From the Rose Law Group Growlery
By Phil Riske, managing editor | Rose Law Group Reporter
As I get ready to attend a high school reunion, my thoughts are about a friend who won’t be there.
Born in Buckeye, Ariz., Ron Bliss grew up in Cheyenne, Wyo., and graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1964. He served as an Air Force pilot for nine years.
Bliss, a decorated Vietnam War fighter pilot who spent 6 1/2 years in the “Hanoi Hilton” POW camp, died in 2005 after a long battle with cancer. He was 61.
Bliss flew 35 missions over Vietnam before being shot down Sept. 4, 1966.
Bliss’ story, along with that of 19 other U.S. POWs from the Vietnam War, including John McCain, was told in the 2000 documentary “Return with Honor.”
Bliss finished law school and went to work for former Watergate Prosecutor Leon Jaworski in Texas.
I had the honor to interview my old classmate several years after he came home, and he played down his role as a POW, but did say he was tortured.
So, when Donald Trump unbelievably trashes Sen. McCain’s military service and won’t apologize, he deeply insults the families of Ron Bliss and all late POWs and those still living.
And all Ron’s Cheyenne High School classmates.
As Mitt Romney put it, the difference between Trump and McCain is Trump shot himself down.
