Posted on 02/22/2008 12:54:53 AM PST by Kurt Evans
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.
What needs to be done cannot be discussed on this board.
“The divisions between conservatives and republicans are playing right into the hands of the left.”
Amen to that.
This reads like a praise piece compared to what will come regarding Mac. The man has more skeletons in his closest than Eve with 12 faces.
The question all should be asking is how did a left wing liberal like Mac become the republican front runner in the first place?
Take your pick, either Hillary or Obama will kick this snarly faced lying bastard’s ass in the major. With this in mind, is it fair to question how and why did this occur?
So does he support Obama?
This is the first time I ever heard of a midshipman at Annapolis being called a “Cadet.”
Does Timberg know the difference between the Naval Academy and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point? Sheesh.
Huckabee, CinC...... LOL.
Are you and the rest of the malcontents going to continue to hammer McCain during the general election to insure we get something much worse for CinC, US policy setter, SCOTUS nominator, etc.?
McCain is by far not the best of what we could have had but it didn’t happen. Unless something happens outside the normal political arena during McCain is who we will have as the nominee.
Guess that makes McCain and me "warmongers".
Leni
“The question all should be asking is how did a left wing liberal like Mac become the republican front runner in the first place?”
Bingo! I don’t get it at all. I look at his rise as comprised of several elements. First, the media has certainly fanned the McCain wisp of smoke into quite the inferno. His run past the field is quite surprising. It is something that rings so untrue, so behind-closed-doors. Second, the desperation angle is once again forcefully in play (and, these are, of course, desperate times). Our nation is at THE CROSSROADS. I don’t think that should be taken as being spoken figuratively in any way. We are just about ready to drown (in illegals), starve (through econmic crises and taxation, and perish (as we stand alone against terror.) A false move this way or that could require the ultimate in payment for our nation. But acting on emotions (desperation) is not the way to go (in just about anything in life.) And, again, there is something behind this that rings false. I don’t know—the sense one gets of being manipulated (advertisers often try to manipulate feelings when they want potential buyers to act.) Finally, what exactly has prompted the shift to moderation in the Republican party? And what does it mean that Republicans are willing to take such a risk at such a perilous time in our nation’s history?
McCain may well stay the course in Iraq, but he indicates he is willing to redefine the very homeland our troops are heroically defending. Is this what we want? Is it really?
Is it?
Really?
Pure BS......I suppose Dumbo the Obama or Hillary (use soldiers as waiters) would be better
Oh please! I don't buy into the all-or-nothing ("If I can't get everything I want I'll just have to blow my brains out") game. That's for defeatist losers.
Than=Thank
Hunter was my first choice, I think so much less of him since you posted this...
A hard partier and mediocre student!!! Where have I heard that before????
I don’t care if this guy was a Green Beret, his analysis is unhinged and inane.
My friend, I understand, I’ve been there and voted that way all my life. Every cycle our candidate moves further and further to the left. You’ve got to draw the line somewhere. McCain is a great place to draw the line.
Until we stop enabling the republican party, we will never get a conservative candidate. I WILL NOT SUPPORT JOHN McCAIN. Join the revolution!
I’m no McCain fan, but there’s so much wrong with this hit piece. McCain had help from his family because of their influence? Uh, yeah. So did the Bushes, the Kennedys, Gore, and on and on. Who here really believes George Bush would have been governor, much less president, without the the Bush name and influence?
He lost 5 planes? I see one, maybe two, that might have really been his fault.
And then there’s this line...
“In 1964 McCain became involved with Carol Shepp, a model from Philadelphia,”
Became INVOLVED WITH!!! Horrors. A MODEL!!! Double horrors.
What about “In 1964 McCain fell in love with Carol Shepp of Philadelphia.”
“Cadet McCain”. That one single phrase speaks volumes - about its author.
There are many things that we may or may not know about Senator John McCain; but one thing we know for sure:
Anyone who uses the term “Cadet” to refer to a Midshipman at the United States Naval Academy is acknowledging to the world that he/she has about as much knowledge and authenticity as a left-handed Bill Clinton salute.
Enough of this shiite, once and for all. It makes this board look like the Daily Kos for Christsake.
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