McCain's "Cross in Sand" story moving, but not his

At the Faith Forum John McCain in one of his endless grandpa stories he told one about a prison guard in Vietnam loosening his binds and then drawing a cross in the dirt. Though the story had little to do with the question actually asked, it was moving and touched the hearts of many who watched it, frankly including myself.

One problem, it didn't happen. The story was clearly stolen from Solzenitzen'S Gulag Archipelago

"Laying his shovel on the ground, he slowly walked to a crude work-site bench and sat down. He knew that at any moment a guard would order him to stand up, and when he failed to respond, the guard would beat him to death, probably with his own shovel. He had seen it happen to many other prisoners.

As he waited, head down, he felt a presence. Slowly, he lifted his eyes and saw a skinny, old prisoner squat down next to him. The man said nothing. Instead, he drew a stick through the ground at Solzhenitsyn’s feet, tracing the sign of the Cross. The man then got back up and returned to his work.

As Solzhenitsyn stared at the sign of the Cross, his entire perspective changed. He knew that he was only one man against the all-powerful Soviet empire. Yet in that moment, he knew that there was something greater than the evil that he saw in the prison, something greater than the Soviet Union. He knew that the hope of all mankind was represented in that simple Cross. And through the power of the Cross, anything was possible.

Solzhenitsyn slowly got up, picked up his shovel, and went back to work. Nothing outward had changed, but inside, he received hope."

So the question this raises, is McCain purposely plagiarizing stories to make himself look good thus is a liar or has he lost the ability to recall what events actually occurred in his life versus what he read in a book.