Posted on 02/22/2008 12:54:53 AM PST by Kurt Evans
John Sidney McCain III entered the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland in 1954. Young McCain wanted to become an admiral. He planned to achieve the distinction of being the "first son and grandson of four star admirals" . But that was not to be. McCain III possessed none of the innate character and discipline traits that helped mold his father and grandfather into great military leaders.
Family Connections and Special Privileges:
His father, John S. "Junior" McCain, and grandfather, John S. McCain, Sr., were famous four-star Admirals in the U.S. Navy. His father commanded U.S. forces in Europe before becoming commander of American forces fighting in Vietnam. His grandfather commanded naval aviation at the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. Both men became highly influential in U.S. Navy operations.
At the Academy, aside being known as a "rowdy, raunchy, underachiever" who resented authority, Cadet McCain became infamous as a leader among his fellow midshipmen for organizing "off-Yard activities" and hard drinking parties. Robert Timberg wrote in his book , The Nightingale's Song, that "being on liberty with John McCain was like being in a train wreck."
McCain's grades were "marginal." He drew so many demerits for breaking curfew and other discipline issues that he graduated fifth from the bottom of the class of 1958. Despite his low "class standing," and no doubt because of the influence of his family of famous Admirals, McCain was leap-frogged ahead of more qualified applicants and granted a coveted slot to be trained as a navy pilot.
Good Party Animal - Bad Pilot:
He spent the next two and a half years as a "naval aviator in training" at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida and Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas, flying A-1 Skyraiders. While a pilot trainee, McCain continued to party hard. He drove a Corvette and dated an exotic dancer named "Marie the Flame of Florida." Timberg wrote that McCain "learned to fly at Pensacola, though his performance was below par, at best good enough to get by. He liked flying, but didn't love it."
McCain Lost Five Military Aircraft:
McCain, the "below par" pilot, eventually lost 5 military aircraft, the first during a training flight in 1958 when he plunged into Corpus Christi Bay while trying to land. The Navy ignored the crash and graduated McCain in 1960.
While deployed in the Mediterranean, the hard partying McCain lost a second aircraft. Timberg described the crash: "Flying too low over the Iberian Peninsula, he took out some power lines which led to a spate of newspaper stories in which he was predictably identified as the son of an admiral."
Unscathed, McCain returned to Pensacola Station where he was promoted to flight instructor for Naval Air Station Meridian in Mississippi. The airfield at Meridian, McCain Field, was named in honor of McCain's grandfather.
In 1964 McCain became involved with Carol Shepp, a model from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he had met at Annapolis. They were married in Philadelphia on July 3, 1965.
Flight instructor McCain lost a third aircraft while flying a Navy trainer solo to Philadelphia for an Army-Navy football game. Timberg wrote that McCain radioed, "I've got a flameout" before ejecting at one thousand feet. McCain parachuted onto a beach moments before his plane slammed into a clump of trees. The Navy dismissed the crash as "unavoidable" and assigned McCain to the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal in December 1966, which was patrolling the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.
In Spring 1967, the Forrestal was assigned to join the Operation Rolling Thunder bombing campaign against North Vietnam. McCain lost his fourth plane on board the Forrestal on July 29, 1967 when a rocket inadvertently slammed into his bomb laden jet. McCain escaped, but the explosions that followed killed 134 sailors. McCain was transferred from the badly damaged Forrestal to the USS Oriskany. Shortly afterwards, on Oct. 26, 1967, he was down and captured by the Vietnamese.
Post-POW Years: Political Ambition and a New, Young, Rich Wife:
Upon his release from North Vietnam and return to the United States in 1973, McCain reunited with his wife, Carol, who had been permanently crippled in a car accident while he was a POW. Still yearning to become an admiral, McCain enrolled in the National War College at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. and underwent physical therapy in order to fly again. The Navy excused his permanent disabilities and reinstated him to flight status, effectively positioning him for promotion.
Timberg described McCain's advancement: "in the fall of 1974, McCain was transferred to Jacksonville as the executive officer of Replacement Air Group 174, the long-sought flying billet at last a reality. A few months later, he assumed command of the RAG, which trained pilots and crews for carrier deployments. The assignment was controversial, some calling it favoritism, a sop to the famous son of a famous father and grandfather, since he had not first commanded a squadron, the usual career path."
While Executive Officer and later as Squadron Commander McCain used his authority to arrange frequent flights that allowed him to carouse with subordinates and "engage in extra-marital affairs." This was a clear violation of the Military Code of Conduct rules against adultery and fraternization with subordinates. But, as with all his other past behaviors, McCain was never penalized; instead he always got away with his transgressions.
Timberg wrote, "Off duty, usually on routine cross-country flights to Yuma and El Centro, John started carousing and running around with women. To make matters worse, some of the women with whom he was linked by rumor were subordinates . . . At the time the rumors were so widespread that, true or not, they became part of McCain's persona, impossible not to take note of."
In early 1977, Admiral Jim Holloway, Chief of Naval Operations promoted McCain to captain and transferred him from his command position "to Washington as the number-two man in the Navy's Senate liaison office. McCain was promptly given total control of the office. It wasn't long before the "fun loving and irreverent" McCain had turned the liaison office into a "late-afternoon gathering spot where senators and staffers, usually from the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, would drop in for a drink and the chance to unwind."
In 1979, while attending a military reception in Hawaii, McCain met and fell in love with Cindy Lou Hensley, 17 years his junior, who was the daughter of James W. Hensley, a wealthy Anheuser-Busch distributor from Phoenix, Arizona. McCain filed for and obtained an uncontested divorce from his wife in Florida on April 2, 1980 and promptly married Cindy on May 17, 1980.
He resigned from the Navy in 1981 and went to work for his father-in-law in Phoenix; where he used the opportunity to make powerful and wealthy friends in Arizona including banker Charles Keating and Duke Tully, the editor-in-chief of the Arizona Republic. Keating was later convicted of fraud, racketeering, and conspiracy and Tully was disgraced for concocting a phony military record of combat in Korea and Vietnam including medals for heroism. McCain ran for Arizona's First Congressional District in 1982. McCain won the congressional seat. In 1987 McCain was elected to the Senate.
Lot of similarities to George W. How’d that work out for him?
At this point, sir, the choice is awful. However lacking McCain may be, he is a damn sight better than Obama or Clinton. Your posting of a Huckabee/Hunter team is just a dream. Let’s stay with the R hand that no one wanted but through horrible party leadership we have.
I agree that Arizona Senator John McCain is not the right person at the right time. However, Senator Barack Hussein Obama never even put on the uniform of his country, nor even thought about it, from everything that I’ve read about him.
He is a socialist acolyte of Saul Alinsky (Google it). What are we to do? It will be one of these two men in the White House next year.
Here's a good slogan for you:
"Vote Huckabee - Hunter '08....And Send the Message that Republicans Want Socialism, too!"
The same slogan would work for Sen. McCain, too.
Gosh, I wonder what Obama and Hillary’s records are like...
If McCain (the presumptive nominee—do the math)would pick someone like Fred Thompson, Duncan Hunter or another strong conservative as his running mate, I would gulp, hold my nose, and pull the lever. If, on the other hand, he picks a Joe Lieberman, Lindsay Graham or such-like RINO, he’s probably on his own....
In Arab culture and under Islamic law, if your father is a Muslim, so are you. ... Where will Obama’s loyalties be? I know Barack Obama says he is a Christian. I don’t want to test Obama’s loyalty after, God forbid, he is elected and sitting in the chair of the Oval Office?
Vote for McCain. Pray for him and our Troops!
The Best Reason to Vote for McCain
1. Commander in Chief Barack Hussein Obama, Jr
I have some Islamic Manchurian candidate fear going on here.
The stupid party strikes again!’ “Let’s frag OUR guy so we will achive victory... yea... that will work...”
I would vote for Nixon over Obama or Clinton. I'm looking for another country right now, but they mostly won't let me bring my gun collection. That should tell you how unhappy I am right now.
He is NOT very popular from Annapolis Grads. I know and serve with many and when I mentioned his name (especially in 2000), they would discuss why they have issues with him. Well since 2000 when they talked with me, I witnessed some of the things he did, joined FR, and learned alot more than I knew in 2000. BUT still I guess I will have to vote for him in 2008 especially if Obama is the nominee on the Democratic side. He is going to be very difficult to beat I believe.
If Hillary is the nominee, then McCain should choose either Michael Steele or Herman Cain - a lot of liberal blacks would sit out but some would be attracted to either one of these accomplished gentlemen.
where did this ass hat get his info from???
No victory will come from consorting with a traitorous bastard.
He is without honor.
Wow, I didn’t realize that driving a Corvette was evil.
“If McCain (the presumptive nominee—do the math) ...”
Here’s the math:
http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/results/delegates/index.html
The hard count is the one that matters. Everything else can change between now and the convention. If Texas conservatives don’t concede en masse, it’ll be at least two months before McCain could possibly lock up the nomination.
I think he’s the first flyboy in history to drink and chase wimmins.
Well Ted a lot of what you say is true,however would you rather have Hillary or Obama as CIC??????????
http://newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin426.htm
A few weeks before Super Tuesday, my friend Howard Phillips asked me who I thought the Republican Presidential nominee would be. I predicted John McCain...
Make no mistake about it: the establishment wants one of its own to succeed George Bush. In order for that to happen, they must manipulate the primaries to ensure that, no matter who wins in November, one of their fellow elitists will still wield power in Washington, D.C. On the Democratic side, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama fit the bill. And on the Republican side, John McCain is the ultimate insider.
A long-standing member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), John McCain will pursue the goals and ambitions of the globalists with a vengeance. As Pat Buchanan said recently, “John McCain will make Dick Cheney look like Gandhi.” Buchanan is right on with that prediction...
But just who is this man, John McCain?
John McCain’s father and grandfather were both admirals in the U.S. Navy. John was schooled in one of the most elite boarding schools in America. He graduated from the Naval Academy where he ranked 894th out of 899 students.
According to Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief, February 1, 2008, “[John McCain] used nepotism to get ahead: When he was rejected by the National War College, he used his father’s contacts with the Secretary of the Navy to make them reconsider.” Skousen also notes that “McCain cheated on his first wife after she had a severe accident. He then divorced her and married his multi-millionaire mistress, whose daddy bought McCain a spot in the Congress.”
It has also never been explained why the son and grandson of Navy admirals would not rise to the rank of Admiral himself. (He exited the Navy as a Captain.) Was it his numerous adulterous affairs or his violent temper? Or both?
John McCain’s biographer Robert Timberg chronicles McCain’s numerous sexual affairs with subordinates both when he was an Executive Officer and later Squadron Commander. Obviously, such fraternization is a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Skousen and many others have chronicled McCain’s violent temper. Even as a young man, McCain was “a strikingly violent man.” Timberg quotes McCain describing his propensity for violence, even as a youngster, saying, “At the smallest provocation I would go off into a mad frenzy, and then suddenly crash to the floor unconscious.”
McCain says his vicious temper was transformed after being held as a Prisoner of War by the North Vietnamese. There is no doubt that John McCain was tortured by his Vietnamese captors, but it also seems clear, by both the written and oral records of many, that McCain spent the bulk of his captivity collaborating with his captors.
It is more than interesting that former POW John McCain would use the power of his senate seat to stop the investigation and pursuit of American MIAs in Vietnam. What would possess a former naval officer to do such a thing? In fact, a group of Vietnam veterans has uploaded a web page dedicated to exposing the truth regarding John McCain’s record on this matter...
That John McCain still has a vicious temper is well known. We can all remember him singing “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran,” to the tune of the Beach Boys hit song “Barbara Ann.” He also said North Korea should be threatened with “extinction.” He often boasts of America’s 100-year war with Iraq and talks of pursuing enemies “to the gates of hell.” There is no doubt, John McCain is one mad man.
Furthermore, McCain’s position on a host of issues is extremely problematic for the future of America. On immigration, John McCain joined with Ted Kennedy to sponsor an amnesty bill for illegal aliens. He voted to give social security dollars to illegal aliens. His Hispanic Outreach Director, Juan Hernandez, is a dual American-Mexican citizen widely known for his “Mexico First” declarations.
He repeatedly voted against the Bush tax cuts. He co-authored the McCain/Feingold campaign finance bill that was ruled to be an unconstitutional infringement of the First Amendment. Regarding the Second Amendment, the president of the NRA called John McCain the “worst 2nd Amendment candidate,” and Gun Owners of America gives McCain a grade of F-.
John McCain co-sponsored the energy tax bill (along with his senate buddy Joe Lieberman), which would dramatically increase the cost of gasoline. He supports radical global warming legislation. He joined with Democrats (Gang of 14) to block the attempt to confirm conservative, strict constructionist judges. In 2000, he called Christian leaders “agents of intolerance.” He has received the endorsement of the pro-abortion Republicans for Choice Political Action Committee. And let’s not forget that John McCain was ringleader of the infamous Keating Five ethical scandal, which cost taxpayers more than $160 billion.
ECHO
As you know, the 'Corvette' reference is to make McCain sound like a rich, spoiled, party-boy.
Unfortunately, the Corvette is the car of choice by most military aviators....not an indicator of lifestyle, but of the aviator personality.
While it is clear that McCain did not live up to his family's legacy, the article is full of details irrelevant to John McCain's career.
Of course, many said Gingrich was unqualified to be POTUS due to his divorce. McCain is not much better.....if the story is true.
How'd that work out for US?
Uncontested invasion, with Microchip ID plans!
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
what is your point. mac had a lot of fun so what
Then there is Mike Huckabee: the candidate to whom the evangelical George Bush robots have gravitated. Huckabee is every bit the Big Government liberal that is John McCain. In fact, Huckabee and McCain have developed a very close friendship, according to numerous sources. Many are even predicting that Huckabee will be McCain's running mate, in order to dupe evangelicals into accepting the McCain candidacy.
McCain and ol' Huckers are in cahoots. They meet behind the revival tent ever night to eat possum and sweet tater pie and drink likker and chase wimmins
As a Conservative, As a Former Marine (Viet Nam), I am faced with this possibility....
If I have to choose between Obama and McCain, I cannot and will not vote for Obama.
I hope that other conservatives don’t throw out the baby with the bath water.
Booze, broads, carousing and Corvettes.............
I was in an Air Force fighter wing and I can tell you not all fighter pilots have this kind of personality.
Only about 80%.
“That John McCain still has a vicious temper is well known. We can all remember him singing “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran,” to the tune of the Beach Boys hit song “Barbara Ann.” He also said North Korea should be threatened with “extinction.” He often boasts of America’s 100-year war with Iraq and talks of pursuing enemies “to the gates of hell.””
ahem, cough, from what I’ve seen on this site, I would have thought he’d be the perfect candidate for many members of this forum - he’s simply echoing their wishes...:-D
Yeah, I’m a lousy pilot and like girls too, whats yer point?
ROTFLOL! Seriously, back then in Naval Aviation it seemed more like 99%. Those ‘good old days’ (if they ever were, didn’t seem so at the time) are gone forever. And speaking of Corvettes - when we commissioned the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola in ‘75 or ‘76, Alan Shepard just HAD to have a Corvette as his rental car. It was the image thing.
I did a little (very) research on this issue. Some other person, who had a dog in the fight, noted that Ms. Katz-Keating had a relationship (social) with one of the parties, involved with this dispute and was furthering the agenda of same. The incident with the oil and barricade was called into question. I’m not sure she can be relied upon to be a completely disinterested journalist.
McCain’s history is questionable. Irregardless of his military past, his political past would seem to argue against him receiving support from quite a few people. The old bugaboo of someone worse, is really getting quite old, especially when bad is this close to worse.
Are girls (women) allowed to own and drive Corvettes in the USA or only wild guys? My husband is very interested in this question.
We are not Democrats or the MSM.
- First of all, McCain did not "resign from the Navy." He retired, with honor, as a full Navy Captain (0-6). Those are the facts, and trying to rewrite them and spin them only makes the argument look shoddy.
- Secondly, the loss of his A-4 aboard the carrier Forrestal can hardly be labeled him "losing an aircraft." Let's not reach, shall we? A zuni rocket from an F-4 slammed into his aircraft and into munitions on deck. McCain's actions that day were heroic, and there is just no reason to lie about this.
- Third, it was hardly negligence or anything of the sort that resulted in his being shot down by an SA-2 while on his 23rd combat mission. If we want to do this, we can lump a whole bunch of other Vietnam heroes into this garbage can, including Medal of Honor winner Col. George Day, BGen. Robbie Risner, and Adm. Jeremiah Denton .
The rest of the article I can agree with in whole or in part. But when the author reaches, it shoots down his whole credibility.
“I’m looking for another country right now, but they mostly won’t let me bring my gun collection. That should tell you how unhappy I am right now.”
Rather than throw in the towel and flee to another country, why don’t you do everything you can to save America? I, too, am disgusted at where America has been led, but I will not now, nor will I ever, abandon my beloved America. I will do everything I can to save her, and if it costs me my life in the effort, then so be it. America is NOT its government, it is not whatever administration is in power. America is the US Constitution and the dream of freedom envisioned by our Founding Fathers. THAT is the America worth fighting for.
This is also misleading. Yes, you were almost always a Squadron cmdr before assuming a Group - but the rules were bent for Air Force and Navy POWs who spent years in captivity, and no one took exception to it (except envious jerks). Most pilots of that time totally understood that these poor guys flying careers had been put literally in a dungeon, and no one whispered anything behind their back if they were cut a break.
Again, when the author reaches, he loses.
McCain didn't lose a plane - it was an ACCIDENT. The author is more than careless with his characterization of McCain as having lost five planes when he adds this loss into the equation.
Amen brother. See my post #36.
I oppose McCain because of his political positions, and I don't intend to vote for him. I'll probably vote a write in.
But, I won't pile on and engage in "spin" that is deceptive. We are Conservatives, not a MSM con artists.
Quite a hit piece by the guy.
He spends quite a while making an issue about lost aircrft:
** One aircraft lost in training (The Red Baron crahed on his first solo flight.)
** One aircraft lost while awaiting launch aboard USS Forrestal at the time of the July 29, 1967 tragedy (Did he expect McCain to have Scotty beam up the missile accidentally launched from another plane on the crowded flight deck? Did he also slander every other aviator and sailor whose aircraft or ordnance was affected by the resulting explosion and fire on USS Forrestal? Did he also slander every other American ever hit by friendly fire by blaming them for ruining their BDU's and their weapons damaged by the friendly fire?)
** One aircraft was shot down in combat. (The Red Baron was shot down twice.)
Then he completely ignores what McCain did during his captivity as a POW.
Quite a hit piece.
*******
McCain's A-4 Skyhawk had its wing blown off by a Soviet-made SA-2 anti-aircraft missile[48] while pulling up after dropping its bombs.[49][50] McCain fractured both arms and a leg in being hit and ejecting from his plane[51] as it went into a vertical inverted spin.[52] He nearly drowned after he parachuted into Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi.[47] After he regained consciousness, a mob gathered around, spat on him, kicked him, and stripped him of his clothes.[52] Others crushed his shoulder with the butt of a rifle and bayoneted him in his left foot and abdominal area; he was then transported to Hanoi's main Hoa Loa Prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton" by American POWs.[52][53]
Although McCain was badly wounded, his captors refused to give him medical care unless he gave them military information; they beat and interrogated him, but McCain only offered his name, rank, serial number, and date of birth.[52] Soon thinking he was near death, McCain said he would give them more information if taken to the hospital, hoping he could then put them off once he was treated.[54] A prison doctor came and said it was too late, as McCain was about to die anyway.[52] Only when the North Vietnamese discovered that his father was a top admiral did they give him medical care[52] and announce his capture. At this point, two days after McCain's plane went down, that event and his status as a POW made the front pages of The New York Times[40] and The Washington Post.[55] Interrogation and beatings resumed in the hospital; McCain gave his ship's name, squadron's name, and the attack's intended target.[56] Further coerced to give the names of his squadron members, he supplied the names of the Green Bay Packers' offensive line.[57][56]
McCain spent six weeks in the Hoa Loa hospital, receiving marginal care.[47] He was interviewed by a French television reporter whose report was carried on CBS, and was observed by a variety of North Vietnamese, including the famous General Vo Nguyen Giap.[52] Many of the North Vietnamese observers assumed that he must be part of America's political-military-economic elite.[52] Now having lost 50 pounds, in a chest cast, and with his hair turned white,[47] McCain was sent to a prisoner-of-war camp on the outskirts of Hanoi nicknamed "the Plantation"[58] in December 1967, into a cell with two other Americans who did not expect him to live a week (one was Bud Day, a future Medal of Honor recipient); they nursed McCain and kept him alive.[59] In March 1968, McCain was put into solitary confinement, where he would remain for two years.[52] In July 1968, McCain's father was named Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Command (CINCPAC), stationed in Honolulu and commander of all U.S. forces in the Vietnam theater.[5] McCain was immediately offered a chance to return home early:[47] the North Vietnamese wanted a worldwide propaganda coup by appearing merciful, and also wanted to show other POWs that elites like McCain were willing to be treated preferentially.[52] McCain turned down the offer of repatriation, due to the Code of Conduct principle of "first in, first out": he would only accept the offer if every man taken in before him was released as well.[60] McCain's refusal to be released was even remarked upon by North Vietnamese senior negotiator Le Duc Tho to U.S. envoy Averell Harriman during the ongoing Paris Peace Talks.[61]
In August of 1968, a program of vigorous torture methods began on McCain, using rope bindings into painful positions, and beatings every two hours, at the same time as he was suffering from dysentery.[52][47] Teeth and bones were broken again, as was McCain's spirit; the beginning of a suicide attempt was stopped by guards.[47] After four days of this, McCain signed and taped[62] an anti-American propaganda "confession" that said he was a "black criminal" and an "air pirate",[47] although he used stilted Communist jargon and ungrammatical language to signal that the statement was forced.[57] He felt then and always that he had dishonored his country, his family, his comrades and himself by his statement,[63] but as he would later write, "I had learned what we all learned over there: Every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine."[52] His injuries to this day have left him incapable of raising his arms above his head.[14] Two weeks later his captors tried to force him to sign a second statement, and this time, his will to resist restored, he refused.[52] He received two to three beatings per week because of his continued refusal.[64] Other American POWs were similarly tortured and maltreated in order to extract "confessions",[52] with many enduring even worse treatment than McCain.[65] However, on one occasion, a guard surreptitiously loosened McCain's painful rope bindings for a night; when months later the guard later saw McCain on Christmas Day, he stood next to McCain and silently drew a cross in the dirt with his foot[66] (decades later, McCain would relate this Good Samaritan story during his presidential campaigns, as a testament to faith and humanity[67][68]). On Christmas Eve 1968, a church service for the POWs was staged for photographers and film cameras; McCain defied North Vietnamese instructions to be quiet, speaking out details of his treatment then shouting "Fu-u-u-u-ck you, you son of a bitch!" and giving the finger whenever a camera was pointed at him.[69] McCain refused to meet with various anti-war peace groups coming to Hanoi, such as those led by David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, and Rennie Davis, not wanting to give either them or the North Vietnamese a propaganda victory based on his connection to his father.[52]
In May 1969, U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird began publicly questioning North Vietnamese treatment of U.S. prisoners.[70] On June 5, 1969, a Radio Hanoi broadcast denied any mistreatment, and excerpted from McCain's forced "confession" of a year before to this effect.[70][71] In October 1969, treatment of McCain and the other POWs suddenly improved, after a badly beaten and weakened POW who had been released that summer disclosed to the world press the conditions to which they were being subjected[52] and the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia, including McCain's brother Joe, heightened awareness of the POWs' plight.[72] In December 1969, McCain was transferred back to the Hoa Loa "Hanoi Hilton";[52] his solitary confinement ended in March 1970.[52] McCain continued to refuse to see anti-war groups or journalists sympathetic to the North Vietnamese regime;[52] to one visitor who did speak with him, McCain later wrote, "I told him I had no remorse about what I did, and that I would do it over again if the same opportunity presented itself."[52] McCain and other prisoners were moved around to different camps at times, but conditions over the next several years were generally more tolerable than they had been before.[52] Back at the "Hanoi Hilton" from November 1971 onward,[52] McCain and the other POWs cheered the intense, Hanoi-focused, B-52-led U.S. "Christmas Bombing" campaign of December 1972 — whose explosions lit the night sky and shook the walls of the camp, and whose daily orders were issued by McCain's father, knowing his son was in the vicinity — as a forceful measure to force North Vietnam to terms.[52][73]
Altogether, McCain was held as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five and a half years. The Paris Peace Accords were signed on January 27, 1973, ending direct U.S. involvement in the war, but the Operation Homecoming arrangements for POWs took longer; McCain was finally released from captivity on March 15, 1973,[74] having been a POW for almost an extra five years due to his refusal to accept the out-of-sequence repatriation offer.[75]
“The stupid party strikes again!’ “Let’s frag OUR guy so we will achive victory... yea... that will work...””
>>>>>>>>>....................
What makes you think he is our guy? perhaps he is someone else’s guy..try thinking just a little.
I hope that other conservatives don’t throw out the baby with the bath water.”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>........
I had 2 tours with 101st just north of your old AO..and
I can vote for others who may yet inter this race if none do who I can support ..I will not vote for McCain.
How any Conservative Nam vet can support this guy after knowing what he has done in congress with the POW issue as just one example and borders and the Gitmo remarks the water boarding..makes me doubt they have any sanity.
“Our Guy” is exactly the problem. The assumption that anyone who has, historically voted Republican will continue to do so simply because that is “our guy” at the top of the ticket is a tweaking of the nose to those who are tired of holding it every time they go to the voting booth. The Republican Party has, for all intents and purposes, started to take for granted the conservative vote the way the democrats can take the black vote for granted (where else can they go?) What are they (or any party) supposed to say to the Independent voters it wants to attract? Doesn’t it have to make a case for earning their votes? In fact, ought not the same mindset be in play when dealing with all segments of your constituency? Don’t you run the risk of disenfranchising some when you try to attract others? Well, it looks like this time out the Republicans have taken the gamble that if they go Moderate this time around (maybe even tilt a little more leftward than that)...that by doing that, they will pick up votes while hopefully not losing any that they have historically been able to count on in the past.
Funny thing about gambling...you don’t always win. And now, some of you want to kick up a fuss because the choice of “Our guy” has had the effect of, not only turning off a large segment of the historic constituency (conservatives), but has wakened them to realize that a continuance of this approach only takes us farther and farther from our historic conservative platform. As long as we continue to send the message that “...as much as I can’t stand ‘Our guy’, I’ll just hold my nose, cast my vote and hope that the Party will remember our loyalty,” we will continue to get McCain-type candidates. John McCain IS how the party is saying, “Conservatives, we remember your loyalty!” I’m reminded of the pledge scene in the movie Animal House when the guy bent over and was given a blow to his backside. The correct, expected response was, “Thank you sir. May I have another?”
Lastly, the writer hasn’t “fragged” “Your guy” so much as he (McCain) has mishandled his own firearm and it went off and struck him in the foot.
Your guy! Sheesh...
Hey, I supported Duncan and Fred with money and door to door solicitations....and what did it get me???
I can’t stand McCain, I must have sent out a couple hundred emails to help defeat his Amnesty, and his military record is terrible....But
Do you want Obama in the White House?
Obama is a communist with a silk tongue.
Obama is 100 times worse than McCain.
The divisions between conservatives and republicans are playing right into the hands of the left.
Dang. Everytime I work up the nerve to stay home this November, someone manages to dredge something up that changes my mind....
One candidates thinks Iran is evil. The other candidate thinks America is evil. I think I’l vote for the first guy.
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