Where was Trump on Oct. 26, 1967?

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has every right to say that John McCain is not a hero, and even to go so far as to say, "I like people who weren't captured." In fact, we appreciate Trump's candor because, when it comes time to vote, Americans will have ample information on where the billionaire stands on a number of important issues.

It might help the candidate, however, if he knew a little more about his targets before he opened fire. An investment of 30 minutes or less could have at least given him pause before demeaning the lieutenant commander who was shot down over Hanoi in his Skyhawk dive bomber on Oct. 26, 1967.

McCain, son of a Navy admiral, barely survived the immediate aftermath: With both arms and his right leg fractured, the ejected pilot plunged into a lake and nearly drowned before being dragged to land, beaten and bayoneted in the foot. That was only the beginning of a horror story of captivity that would last five and a half years - if in fact it can ever end at all.

Trump - and you, too - can increase your understanding of what McCain went through during those five and a half years. In the May 14, 1973, issue of U.S. News & World Report, McCain gave a first-person account of the ordeal in vivid, excruciating detail. That story is accessible to you right now, because it was posted online Jan. 28, 2008, and there it remains. If you search U.S. News - McCain, it should be the first story you see.

We commend to you his story not just to help ground Trump's verbal lightning bolt, but because the sharing of McCain's experience provides necessarily painful insight into a lost war that ended 40 years ago. In our view, some of America's greatest heroes emerged from those 120-degree jungles and swamps, and to this day they have not been accorded the laurels and respect due them - by average citizens and one presidential candidate.

The writer of this opinion piece got to know John McCain through editorial board meetings in Flagstaff, Ariz., between 1983 and 1995, first as a U.S. representative and then as a U.S. senator. The Press appreciates Sen. McCain's service to his country.