Forty-one years ago today...

Forty one years ago today, one of the planes aboard the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal accidentally fired a missile into another plane on the carrier's deck. Within seconds, the deck was a blazing inferno.

One of the pilots leaped out of his own plane and ran toward the explosion in an attempt to rescue another pilot. He didn't get very far. A bomb exploded and injured his chest and legs.

Nevertheless, with his own carrier out of commission, the pilot volunteered as soon as he was physically able to fly from another carrier, the USS Oriskany. Months later, he was shot down over North Vietnam, and kept a prisoner for the duration of the war- five and a half years- in the infamous Hanoi Hilton, where he was repeatedly tortured. Offered an early release because his father was an important American admiral, he refused- and went home only when his fellow prisoners did.

That pilot was Lt. Commander John McCain, and he's the Republican candidate for president of the United States.

He's not a rock star. He's not an ersatz messiah. He's a real hero.