This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The Donald rightfully got burned in the political media over the last couple of days for dissing Sen. John McCain. The former Navy officer didn't get elected president the time before last, part of a long string of losses by those who served to those who didn't. (Clinton beat Bush I and Dole. Bush II beat Gore and Kerry. Obama beat McCain.) But nobody ever questioned McCain's heroism or bravery for standing up to years of torture in a North Vietnamese prison camp.

Until Donald Trump — the Republican presidential candidate who has been categorized as an entertainment, rather than a political, story by The Huffington Post — said a really stupid thing:

"He's not a war hero. He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured."

For the proper way to view all this war hero stuff, recall what was said by another former Navy officer who became a war hero when his PT109 was rammed by a Japanese destroyer in the Pacific in World War II.

The story is that, during the 1960 presidential campaign, a young man asked Sen. John Kennedy how he became a war hero.

Replied Kennedy, "I couldn't help it. They sank my boat."

— What Donald Trump was up to while John McCain was a prisoner of war — The Washington Post

"It was the spring of 1968, and Donald Trump had it good.

"He was 21 years old and handsome with a full head of hair. He avoided the Vietnam War draft on his way to earning an Ivy League degree. He was fond of fancy dinners, beautiful women and outrageous clubs. Most important, he had a job in his father's real estate company and a brain bursting with money-making ideas that would make him a billionaire. ...

" ... More than 8,000 miles away, John McCain sat in a tiny, squalid North Vietnamese prison cell. The Navy pilot's body was broken from a plane crash, starvation, botched operations and months of torture.

"As Trump was preparing to take Manhattan, McCain was trying to relearn how to walk. ..."