John McCain:Unfit to
serve as Commander-In-Chief The spoiled
son of military privilege got a free ride throughout his military
career despite repeated instances of sex scandals and screw-ups . .
.
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 be the "first son and grandson of four star
admirals" to achieve such a distinction. 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.
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 shot 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 Uniform Code of Military Justice 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.
Disclaimer
Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain (VVAJM)
provides external links for its readers as a convenience and for
informational purposes only. The links do not constitute an endorsement or
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accuracy, legality or content of the external sites or for that of
subsequent links.
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John McCain:Unfit to
serve as Commander-In-Chief