McCain's Secret, Questionable Record

"At a meeting in his Pentagon office in early 1981, Secretary of the Navy John F. Lehman told Capt. John S. McCain III that he was about to attain his life ambition: becoming an admiral.... Mr. McCain declined the prospect of his first admiral's star to make a run for Congress, saying that he could 'do more good there,' Mr. Lehman recalled." So claimed the New York Times in a front-page article on May 29 this year.

This story is highly improbable for several reasons, not least of all because John McCain himself has always told a very different story about his stalled naval career. For example, on page 9 of his memoir Worth The Fighting For, McCain writes:

"Several months before my father died, I informed him that I was leaving the navy. I am sure he had already gotten word of my decision from friends in the Pentagon. I had been summoned to see the CNO, Admiral Heyward, who told me that I was making a mistake.... His attempt to dissuade me encouraged me to believe that I might have made admiral had I had been in the navy, a prospect that remained an open question in my mind.... Some of my navy friends believed I could still earn my star; others doubted it.... When I told my father of my intention, he did not remonstrate with me.... But I knew him well enough to know that he was disappointed. For when I left him that day, alone in his study, I took with me his hope that I might someday become the first son and grandson of four-star admirals to achieve the same distinction. That aspiration was well beyond my reach by the time I made my decision...."

McCain's father died on March 22, 1981. McCain retired from the Navy within a week. He wrote about his retirement soon thereafter. McCain never mentioned the alleged offer of an admiralship by Lehman in any of his books, nor in the numerous interviews McCain gave during his first run for the presidency in 1999-2000.

Furthermore, articles written during the current presidential campaign quote McCain's closest friends about McCain's failure to be promoted to admiral before he retired from the Navy. For example, in an April 26, 2008, National Journal cover story, William Cohen (then a Senator, subsequently Secretary of Defense and the best man at McCain's second wedding) recounts that McCain "knew his career in the Navy was limited." Former Senator Gary Hart, who served as a groomsman at McCain's 1980 wedding, says in the National Journal story that he had been told "that [McCain] was not going to receive a star and not going to become an admiral. I think that was the deciding point for him to retire from the Navy."

John Lehman doesn't figure in any accounts of McCain's naval career, probably because Lehman was appointed Secretary of the Navy less than two months before McCain retired. The New York Times didn't note this, or the pertinent fact that John Lehman is currently serving as National Security Adviser to McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. Two other top naval officers in the Times story confirmed Lehman's claim, but for unknown reasons the Times, in violation of its own guidelines, accorded them off-the-record status that makes it impossible to assess their motives and credibility.

The New York Times' front-page story about McCain declining promotion to admiral lacks credibility for other reasons as well. For example, McCain had been promoted to captain on August 1, 1979, so he wouldn't have been due for another promotion by March of 1981.

Retired Admiral Peter Booth, who was promoted to rear admiral in 1981, flatly disputes Lehman's claim about McCain. "No, John McCain was not selected for flag rank, for admiral. With all due respect, I think I was selected that same year, and I have never heard anything even remotely like that. To begin with, John Lehman did not select Navy flag officers. That was done with a very august selection board headed by a four-star admiral. The Secretary of the Navy does not appoint. He is in the approval chain, but he is not on the committee.

"I have never heard a story, even remotely, that John McCain was going to be a flag officer. I was early selected for captain, in 1976, and I was regular selected for admiral in 1981. So it's probably five or six years, I guess. I've never heard of anybody being selected for flag rank within three or four years of making captain, ever."

Retired Admiral John R. Batzler, former commanding officer of the U.S.S. Nimitz, also promoted to rear admiral in 1981, agrees with Retired Admiral Booth. "I made rear admiral in about five years. I wasn't selected early, and I wasn't selected late. I find it incredible that someone made that statement that John Lehman told John McCain he was going to be promoted to admiral two years after he made captain. First of all, telling him at all is not kosher, but we all know the Secretary of the Navy does what he damn well pleases, in particular John Lehman. This whole idea that John Lehman told John McCain he was going to be promoted to flag two years after he made captain sounds preposterous to me." All of the evidence, indications and comments that the New York Times published a flattering lie about McCain's career on its front page are easy for John McCain to refute. All he needs to do is sign Standard Form 180, authorizing the Navy to send an undeleted copy of McCain's naval file to news organizations. A long paper trail about McCain's pending promotion to admiral would be prominent in his file. To date, McCain's advisers have released snippets from his file, but under constrained viewing circumstances. There's no reason McCain's full file shouldn't be released immediately. In May 2005, six months after he lost his bid for president, Senator John Kerry signed the 180 waiver, authorizing the release of his complete military service record to the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and the Associated Press. ** Unlike Kerry, McCain shouldn't wait until after the election to do so. The Navy may claim that it already released McCain's record to the Associated Press on May 7, 2008 in response to the AP's Freedom of Information Act request. But the McCain file the Navy released contained 19 pages -- a two-page overview and 17 pages detailing Awards and Decorations. Each of these 17 pages is stamped with a number. These numbers range from 0069 to 0636. When arranged in ascending order, they precisely track the chronology of McCain's career. It seems reasonable to ask the Navy whether there are at least 636 pages in McCain's file, of which 617 weren't released to the Associated Press.

Some of the unreleased pages in McCain's Navy file may not reflect well upon his qualifications for the presidency. From day one in the Navy, McCain screwed-up again and again, only to be forgiven because his father and grandfather were four-star admirals. McCain's sense of entitlement to privileged treatment bears an eerie resemblance to George W. Bush's.

Despite graduating in the bottom 1 percent of his Annapolis class, McCain was offered the most sought-after Navy assignment -- to become an aircraft carrier pilot. According to military historian John Karaagac, "'the Airedales,' the air wing of the Navy, acted and still do, as if unrivaled atop the naval pyramid. They acted as if they owned, not only the Navy, but the entire swath of blue water on the earth's surface." The most accomplished midshipmen compete furiously for the few carrier pilot openings. After four abysmal academic years at Annapolis distinguished, according to his own books, by mediocrity and misdeeds, no one with a record resembling McCain's would have been offered such a prized career path. The justification for this and subsequent plum assignments should be documented in McCain's naval file.

McCain's file should also include records and analytic reviews of McCain's subsequent sub-par performances. Here are a few cited in two highly favorable biographies, both titled John McCain, one by Robert Timberg and the other by John Karaagac.

Timberg:

"[A]fter a European fling with the tobacco heiress, John McCain reported to flight school at Pensacola in August 1958.... [H]is performance was below par, at best good enough to get by. He liked flying, but didn't love it. What he loved was the kick-the-tire, start-the-fire, scarf-in-the-wind life of a naval aviator. ...One Saturday morning, as McCain was practicing landings, his engine quit and his plane plunged into Corpus Christi. Knocked unconscious by the impact, he came to as the plane settled to the bottom....McCain was an adequate pilot, but he had no patience for studying dry aviation manuals.... His professional growth, though reasonably steady, had its troubled moments. 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.... [In 1965] he flew a trainer solo to Philadelphia for the Army-Navy game. Flying by way of Norfolk, he had just begun his descent over unpopulated tidal terrain when the engine died. 'I've got a flameout,' he radioed. He went through the standard relight procedures three times. At one thousand feet he ejected, landing on the deserted beach moments before the plane slammed into a clump of trees."

Adds Karaagac:

"In his memoir, everything becomes a kind of game of adolescent brinksmanship, how much can one press the limits of the acceptable and elude the powers that be....The [fighter jocks'] ethos of exaggerated, almost aggressive sociability becomes an end in itself and an excuse for license. There is a tendency for people, not simply to believe their own mythology but, indeed, to exaggerate it.... Fighter jocks, like politicians around their campaign contributions, often press the limits of the acceptable. It is a type of mild corruption that takes place in a highly privileged atmosphere, where restraints are loosened and excuses made....McCain gives some hint in his memoirs about where he stood in the hierarchy among carrier flyers. Instead of the sleek and newer Phantoms and Crusaders, McCain flew the dependable Douglas A-4 Skyhawk in an attack, not a fighter squadron. He was thus on the lower end of the flying totem pole."

The genius of McCain's mythmaking is his perceived humility amid perpetual defiance. Having been a rebel without cause, and often a rebel without consequences, McCain apparently was not surprised when his Vietnamese captors went relatively easy on him compared to his fellow POWs. The Vietnamese military secretly and frequently filmed the American POWs to learn their propensities. Col. Pham Van Hoa of the Vietnamese People's Army Film Department was in charge of the filming. Asked recently for his dominant impression of McCain, the now-retired Van Hoa said that McCain "seemed superior to other prisoners." How so? "Superior in attitude towards them."

But when Mark Salter, McCain's closest aide and co-author, was asked by the Arizona New Times about the first McCain memoir, Faith of My Fathers, that he was then working on, Salter said the book would showcase a humble McCain. When I worked on this book with him, he just kept saying, "Other guys had it a lot worse. I think they took it easier on me because of who my dad was. . . . When they tied me in ropes, they'd roll my sleeve up to give it a little padding between the rope and my bicep, you know, little things I noticed. The only really hard time I had was when I didn't go home, and then it only lasted a week, and sometimes I felt braver, I felt I could get away with more.'"

Is McCain now getting away with more by hiding his official history and by having his national security adviser inflate McCain's resume with a bogus promotion to admiral humbly declined? If so, McCain may be attempting to hide why the Navy was in fact slow to promote him upwards despite his suffering as a POW and his distinguished naval heritage.

One possible reason: After McCain had returned from Vietnam as a war hero and was physically rehabilitated, he was urged by his medical caretakers and military colleagues never to fly again. But McCain insisted on going up. As Carl Bernstein reported in Vanity Fair, he piloted an ultra-light, single propeller plane -- and crashed another time. His fifth loss of a plane has vanished from public records, but should be a subject of discussion in his Navy file. It wouldn't be surprising if his naval superiors worried that McCain was just too defiant, too reckless and too crash prone.

Regardless, McCain owes it to the country to release his complete naval records so that American voters can see his documented history and make an informed decision.

** An earlier version of this story may have left the impression that John Kerry had signed the 180 military waiver during the 2004 presidential campaign. It has been updated to clarify the timing of the release.

Jeffrey Klein is an investigative journalist who co-founded Mother Jones; directed exposes of Newt Gingrich, Big Tobacco and the introduction of offensive weapons into space; co-produced for The News Hour with Jim Lehrer a series on China's economy that won a Gerald Loeb Award; and taught journalism at Stanford, San Francisco State and Cal. He is currently reporting on assignment for the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute, which provided research support for this article. Research assistance was provided by Peter Jackson.

Comments

[heywhat]

Not quite Swift Boating but a damn good try. It's a little early to be stooping to this, don't you think? Both Senator Obama and Senator McCain have asked us not to indulge in this sort of blather which adds nothing to the discussion.

http://strictlyanecdotal.com

[SamThornton]

Have to love it. A candidate for the Presidency running on his record who refuses to let voters know what's in his record. I might vote for McCain just for the laughs.

[TXfemmom]

A Republican trying to lie their way into the Presidency? I am shocked, shocked and mortified.

Then the New York Times assisting lying Republicans publish their lies, once again, shocked.

[julianne]

The vast majority of people don't want war. When they see and hear McCain, Cheney, or Bush they want to throw up - and that's the majority of people on the planet. McCain suffered greatly, but the the Marines took more casualties in Viet Nam than they did in the Pacific in World War II. Many of the survivors who aren't dead or institutionalized are walking around our nation today in pain because of it. When the U.S. invaded Iraq it didnt' just make the world angry, it broke its heart.

[ApolloSpeaks]

KERRY,OBAMA AND JOHN MCCAIN, AND THE DEMS COMEDY OF ERRORS

In 2004 Democrats claimed that John Kerry was more fit to be commander in chief in time of war than George W. Bush because of his military service in Vietnam and chest full of medals. Now the Dems have gone to the other extreme saying that Obama's lack of military experience and security credentials are his strongest asset against the heroic John McCain to lead this nation in wartime. Is this not a comedy of egregious errors, laughable in the extreme?

What on earth do Democrats stand for in supporting this sorry man? A man who not only lacks the resume and wisdom to be commander in chief, and fight a war to the death for the fate of the earth with the forces of Militant Islam, but was a devoted follower for 20 years of the psychotic Reverend Wright, a man who preaches a gospel of damnation and hate against the United States; a man and a lunatic church who no true patriotic American would for a moment be a member let alone for 20 uncritical, unquestioning years. Obama has driven his party insane and that is one of many strong reasons why the Obama Express will run out of steam by Election Day.

[enoughalready]

I am the wife of a disabled Viet Nam vet. I took offense at the Swift-boating of Kerry because those of us who lived during the Viet Nam era and watched John Kerry fight to end the war in Viet Nam knew better - Kerry's record was supported by Naval records, period.

George W. Bush's record was that of a skate - he wasn't the only one - many in our government were obtaining ways for their kids to stay out of the war - that's the truth.

John McCain served honorably in Viet Nam. My husband worked flight decks of Naval carriers and always trying to get our pilots back safely. It was a dangerous job just as the Swift boat naval personnel. Both extremely dangerous jobs. Those of us who lived the experience know all too well the situation. There were no bombs dropping or mortars flying in Texas or Alabama.

I do no approve of attacking our true hero's no matter what political party. It simply is a dis-servive to all the men and women that wear the uniform.

[enoughalready]

Obama is too young to have ever have served in a war. So don't go there.

Intelligence in the White House will be a relief to our troops since they should never be used for political neocon nut bars. Our men and women serving currently in Iraq and Afganistan deserve better leadership. Just ask the families of those troops since they are the only ones paying the price of this neocon goof balls in the White House. Bush's so called experience in the the Air National Guard did not make him smart about defense. He's not made a smart move since taking the oval office.

Intelligent leadership is what is needed. Obama is just that. The right wing nut bars will try to bring every distraction that simply do not matter. The GOP has become the worst slime machine and we are simply not served well by any one of them.

America deserves better.

I vote for the smart candidate.

Obama 2008

[ApolloSpeaks]

Intelligent people are a dime a dozen, the character to lead a nation in wartime against an implacable foe with a nonnegotiable agenda of conquest, aggression and woe is a rarer thing which the boy/man completely lacks. McCain is a rarity; the right man in the right place to assume leadership of America in these critically dangerous times of crisis and war.

[Vorticose]

LOL Obama is too young, read a history book. ( Operation Desert Storm) HMMMMMMMMMM

[Justeesh]

"a war to the death for the fate of the earth with the forces of Militant Islam" wow. Terrorized much? A few thousand nutjobs with RPGs on the other side of the planet scare you that badly? This is another reason we need Barack Obama: to give people like you a reality check. This ain't no apocalypse.

[ApolloSpeaks]

I guess calling me a "nut job" saves you the trouble of looking in front of your nose at the reality of jihadism. It is not nuts to disagree with me, though it is a sign of acute mental blindness. You're right however on one account:, this is not an apocalyptic war, just the latest incarnation of freedom verses tyranny on a global scale a world war that started in 1914 and is now approaching its 100th year.

[xhibi]

Oh my! Could this be all true about McCain the legendary maverick war hero?

Well you all know about the McCain Challenge. Now you can also participate in the McCain Contest. http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/20/3645/88162/152/538868

Btw, I don't think that McCain has a Youtube problem per se. I think he has an "The American people don't trust him anymore" problem.

[gsikev]

at least mccain actually shows up for important votes.

[BlackWidowPilot]

Really? Is that why he voted "not voting" on the latest GI Bill? Is that why he votes so consistently *against* veterans' interests that veterans' groups rate McCain a D-minus?

It's like an enabling wife declaring of her philandering, abusive husband, "At least he always comes home in the morning!"

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[SteelResolve]

No he hasn't. You seriously need to check your facts because McCain has had a very high absentee rate from the Senate.

[shuppy]

Smear, bash, contumely. Thatis all I see on this blog. Nothing constructive.

Only one candidate has stuck to his word and speaks his mind. It is so evident that the only way that some people can besmirch a man is by claiming the opposite. The fact that McCain has changed his position on off-shore drilling is not flip-floping -- why should we conserve when failing to produce oil has driven us to the edge of bankruptcy? It is common sense to abandon one policy -- which was valid when we had plenty of resources available - when we can remedy it by drilling when we are short of oil.

It takes courage to change one's policy. It is not courage to call for change when you have no policy at all.

Real change must be based on considered policy change - not just the hollow claim of change. The result that Obama wants is change of political party - not change that will benefit anyone but his party.

[BlackWidowPilot]

PART II

"Shuppy," your idea of courage in the context of Charles Keating's happy lapdog "Hundred Years War" McCain isn't courage at all, but moral hypocrisy pure and simple, right along with McCain voting so consistently *against* veterans' needs that veterans' groups give him a D-minus, yet McCain still asserts he and he alone is their special friend in the Senate.

Hypocrisy, thy name be GOP.

And a better solution would be alternative, sustainable, renewable energy sources, rather than just letting the oil companies run amok with the blessings of Uncle Sam as they've already been doing these past seven and a half years from Hell under the Busheviks.

Nothing constructive? More of the same approach that got us into this mess is hardly a constructive solution; when you're digging in sand, the first rule of survival is to *stop.* To keep repeating the same behavior over and over and over yet expecting a different result each time is the working definition of *insanity.*

As an independent voter and proud son of a WW2 US Marine, I have had quite enough of the "Greedy Old Perverts" and their Wall Street/K Street financed same ole' same 'ole *hypocrisy* and runaway greed.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[americanalien]

OLD MAN YELLS AT RECORD!

[yeswecancan]

"I really didn't love America until I was deprived of her company."
John McCain
March 2008 == Faux News
On the Campaign Trail 1999-2000 forever. I can't wait to hear the right wing spinmeisters twisting like pretzels to show McCain's repeated comment to this effect is different than Michelle Obama's "really proud" comment. Dan Abrams on MSNBC had fun with this tonight ....

[gevan]

This is the man that the GOP thinks should be the Pilot-in Chief for the crash of America? Really?

[americanalien]

John McCain hates America. Why else would he want to give Bush a third term and once said he really didn't love America on national television. We should be wary of letting this man get anywhere near the oval office.

[TalkingPolitics]

mccain reminds me of Bush... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E2BzZmsosc

[BEHM777]

Ahem. Had John McCain followed SOP, he MAY not have been shot down in his A-4 on that eventful day. I do not doubt that what he went through was horrible--the injuries sustained in the crash itself were certainly bad enough. Still, I do not believe that John McCain deserves a free pass on his military record. Open it up, and not for 3 or 4 hours to a select few journalists.

I know a little about Naval Aviation, having been in several Marine Fighter Attack Squadrons during my years in the Marine Corps. The A-4 was being phased out when I came on active duty, but we did use it in training. The little fella doesn't compare to the F/A-18s that I am so familiar with, but John McCain did have counter measures at his disposal that possibly could have saved him from his fate on that day. Why did he ignore the fact that enemy radar had locked on to him? That would tell us something about his judgement and his ability to act under pressure.

Senator McCain, if you are going to accept being called a war hero, let us see your records. You are asking for MY vote, so I'd like to have all the information I can. In my mind, your military record is fair play and I'd like to vet you in regards to your judgement and character through it. Thank you.

[shalopash]

Can someone please tell me why John McCain is considered a hero. I just don't get it. He didn't save anyone's life in Vietnam. I think you could find a number of Vietnam vets who were prisoners of war on the streets of any major city in the U.S. No metals, no hero status.

[Justeesh]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but didn't he volunteer to stay and be tortured with his fellow soldiers, when given the opportunity to go home because he was an Admiral's son? And didn't he wind up being held captive for years because of that choice? The problem isn't that he's called a hero, the problem is that those other vets, especially those on the streets, don't get a similar degree of appreciation from the public.

[TPL]

I have to laugh at all of the clowns on here. How dare you even begin to criticize McCain in this regard when you yourself have never been through such an experience, let alone EVER put on the uniform in service to this Nation. You bunch of armchair hypocrites, it is easy to see where Obama receives much of his support, from basement dwelling bums like you. Do yourself and everyone else a favor, shut your mouths until you have anything logical or pro-American to say. Until that time, stay in your basements of ignorance, and cease your attempts at infecting the masses. McCain is NOT a sell-out, unlike cut-and-run Murtha, or little booboo Kerry. Face it, you can't attack his Service, and you hate it, because you hate the Military. When your Messiah Obama cuts the Military in half, in the same way Clinton did, I hope you revel in the next major terrorist attack on American Soil.

[brokenSoldier]

You're an idiot. You assume none on this board have ever experienced combat or been wounded, but you are dead-assed wrong in that assumption. But even that does not matter, because combat experience and wounds do not earn anyone a free pass, no matter how severe. But you'd already know that if you had ever even sniffed combat. The only thing that matters is whether or not you can stand behind your record and what that record says about you. If McCain won't release his records, then people are free to speculate for themselves what that means about him and his past.

And if someone wants to attack McCain about his service, they have a free hand to do so. You may think it's in bad taste, but that doesn't change the fact that they have the right to do so. And in McCain's case, his political ambition, propensity to change his policy positions when it is expedient, and his willingness to flat-out lie about his past all open him up to whatever criticism comes his way. If there is such a thing as automatically earned respect due to military service, he burned his up long ago through his own conduct.

[ebanks84]

Absolutely. And McCain don't even want his records shown. That's more telling than anything the man can ever say. He's a liar.

[DMW1]

That is the most ignorant bunch of BS I've read recently. So unless we're served in the military or been POWs, we can't discuss those issues? Brilliant. Following that logic anyone who hasn't attended medical school or worked as a physician shouldn't discuss health care. Those who haven't attended law school or practiced as attorney shouldn't discuss the law.

And serving in the military and having POW status do not automatically render sainthood upon McCain, nor qualify him to be president.

And "shut your mouths until you have anything logical or pro-American to say"? Ironic, as logic is obviously beyond you. The last time I looked, the U.S. Constitution still allows freedom of speech, despite the Republican efforts over the last 8 years to shred that document.

Intelligent people are quite able to love this country and still see it flaws and work for change. We are also capable of supporting our troops while seeing and discussing the current problems in the military.

For anyone interested in the truth on the current state of our military and some FACTS about John McCain, visit this website:
www.StopThinkVote.com

[Phil123]

And you have those Constitutional rights because of the sacrifices of men like John McCain. While I can sometimes understand the cowardice of the left - because it does take some spine to stand up for what's right, I don't understand the contempt and ingratitude they show toward those who do stand up.

[Raymondf]

They've already took your site off sorry.

[omahkohkiaayo]

Well done. And as a Vietnam-era veteran, I most certainly agree with your points. You know how many people I knew in the "service" who did not even know or do well their own jobs let alone being experts by osmosis and service, on the totality of military doctrine, hardware, tactics, strategy and legitimacy of what they were fighting for?

Further, I am proud of my "service" only in the sense that I kept faith with my buddies; I am most certainly not "proud" of having contributed in any way, directly or indirectly, with illegal and preemptive wars of aggresssion founded on lies and phony pretexts as in the case of Vietnam (Gulf of Tonkin non-incident) or Iraq; the kind 11 nazis were sented to hang for at Nuremberg.

I just love these loud-mouthed "proud-to-­be-a-Merri­can" types that tell others to "shut up" what they are obviously too dumb, uneducated and cowardly to answer.

[byrdlegs]

Someone needs to pull their head out of their butt ! Do you think McCain was the only one served in Vietnam? He is no more a hero than anyone else that served. Just because your are a bad pilot and got shot down, doesn't qualify you for anything. Why doesn't McCain release all his military records like Kerry did? A think the 617 or so pages of his service would tell the real story, don't you? If McCain wants to make his service to the country one of his main assets in running for President and or using it against the lack of service by his opponent, then we need the entire story, not just the propoganda. If he is afraid of the results of such a release, then run on the issues. McCain is all over the place on taxcuts, treatment of prisoners, and other issues now to include off shore oil drilling. I think the "Straight Talk Express" needs a serious wheel alignment. He voted against the equal payment act for women cause they need more experience and training. He voted against the GI Bill cause it would result in too many troops leaving the service for an education, and he hasn't voted "yea" on any Veterans Health issues in the last 5 yrs. If you think Hillary's campaign did a horrif job in her bid for the primary election, those working for John McCasket are worse yet.

[Raymondf]

Yes but I don't believe that Kerry spent five years in a Viet-Cong prisoncamp being tortured everyday. Kerry probably hid everytime there was gunfire. Notice I said hid not ducked.

[Raymondf]

Don't everyone think the man has been through enough. So he didn't make Admiral. Whats the big deal, I'm sure he felt he had been through enough, so he retired. Give the man a break he is one of the few that came home honoring his country, by not being a dope head. 68% of the vietnam vets had to go to rehab for drugs, just in the town I live in, a town of only 30,000. I just wonder what the national average was.

[republicratfascists]

McCain was a glory boy, he didn't fight anyone, he dropped bombs on civilians. It also appears he collaborated with the enemy, hence his preferential treatment.
I also fail to understand why anyone should shut up because what they have to say doesn't fit into TPL's world view. Another scared paranoid brownshirt Republican.

[omahkohkiaayo]

I am a veteran of the U.S. Army 1963-66. Let me share a dirty little secret that the recruiters know well. Very few of those who go into, or stay in military service, do so for so-called patriotic reasons. Some are just plain losers who cannot make it in any kind of non-structured environment requiring independent thought and self-directed effort. Some have self-esteem issues, sometimes short in height, or got dumped by some cheerleader in high school, and want to come home with a bunch of medals. Solme want to finance their education and don't mind being mercenaries to do it. Some are glory boys and girls. Some want travel and adventure. Some are psychopaths and sociopaths looking for a target-rich environment the fog of war provides. For some they are carrying on family traditions. Some need some training. And yes some say they have come in to serve the nation and "defend freedom" etc (but how credibile are those who say they have come in to defend freedom etc when few have ever read the U.S. Constitution, or know anything about the history, geography or origins and legitimacy of the wars in which they volunteer to serve?)

And the ones with the biggest mouths, macho posturers, types who the older they get at the ol American Legion, the better and more courageous they used to be, those types were usually REMFs if they even were where they say they were.