The Cross In The Dirt Story, Version 3

Here's the story told again in "Character Is Destiny." Obviously this was a pivotal moment in McCain's life:

For just that moment I forgot all my hatred for my enemies, and all the hatred most of them felt for me. I forgot about the Jerk, and the interrogators who persecuted my friends and me. I forgot about the war, and the terrible things that war does to you. I was just one Christian venerating the cross with a fellow Christian on Christmas morning.

But when he came to spend a great deal of time with a writer chronicling McCain's experiences of Christmas in captivity, the story never occurred to him. One other small detail: McCain in the latest version is quite clear that this was the only incident in which the gun guard helped him. The 1973 account of the man helping him rest during sleep deprivation is absent.