Tallahassee veteran Dale Doss remembers time as POW with Sen. John McCain

Trapped in the bleak prisoner of war camps of North Vietnam, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Dale Doss remembers the quiet taps he and his fellow prisoner and aviator John McCain sent each other between the cement walls.

Doss, a Tallahassee resident, looks back fondly at the bond he shared with McCain, who died Saturday, a day after an announcement that he’d end medical treatment for terminal brain cancer. He was 81.

Doss met McCain in the “Hanoi Hilton” prisoner camp back in 1968.

“We kind of commiserated with each other — as we all (prisoners of war) do,” Doss, 82, said about their relationship. “He was an interesting fellow.”

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