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.
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the gop dont want anyone to ask about mccain record because it makes him less heroic to the america people who are beleiving this myth . because the myth beleiviers has to vote for mccain but rove didnt have a problem with destroying his record when bush was running for office. because rove wanted to build bush myth so the beleiviers could vote for bush and feel safe. so much the safe part get US. rove should be run out of TOWN. this group of criminals get to laugh in the face WE THE PEOPLE those of us great AMERICANS who put them into the most powerful office in the WORLD. lets not WE THE PEOPLE make the same dumb mistake again. PLEASE! WE THE PEOPLE OF THIS GREAT AMERICAN COUNTRY SITTING ON TOP OF A HILL. SHINING BRIGHT FOR ALL THE OTHER COUNTRIES TO DREAM!
The media had better not question McBush er McCain, the same thing will happen to them that happen to Dan Rather.
Time out! You don't think dropping forged documents on the public two months before the Presidential Election might have had something to do with his demise? Along with Bill Moyer's Reverend Wright interview, Rather's misconduct stands as a hallmark of media partisan hackery.
Forged. Yeah. Too bad the information in the documents just
happened to be true.
But don't let that bother you Sparky! Now that Dan Rather!
Boy, there is real evil there!
Who cares about illegal wars, dead Americans and a broken economy.
We got that Dan Rather and that's all that matters!!
Vote McCain, moron.
Much easier to tackle "Hundred Years War" McCain on his record as a "friend of veterans" -hence why veterans' groups give him a D-minus. And besides his love affair with K Street lobbyists starting with Charles Keating and continuing with Vicky Isemann, there's his apparent partisanship of the PNAC:
http://www
*Hypocrisy* is McCain's biggest weakness, along with his inability to tell a Sunni from a Shiite, or his apparent inability to "just say no" to lobbyists' "campaign contributions," and his *dead silence* on the 500 ton elephant in the GOP room:
http://www
Yeah, real 'family values" bunch that "Hundred years War" McCain is a loyal partisan thereof. Whatever honourable deeds McCain did over 30 years ago, he's thrown to the four winds since entering the halls of government.
Leland R. Erickson
Citizen
Just another fascist phony. We'll see what emerges over the next five months. The late Col. Hackworth apparently wrote an article debunking McCain when he ran in 2000.
John McCain was a very brave prisoner of war, but physical bravery is not the most important qualification for President of the United States. Analytical ability and wisdom are critically important factors. The judgment to decide a course of action in the face of conflicting signals is also important.
The most disturbing bit of inforamtion about McCain is that he was very nearly the dumbest guy in his class at the Naval Academy. He ranked 884 out of 889. His accademic performance was even worse than that of President George W. Bush. As a pilot he crashed five planes and there is even a story that had he followed standard operating procedures, he may well have avoided being shot down over Hanoi.
It seems his inability to understand the relationships between Al Quaeda, Shia and Sunni may not be a function of age at all, just inadequate mental horsepower sort of like an underpowered car.
Much as we admire his bravery, do we really want to entrust our future and that of our children to such an under achiever?
Very well said!!!
Very well said Selbourn!!! I don't know the reply sometimes jumps down several postings?
Anybody?
Selbourne writes:
"The most disturbing bit of inforamtion about McCain is that he was very nearly the dumbest guy in his class at the Naval Academy."
Are you surprised that McCain is running for President? He's a peach of an intellect compared to Bush. Republicans like low achievers. Rhodes Scholars, professors and intellectuals are a threat to the puppet masters. Why do you think the number one news organization (Fox) is populated with over fed frat boys and valley girls from the country club?
Bobby Jindal is a Rhodes Scholar as were Republican Senators David Vitter, Richard Lugar, and Larry Pressler. Newt Gingrich was a professor, Bill Frist a heart surgeon.
BINGO! Stupid people are malleable. Smart people present a challenge to liars and cheats.
some article...
Amazing how the carefully crafted myth, including that despicable "maverick" crap, is sold to the American people 24/7 by the mainstream media. Pravda couldn't do a better job.
Carefully crafted myth.... sounds like someone named Obama...
"Carefully crafted myth.... sounds like someone named Obama..."
Trollspeak translation: wah wah wah
Conservatives are outraged that McCain is the Republican candidate. We would have greatly preferred Dr. Ron Paul, easily the most competent man to run for the presidency of our nation…ever. McCain is what we call a neoconservative, i.e., a liberal of sorts who doesn't really believe in the conservative political and economic philosophy but tries to pass as a conservative anyway. It is not widely recognized, but the neocons are responsible for the war in Iraq. They worship the concept of democracy; they want to spread it worldwide and American hegemony along with it. Imperial America is their ultimate goal and war for democracy (latest example, Iraq) their means of attaining it. That policy is entirely foreign to our national Constitution and to traditional Old Republic Taft conservatives who always seek supremely to avoid war. True conservatives understand from history that wars bankrupt and destroy even the strongest of nations—as they have been destroying ours for many years. Conservatives and moderates of both national parties may vote for McCain simply because, as incompetent as he obviously is, he is still vastly superior to Obama. So, once again, it amounts to our having to vote for the lesser of two evils or a third party. That is what inevitably happens when the major parties allow the amoral, confused child pranksters of the mass media to pick their candidates for them--as they nearly always do. Fools have long ruled; the ship of state is sinking fast.
You're right that McCain is a Neo-Conservative. Now the Dems have selected Obama erroneously thinking that he is a Anti-War Liberal. He apparently is not. For proof of that, the day after he clinched the nomination Obama was at AIPAC (American Israeli Political Action Committee) which is where all good pols, both Democrat and Republican go to prove there hawkhood on US policy in the Middle East. AIPAC is about the most powerfull lobby in Washington. So much for Obama's pledge to not court lobbyists. AIPAC is also a leading NEO-CON entity.
You have to ask yourself if your an intelligent person, how much real difference is there between Obama & Bush/McCain foreign policy, at least regarding the Middle East and the "War on Terror"? I think it has more to do with the rhetoric than the actual policy.
This leads me to think that Ralph Nader or Bob Barr/Ron Paul are the only ones that can right the ship of state, but alas that would involve our Neo-Con MSM to quit their propaganda campaign for more military involvement rather than less in the Middle East. They won't until their stopped by the American people on all sides of the political spectrum.
Undoubtedly you're wrong about Obama's policy regarding war. He will work for peace in the Middle East as Carter did when he brokered a peace deal with Egypt and Israel. I'm sure he will do what is necessary to assure Israel's continued existence, but will also work with the Palestinians to realize their dreams. I beleive you might be selling Obama short when he stands before AIPAC, and you translate that into some flip flop. Let the music play on. we are on the outside looking in, making simplistic evaluations about issues for which we have limited knowledge. I believe he is guided by a strong sense of morally and will make decisions based on his appointees input and his own political wisdom. These are not black and white issues, but very complex, and much will be eventually sorted out between all the parties. But Obama will appoint someone who can work with all sides. I'm voting for him because of my faith in his judgement. Based on my research, he has my total truth.
Frankly, I'm a hell of a lot more concerned with domestic policy than I am foreign. We are facing a catasrophic fall. Without someone who cares about human suffering, we are all doomed.
Ron Paul is Superior in what way ? When ever congress doesn't want something to pass or to pass,they call in Ron Paul ,as he's known as the 'NO' man regardless of what bill is on the floor . How he remains in office amazes me ,and I'm an Independant !! Ron Paul can't decide what party he is ,in 1988 he ran for president as a Libertarian,and yet remained a registered Republican !! Paul did vote against the Iraq War Resolution,but was in favor of using force against terrorists in Afghanistan but he favors nonintervention by the USA .Paul favors gun control ,and is against federal income tax,dispite the fact millions get very large EIC returns .Paul is against the war on drugs ,heaven knows why ,as he IS doctor of obstetrics and has seen what drugs do to infants .He is pro-life but yet says states should be able to define each states' rights to regulate or ban abortion.P
The records will never be released, even though they should be. Who wants to tarnish the war hero image they created for him. There are a lot of people whose reputation would be affected if the records are released and they are contrary to the popular belief about McCain's alleged heroism. These people include members of the media, which is why the records will never be released! Mark my words.
I have a suspician that what Colonel Hopper said about McCain might be true regarding what happened when he was a POW. Watch the video and let me know what you think?
http://www
Any charge made against the Mac, I will believe.
The Mac is a complete and total fraud.
McCain's a freakin' liar and always has been.
He's no different than George Bush--he'll say anything to get elected.
He was reared by the elite, then married a wealthy trophy wife, yet he pretends to be a common man who understands the plight of the working man.
Bullshit.
He's up to his ass in the same lobbyists and corporate special interest groups as both Bushes were.
But unlike Bush, he publicly called his wife a cunt.
Even Bush never stooped that low.
Mc is a freakin liar because repub voters don't give a crap if you lie, in fact I'm pretty sure its mandatory.
Yah, because the majority of them are hypocrites!
He is worst than a liar. He is a complete and total fraud.
His entire life is a fairy tale.
I couldn’t make the same charge against Boosh or Cheney.
Im so sick and tired of people calling this man a "hero". Why, exactly, was he a hero?? Yes he served in Vietnam and yes he was prisoner for many years. Does that make someone a hero? I personally dont think so. The only thing this article proves to me is that he was an incompetent pilot with daddy pulling the strings. Dont start with the whole "disrespecting the troops" nonsense either because this issue needs to be resolved. I dont worship the golden calve.
I want to know that, too. Does surviving torture and imprisonment make you a hero? If so, are those prisoners being -inaccurately- kept in Guantanamo and elsewhere around the world (yesterday's news said, "about a third of them shouldn't be there") really "heroes"?
Suffering for your country seems arguably heroic, particularly as his father got him released early and McCain turned it down.
And yet, I remember him talking about it in 2000 and HE didn't seem to feel heroic then. As I recall, he seemed to feel guilty--I got the feeling, rightly or wrongly, that he felt he'd capitulated to the Viet Cong, and that was why (at the time) he had a more sympathetic view about the wrongs of torture. Does anyone else remember that?
He was a spoiled young guy, reckless, a hothead and apparently not a very competent pilot whose judgment, then and now, doesn't seem very good. To hear him repeatedly labeled a "hero" bothers me a bit, too.
This coming from someone who probably has never seen a day of military duty in his life.
The TRUE HEROS of vietnam are written on a wall as the Heros of this uncalled for war ,names will one day be written but not forgotten ..McCain KNOWS the truth about himself, I wonder how he sleeps so easy or does he ?
Your guy Barack calls him a "hero."
The right is trying to create a mythology around McCain the way they did with Bush. As with all mythologies, it only sets us up for the later fall. In this case, it will not work. McCain is in many ways an average man whose moment of greatness was when he was held as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.
TO: Senator John McCain June 17, 2008
In August, 2003 I sent you a letter asking for job fax money assistance since I had quit evil jobs as a Christian and GA here does not give you much money. You never answered. We need smart,king,humane leaders, not you. Cruel leaders will never resolve anything.
Recently four food and shelter places closed here in San Francisco. Now recently St. Anthony's Marian shelter is closing in September and Men's Farm in Petaluma to close, but no set date yet according to Central City Extra by Tom Carter June 2008.
Mr. Terry Messman writes in Street Spirit and published by American Friends Service Cmte April 2005 that our most vulnerable homless women are raped, robbed and murdered on streets. The National Coalition On Homeless have carefully documented 280 hate crimes including 131 murders. The crimes range from beheading to drowning to brutal stabbings and beatings. Affordable housing and a safe place to sleep at night could have prevented these terrible tragedies.
Eva Hart A Christian In Army 62-70 670 Eddy St. Sfc 94109
McCaine, by his own account was, like Bush, basically a privileged and pampered "punk" (his words) in the privileged high school he attended. He got into Annapolis only through juice from his daddy, just as Bush got accepted into the Texas Air Guard the day he applied (12 days before his deferment was up) with a 25% on the Pilot Aptitude test, a national waiting list of over 160,00 and 2 pilot slots in the Texas Guard with 28 pilots on the waiting list. McCaine got into delayed pilot training despite being the 6th from the lowest in his class and over 100 demerits, while Bush got into delayed pilot training despite the fact that Guard pilots are drawn from the ranks of former active-duty pilots. Bush was taken off flight status not only for refusing to take a flight physical (just when drug tests had been added) but also for marginal flying ability; McCaine was kept on monitored flight status and lower-performance aircraft also for marginal flying ability (but as a pilot over 40 years myself I do give him credit for carrier take-offs and landings).
And we could go on with the parallels between Bush and McCaine in terms of womanizing, hypocrisy, lack of accountability, cynical opportunism, cronyism and corruption (Keating 5) etc.
Checkout Vietnam Veterans Against John McCaine--these are ultra-rightists, his kind, calling McCaine's record in Vietnam into question not lefties do their own version of Swiftboating.
Oh, such wonderful role models for our young people to follow.
And Obama went to the most prestiagous and most expensive private school in Hawaii. So whats your point?
TO: Senator John McCain June 17, 2008
In August 2003 I sent you a letter stating I had quit evil jobs as a Christian and since one does not get much GA money I needed money to send job faxes for job seeking. You never answered. This was questionable too. We need smart, kind leaders then we will have smart , kind results.
Recently 4 more food and shelter places closed down here in San Francisco. Now St. Anthony's is closing their Marian Women's shelter in September and Men's Rehabilitation Farm near Petalum no set date yet due to lack of donations and claim their victim of these soaring food and fuel prices too according to Central City Extra newspaper by Tom Carter June 2008. Mr. Terry Messman of Street Spirit and published by American Friends Service Cmte writes that our most vulnerable homeless women can be raped, robbed and murdered. The National Coalition on Homeless has carefully documented 280 hate crimes including 131 murders. These crimes range from beheading to drowning to brutal stabbings and beatings. Affordable housing could have prevented these terrible tragedies. Do we have leadership who can understand this. If not we need to vote in decent leadership for these inhumane crimes cannot continue.
Proverbs: 29:14 A King Keeps His Throne Forever If He Cares for the Rights of the Poor.
Eva Hart A Christian In Army from 62-70 670 Eddy St. Sfc 94109
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