where I am misinformed. As far as uneducated you are again wrong.

  • June 21, 2008

    1:53 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Fcarbone writes:

    Jimminy,
    How right you are. I always knew Lyndon had Kennedy offed and the media-academic complex where behind all those freedom marches and civil rights murders and beatings. Perhaps, Jimminy after we invade Iran lets settle the score with Viet Nam. And you do remember how many villages we had to destroy so we could save them.
    Time for your nap Jimminy.

  • June 21, 2008

    2:13 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Fcarbone writes:

    Jimminy,
    How right you are. I always knew Lyndon had Kennedy offed and the media-academic complex were behind all those freedom marches and civil rights murders and beatings. Perhaps, Jimminy after we invade Iran let’s settle the score with Viet Nam. And you do remember how many villages we had to destroy so we could save them.
    Time for your nap Jimminy.

  • June 21, 2008

    3:20 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Frank25 writes:

    I find it interesting to read such "educated" comments from folks who have no idea what they are commenting about. I doubt any book written by prior posters would sell for more than ten cents. Only flying officers of different services were held in Hanoi Hilton to torture for intelligence and protect city from attack by our forces. I knew some of them in 1950-54 when they flew Jets in Korea. Some of you probably also believe we should not have fought the British, the Civil War, French-Indian War, WWI, or WWII or the Cold War. McCain did not collaborate with his captors, or he would have been released much earlier, and his father did not make Admiral until after his capture. He was shot down by SAM missile, broke both shoulders and one leg getting out of plane, landed in shallow lake, had the crap beaten out of him by "friendly" residents. Was hung up by those broken arms, beat up for long periods. Finally he was dumped in cell with Bud Day and others when captors thought he would die. Weaker men would have. They were all heros, no matter what you misfits think. Mike35 must have received same training as John Murtha. He only served 3 years active duty and sold out Marines in Haditha for political reasons. All Haditha Marines have had charges dropped, except one. General Franks stated it so well, when he said "you do not have to know anything to have an opinion", which I consider prior postings. Read "The Nighningale's Song", available in public library or from amazon.com for $12.83 now. 5 cadets at Naval Academy (Poindexter, North, McFarlane, Webb, McCain) and learn something about Vietnam era. Congress sold our military and allies down the river, since military never lost a battle. Vietnam was lost here in U.S. the same way present Congress is trying to repeat. John Kerry and Jane Fonda caused POWs to spend extra 2 years in Hanoi Hilton by their meeting with North Vietnamese negotiators in Paris, while John was still on duty in Navy. And Vietnam is still split due to our Congress and those two. I have no respect for him as a warrior or a Senator. I am unaffiliated voter, age 78, and did not intend to make military a career, but did not want to go back to Ohio, Unions, and stagnation still afflicting my home county. Military offered more useful career, education, experience, and association with like individuals.

  • June 21, 2008

    6:50 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Fcarbone writes:

    I also thank Frank25 for all his service.

  • June 21, 2008

    7:57 p.m.

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    Sweetpickle writes:

    Great way to get a free political ad.

    But just wait for the swiftboat guys.

  • June 22, 2008

    12:18 a.m.

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    rj1967 writes:

    No disrespect to Vietnam Vets, but if this is all McCain is gonna go on about for the next ten years, I just as soon he go back to his ranch. Half of the people who are going to vote this fall weren't even born yet and don't care. America has quite a few major issues on her plate for the next 20 years, I want a president who will focus on those issues, not continually remind us of something that happened in the 1960's - we know already.

  • June 22, 2008

    7:26 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    T1anda writes:

    McCain=HERO!!!!

    Obama=????? scary!!!
    Michelle=Absolutely angry and scary!!!

  • June 22, 2008

    9:12 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    LuvAmerica writes:

    T1anda-

    "Scary!!!" That's your code word for "black", eh?

  • June 22, 2008

    4:16 p.m.

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    rg writes:

    Ever since they replaced America's motto with "In God We Trust," and added "under God," to the Pledge of allegiance (theft of Belamy's pledge) America has lost every war with the exception of a police action here and there. Richard Grimes: Deicide.

    Deicide Corner: Original Belamy Pledge: "I pledge allegiance to my flag and the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all." Notice two changes: my flag is changed to the flag and under God is added thus creating a divisible nation and turning the pledge into a prayer. Anyone embracing the stolen pledge is guilty of receiving stolen goods. rg