been a very ordinary sailor and airman:
John McCain, Unfit To Serve As Commander In Chief
January 29, 2008
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.
Family Connections and Special Privileges: 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 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 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.
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