John McCain, Unfit To Serve As Commander In Chief

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.

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.

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, 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.

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.

Ted Sampley is a former Green Beret who did two full combat tours in Vietnam. He is currently the Publisher of The U.S. Veteran Dispatch.

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]

“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...

First of all, this hatchet job by an ex-SF person is pure hypocrisy... you could probably do a profile on the author and get a similar set of quotes from his past friends and colleagues.

Second of all McCain is a warrior in the tradition of U.S. Grant. So what if he drank. I don't necessarily want a teetotaler President.

Third of all, I can't help but think people on this forum bashing McCain so viciously are not DU infiltrators.

Because McCain is way, way better than any Rat would ever be.

And I don't think real FReepers are so dumb as to not know the game theory of this election: You get the middle, and we have a GOP President. Anyway you cut it, that is better than Obama or that horrible woman.

So I think people on this forum who bash McCain, at this stage in the election process, are being disingenuous.

Time for people here to get on board.

Sure I would like a FReeper to be POTUS, but, face it, it probably isn't going to happen.

Take what you can in this political setting.

Unfortunately, most people in the country are not conservatives like FReepers.

You act as if the country is yours for the risking. The McCain candidacy should tell you that our country is already lost. So, as long as you have the one hand up, why not raise the other (and try to see the handwriting on the wall.)

Our nation’s only hope (hyperbole purposely omitted here) is that his candidacy stalls/dies somehow, the Republicrats realize that McCain will not get them what they want (they will bleed too many voters by forcing him on an electorate that demands more) and that they will ultimately BACK OFF AND DO WHAT’S RIGHT FOR THE COUNTRY (something that you’ve indicated by your post is of vital concern to you.) The last hope for our nation is that the Republicans will find a nominee that holds to (not shies away from) true conservative values.

I’m a bit amazed at the acceptance of the McCain candidacy, in all truth. Where did he come from? How did he so suddenly rise (meteorically) to surpass all the other candidates? He has never had such a following before (though he’s been around for a while)—how is it that he so all of a sudden shot up and began to run the table? Is it because people finally recognized he has the right agenda? I don’t think so. His candidacy is all so contrived. His ascendancy seems so, I don’t know, non-reality-based. All this flocking to him seems so desperate (did someone figure on that?) The divisiveness of detractors to McCain as perceived by those who accept the McCain candidacy is certainly one way to look at things. But from the other side, the diviseness begins with the advancing of the McCain candidacy and then the acquiescing to it by those who seem to be acting in desperation (something, in my view, the Republican party has been willing to trade on in the past few elections.)

Sorry for the doom and gloom (no, I’m not), it’s just that you think you’ve got something “better” with McCain and too much of his record says, “Oh no you don’t.”

Talking to the hand? I do it for a living—I’m a conservative that teaches in the public school system. I’m used to people not listening, not understanding, having a limited view of things, desperate to have their own way, etc.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.