National Review posts a to-die-for obit from the U.K.’s Telegraph. It is of “Pug” Mather, a war hero:
“Captain ‘Pug’ Mather, who has died aged 79, underwent brutal mistreatment over nine months as a prisoner during the Korean War, when he refused to renounce his allegiance to the Crown.
“On January 5 1953 Mather was a member of 801 Naval Air Squadron, flying from the carrier Glory, when his Hawker Sea Fury was struck by flak and blew up. His wingman watched the aircraft go into a vertical spin without engine or tail, and saw Mather thrown from the cockpit, apparently lifeless.
“But Mather recovered consciousness in freefall to pull his parachute ring and float downwards while the Koreans continued to shoot at him. He was so incensed that he fired back with his pistol. …
“He kept himself sane through prayer, working out geometry theorems in his head and walking his cell in a bent position, which he worked out he would have to do 600 times to cover a mile. To gain more exercise he pretended to have diarrhoea so that he could walk to the heads.”
I was going to say, They don’t make ‘em like that anymore. But, of course, they do. You just wouldn’t know it from reading The New Republic.