by Evie Stone

McCain seldom revisits the details of his time in the Hanoi Hilton, though it's perhaps the most well-known and oft-referenced element of his biography.

The ordeal has figured heavily into almost every major speech at this convention, including his own. McCain told the RNC audience that the experience changed the way he thinks about America:

I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency; for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn't my own man anymore. I was my country's.