Up to this point, McCain’s history of preferential treatment and being bailed out by friends and family is reminiscent of our fearless leader, George W. Bush. They both even became pilots, but this is where their paths diverge. Boy George jumped to the head of the line to get into the Texas Air National Guard, so he didn’t have to “shoot himself in the foot” to dodge Viet Nam; and John McCain opted to fly in Viet Nam because he needed combat missions--if he ever wanted to make Admiral.
Unfortunately, McCain had already crashed two planes and caused an international incident by flying too low and cutting some power lines in southern Spain. This would have been enough to ground most pilots, but McCain was not most pilots...
While on the Forrestal, McCain narrowly escaped an explosion and fire that started on the flight deck after he had fired his engine for takeoff. As brave men fought and died to save the USS Forrestal, John McCain watched on closed-circuit television, and his own words reveal his feelings:
· “This distressed me considerably. I feared my ambitions were among the casualties in the calamity that had claimed the Forrestal.”--in McCain’s book, Faith of My Fathers
McCain transferred to the USS Oriskany and was shot down over North Vietnam on October 26, 1967.
The rest of the story is familiar to Americans: McCain becomes a war hero by being a prisoner of war in Viet Nam for five and a half years--during which he learns the true value of family and country. He returns home and confirms the importance of family by divorcing his wife and marrying a rich beer-heiress. He gives up on becoming an Admiral. His wife buys him a house in Arizona, so he can enter politics. He is soon caught with his hand in the cookie jar in the Keating-five Savings and Loan scandal, but he learns another valuable lesson (don’t get caught). McCain gets off with a slap on the wrist, and has been a straight-talking maverick, fighting for the little guy ever since (or so he tells us).
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