Posted on 05/08/2008 7:51:34 AM PDT by tlb
WASHINGTON (AP) - John McCain's Navy record boils down to a series of unadorned paragraphs that bestow upon him some of the nation's top military honors.
The Navy recently released McCain's military record - most of it citations for medals during his Navy career - after a Freedom of Information Act request by The Associated Press.
McCain was awarded a Silver Star Medal for resisting "extreme mental and physical cruelties" inflicted upon him by his captors from late October to early December 1967, the early months of his captivity, according to the citation. The North Vietnamese, according to the Navy, ignored international agreements and tortured McCain "in an attempt to obtain military information and false confessions for propaganda purposes."
His captors tortured him and held him in solitary confinement. Still, he declined an offer of early release until those who had been at the prison longer than him were let go.
That decision earned McCain a Navy Commendation Medal. Although McCain was "crippled from serious and ill-treated injuries," he steadfastly refused offers of freedom from those holding him prisoner. "His selfless action served as an example to others and his forthright refusal, by giving emphasis to the insidious nature of such releases, may have prevented a possibly chaotic deterioration in prisoner discipline," the citation says.
McCain attended the U.S. Naval Academy from 1954 to 1958, and was commissioned as an ensign in June of that year. He retired in April 1981 with the rank of captain. In that time he received 17 awards and decorations. Besides the Silver Star Medal, McCain also received the Legion of Merit with a combat "V" and one gold star, a Distinguished Flying Cross and a Bronze Star Medal with a combat "V" and two gold stars.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
PAGING JOHN KERRY, MR. KERRY PLEASE PICK UP THE WHITE COURTESY PHONE!
It’s all good stuff, so why hasn’t McCain make this public until now?
For all McCain’s flaws, I just don’t see how the American people will prefer as President the bad-mouthing, entitled and elitist Harvard grad who’s never sacrificed the least thing for his country (spare me the community organizer crap), over this man.
If they do, then this aint the United States of America anymore. It’s Jeremiah Wright’s Amerikkka for real.
his military record will not matter...the media is in bed with Obama...its all about race and identity politics.
Interesting. He wrecks five jets and gets a Distinguished Flying Cross. Heck, I wrecked two helicopters and all I got was an Air Medal. Wait a minute, it’s starting to make sense. If I’d just had more time, and more helicopters...
I am so sick of his “honor” and “integrity” boasting.
I only wish he was this “honorable” and had the “integrity” to stay with his first wife, a former model with three kids. He came back from Nam and screwed everything in sight when he saw his first wife was disabled and disfigured from an accident while he was over in Nam. His current wife financed his divorce and within 30 days of the divorce, he married the current wife. No, I'm not impressed with John McPain. He's to the LEFT and a crew around.
McCain needs something to keep him in the news.
Maybe, he doesn't like to brag.
He won't pound his own chest, he knew it would come out eventually so why look like he was using it when someone else will do it for him
An admirable record to be sure.
mccain doesn’t talk about his sons service either. he may be angry, but he seems to be humble as well.
I think he has said many of times that he was not a hero. The Heros are the ones that didn’t come home.
Sounds like McCain should be the darling of the left with all of that. Yet, they still don’t like him.
It’s all about Marxism and the politics of victim-hood.
Some people ought to run for President themselves instead of complaining about the people who actually take the effort to get the job.
Modesty.
My uncle had a good battlefield medal for bravery in WW2 but you would never have found out by talking to him.
Never underestimate the stupidity of the electorate.
after a Freedom of Information Act request by The Associated Press.
Did they do the same for kerry? I don’t remember.
Modesty? Modest politician is an oxymoron. McCain’s first ad of the general campaign:
“Throughout the 60 second spot, images of McCain now, and during his days in Vietnam, flash across the screen while newspaper headlines superimposed behind the video call him an image for the future, ‘a real hero,’ ‘ready on day one.’”
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