Posted on 07/29/2006 11:54:19 AM PDT by West Coast Conservative
This September, Senator John McCain's youngest son, Jimmy, 18, will report to a U.S. Marine Corps depot near Camp Pendleton in San Diego. After three months of boot camp and a month of specialized training, he will be ready to deploy. Depending on the unit he joins, he could be in Iraq as early as this time next year, and his chances of seeing combat at some point are high. Of the 178,000 active-duty Marines in the world, some 80,000 have seen a tour in Iraq or Afghanistan, and there are 25,000 bearing the brunt of some of the worst fighting in Iraq now. About 6,000 Marines have been wounded there, and about 650 have been killed. "I'm obviously very proud of my son," says the elder McCain, "but also understandably a little nervous."
At 70 years old, McCain might have thought his days of living in the shadow of family military men were behind him. His grandfather, Admiral John S. McCain Sr., served in the Pacific in WW II and was present at the Japanese surrender aboard the U.S.S. Missouri. His father, Admiral John S. McCain Jr., commanded U.S. forces in the Pacific during Vietnam, when the young McCain was a prisoner of war in Hanoi. But if the old men cast long shadows, McCain is about to learn that the young ones can too.
Jimmy McCain's deployment will affect more than his family. His father is a leading contender for the White House in 2008. If Jimmy deploys to combat, it appears McCain will join F.D.R. to become one of the very few American presidential candidates ever to have had a son at war. And even the prospect of Jimmy's service will shade the race. Iraq is the most important strategic and political issue facing the U.S. Many Democrats are calling for troop withdrawal to begin immediately, and the Bush Administration is struggling to reduce troop strength by the end of the year. McCain, for his part, is the leading voice calling for increasing the number of U.S. troops there.
In the way that happens more frequently in fiction than in life, a McCain family drama is replaying itself here. As a prisoner of war, Senator McCain voluntarily declined an offer of early release by his Vietnamese captors, extending his stay at the Hanoi Hilton by almost four years and nine months. During that time, his father continued to approve air strikes against Hanoi, knowing his son was there. Now comes Jimmy McCain, putting himself in the line of fire even as his father calls for more troops to be sent to war.
Named after McCain's father-in-law, James Hensley, Jimmy is the lively, happy-go-lucky member of the clan, friends say. During the 2000 campaign, a Boston Globe reporter spotted Jimmy, then 11, chasing his older brother Jack around the house calling him a "pork-barrel spender" — a deep cut in the McCain home. During the same year, when McCain was on the road in New Hampshire, the candidate proudly read aloud from a school report on General George S. Patton by Jimmy that he had faxed to him: "The Tanks Will Roll On."
McCain's personal influences on Jimmy appear to have outweighed the privileges that came with being his son. McCain is rock-star famous, and his wife Cindy came to the marriage with money as the daughter of a Budweiser distributor. While others have signed up for duty — the sons of both Senator Christopher Bond of Missouri and Tim Johnson of South Dakota have served combat missions in Iraq — it is nonetheless unusual for children of that background to enlist. By comparison, a recent study by Public Citizen's Congress Watch found at least 32 examples of congressional family members who were lobbyists.
Jimmy knows the risks of war from his father's descriptions of battle, imprisonment and torture in Vietnam. The Senator's book, Faith of My Fathers, dryly relates the experience of "small pieces of hot shrapnel" tearing "into my legs and chest," and of how, in solitary confinement, "the first few weeks are the hardest," as "the onset of despair is immediate" and "formidable." Not exactly a prime recruiting tool for your kids. Still, McCain the elder is phlegmatic. "I don't think there's anything unusual about Jimmy," he says, "There are, thank God, lots of young men and women like him."
In some ways, though, Jimmy is breaking with tradition, rather than following it. His brother Jack, now 20, has just finished his plebe year at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, where his father, grandfather and great-grandfather went before him. And McCain, the Naval aviator and keen interservice competitor, has been known to crack more than a few jokes at the Marines expense. McCain says he doesn't read much into Jimmy's decision. "I know that he's aware of his family's service background," he says, "But I think the main motivator was, he had friends who were in the Marine Corps, and he'd known Marines, and he'd read about them, and he just wanted to join up."
McCain says his son's service won't change his position on the war; he claims it won't even affect how he feels about it. "Like every parent who has a son or daughter serving that way, you will have great concern, but you'll also have great pride," McCain says. But it will be hard to ignore. If Republicans retain control of the Senate after November's midterm elections, McCain is due to ascend to the chairmanship of the Armed Services Committee in January, a position he has long aimed for. There he will have day-to-day responsibility for the oversight of the war.
And then there's 2008. McCain already has strong national-security credentials. His son's service only strengthens his position. It will neutralize the assertions of the left that Republicans are "chicken hawks," pursuing the war for ideological reasons without any connection to the pain of it. And it will likely have a broader affect on McCain's credibility. Critics have accused McCain of pandering to the right in order to solidify his front-runner status, but the power of that argument is diminished if McCain is seen steadfastly supporting a war even as it endangers his youngest son.
More than anything else, though, the country may find itself viewing Iraq through McCain's eyes as it follows his son's progress. And nothing is more powerful for a candidate than sympathy. Nothing, too, is more irritating to McCain: he seems annoyed by the interest in his son's enlistment. In mid-June, he requested that Time not run this story and only relented when it appeared other organizations might break the news. In response to most of the heavier questions about Jimmy's motivation and the influence he may have felt from his family, McCain doesn't want to play. "He's an 18-year-old kid," McCain says, and he no doubt remembers what that means. The Senator was such a hell-raiser as a plebe and a pilot that he was nearly forced out of the academy.
Whatever Jimmy's enrollment says about him, his father or the country, candidate McCain is letting it speak for itself, for the most part. Often the clan gathers for a popular July 4 barbeque at McCain's cabin in Arizona. But this year, instead, McCain canceled the picnic, and the Senator, his wife Cindy and Jimmy went to the Quinault Indian reservation in Washington State. "We went fishing and hiking and enjoyed the rain forest there as well as the salmon fishing, although we didn't catch any salmon," he says. "Cindy and I were able to spend a weekend with him. And it was fine."
I doubt that. Though I do hate that bill.
McCain is bad on free speech, too, as well as other things. As I said, I think he's a good man, but I have major disagreements with him on policy issues.
But, I agree that he is better than he appears, while Rudy is worse than he appears. I also like Rudy, but I think both would be terrible presidents.
I saw that poll too. It referenced Republicans, not conservatives. While conservatives may not approve of McCain for POTUS, I think they have even a lower opinion of Giuliani. Whatever anyones says, compared to the lefty politics of RudyG, JohnnyMac is a staunch conservative. Think about it.
Agreed. McCain over Giuliani, ALL DAY LONG!
Kudos to the kid...he's a good man.
But couldn't the old man have gotten him an appt. to the naval academy, flight school, and a successful career as a navy fighter pilot?
Can someone refresh my knowledge as to the number of planes that John shot down?
Rudy Bump!
one difference between the McCain son and your neighbors' sons (and mine) ... they don't have extraordinary power, influence and money.
The article referred to at least 32 offspring of Members whose kids are lobbyists, cashing in on mom/dad's influence and power. That's a really low estimate imo. Many more work for the parent's campaign.
The article also noted that it was not published months ago because the McCains didn't want to make it political, so credit to them for that.
I'm not a McCain fan, esp for POTUS, but give his son credit for choosing this path when so many other, easier, more profitable options were available to him. I wish him and his family well.
No flames but I would NOT vote for McCain for any reason whatsoever. I despise him. He is a turd and a dirtbag, and that's the nice things about him.
I do wish his son the best, however.
One son is at Annapolis, but this one wanted to join the Marines. His dad ribbed him abit for it. ;)
Not from me, I can't agree more.
Every family has it's black sheep.
Think again.
There is no way I will vote for McCain.
It will bolster the shaky egos of the neocons--they're the ones who get called "chickenhawk."
Nope. I could vote for Rudi, maybe. I'm leaving the McCain box blank.
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