Trump is Right about Songbird McCain and here’s why

I do realize that everyone from Charles Krauthammer to the recently escaped Mexican drug lord, El Chapo, is piling onto Donald Trump for his straight-forward remarks. Well, being the contrarian that I am, I am going to come down on the side of Mr. Trump!

Do I like him? No. Never have. I don't like his swagger, his cockiness, his arrogance. And I certainly don't care for that mop of comb-over fake hair. But they say the difference between egotism and self-assurance is the ability to produce. By any measure, he certainly wins that contest, both at home and abroad. True, he was born with a silver spoon, but he, and he alone, turned it into gold!

The first thing he did after declaring his presidential candidacy was to observe that Mexico was not sending their "best and brightest" across our southern border. Instead, in Mr. Trump's opinion, they are sending their gang members, their druggies, their serial felons and killers. Certainly, the tragic instance in San Francisco, and others elsewhere, have borne out the truth of his statement.

But the Honorable Senator John McCain (R-AZ) picked a fight by calling him, and others like him, "crazies" for criticizing Mexican immigration. I guess when you are worth $10 BILLION of your own making, you feel free to take issue when a politician calls you crazy!

So The Donald retaliated with the statement that getting yourself captured doesn't necessarily make you a hero. "He's a war hero because he was captured? I like people who weren't captured." With that, all hell broke loose in the mainstream media, as well as the Karl Rove dominated Republican establishment -- and the gaggle of GOP presidential wannabes.

But it might behoove us at this point in time to wonder just why would getting captured make you a hero? And why would remaining in captivity make you a military expert, and thus qualified to currently fill the roles of chairman of both the Senate Committee on Armed Services and Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. And one might ask, how has his leadership in both these strategic positions of responsibility been working out for ya'?

Since Mr. Trump expressed his opinion, there is now a whole group of Vietnam veterans who have come forward with statements that highly question the Senator's preferential treatment as the son and grandson of Navy admirals, and his loyalty to his country while in captivity. Some even place him in the Jane Fonda category. Among the allegations are:

John McCain was a below average student, getting into the Naval Academy due to his father's and grandfather's influence and naval careers. Both were admirals. McCain was a boozing, smoking, womanizing party animal, graduating fifth from the bottom of his class at Annapolis.

John McCain's arms were broken not from being tortured by the North Vietnamese, as he has claimed, but when he improperly ejected from his plane over North Vietnam. According to his fellow prisoners, he was never tortured by the North Vietnamese.

John McCain's nickname among his North Vietnamese captors was "Songbird," as he was eager to tell them anything they wanted to hear to avoid torture. It is claimed that he made 32 propaganda videos for the North Vietnamese in which he blamed the United States for targeting schools, temples, orphanages, and hospitals. McCain has admitted to making one propaganda video.

And from a US Navy Aviator who served with McCain: "His "shoot down" was self-induced, as he DISOBEYED ORDERS and flew well below the 'floor,' getting himself shot down. There were several other jets on that particular mission and he was the only one shot down, because the others obeyed their orders."

But if you think these opinions of Senator McCain are somewhat negative, try this one by Theodore Shoebat, Communications Director for Rescue Christians, an organization that is on the ground in Muslim lands, rescuing Christians from persecution, and the author of two books, For God or For Tyranny and In Satan's Footsteps: The Source and Interconnections of all Evil.

"John McCain is a giant bag of scum; his mouth is a continual sewer of bile, his heart is a decayed rot of dung, his mind a river of filth, and his soul is amongst the damned. He is nothing but a murderous scumbag. His evils are so great, that the words of Trump don't even bother me. McCain is a demon incarnate. His service in Vietnam does nothing to justify the evils he has supported and pushed for."

The late Daniel Patrick Moynihan said it well: "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts." Mr. Trump expressed his opinion, twice, apparently based upon ample facts.

Was it the politically smart thing for him to do? Perhaps not, but isn't it refreshing, for once, to see a candidate for political office speaking his mind, instead of having his thoughts evaluated by a panel of political analysts before expressing them?

At least Trump is now branded as a no-holds-barred fighter, a type of leadership our country desperately needs at this time -- and could certainly have used in the recent Iranian nuclear negotiations. Can you imagine the outcome had he been there instead of "Swiftboat" Kerry?

The GOP needs for someone to break away from the pack of wilting violets currently running for the 2016 candidacy, and Trump may have just done it! As I write this, the liberally reluctant Washington Post poll shows Trump leading by 24%, followed by Walker at 13, Bush at 12, Huckabee at 8, Rubio at 7, etc., etc.

Sometimes it's a little tough to crawl away:

When shot down by the missile, McCain's plane went into a vertical inverted spin. Bailing out upside down at high speed, the force of the ejection fractured McCain's right arm in three places, broke his left arm, and fractured his right leg at the knee, and knocked him unconscious.

McCain nearly drowned after parachuting into Trúc Bạch Lake in Hanoi; the weight of his equipment was pulling him down, and as he regained consciousness, he could not use his arms. Eventually, he was able to inflate his life vest using his teeth. Several Vietnamese, possibly led by Department of Industry clerk Mai Van On, pulled him ashore.

A mob gathered around, spat on him, kicked him, and stripped him of his clothes; his left shoulder was crushed with the butt of a rifle and he was bayoneted in his left foot and abdominal area. He was then transported to Hanoi's main Hỏa Lò Prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton" by American POWs.

Two broken arms, broken leg, crushed shoulder, two major bayonet wounds....

I think I'd cut him some slack if he wasn't able to crawl away in that condition.

Like I said, hate his politics, but militarily, he paid the price as much as anyone who ever laced 'em up.

> “Like I said, hate his politics, but militarily, he paid the price as much as ***anyone*** who ever laced ‘em up. “

Yeah well those “anyone’s” didn’t get distinguished high and mighty medals did they? But the Admiral’s boy gets all sorts of exalted language written into his heroship for doing what exactly? For doing his duty?

You know I know someone local named Vic who was shot up in Vietnam. I’m going to go track down his company platoon leader and ask him why Vic didn’t get a distinguished high award for his duty in Vietnam and just so we know, Vic served 3 years and was shot up twice.

As a matter of fact, all the Viet Vets who received combat service ribbons and Purple Hearts, let’s pile on them tons of commendation medals, distinguished this and that medals, medals for showing up and general hero medals for having been fired on. Yeah, then everyone gets a fair chance at being a McCain. Oh, there’s one problem. Most of our vets didn’t have a 4-star flag rank father or grandfather. Oh well vets, guess you’ll just have to accept that McCain is a privileged one and gets a legend to attach to his name for doing all these heroic acts such as surviving, being shot at, dropping a bomb and crashing a plane. Yeah I can see statues of McCain on the Mall in the future. I can see his face carved out on Mt. Rushmore with a caption “Look what being the son of a 4-star can do for you!”.

Bring it.

You seem to have some burning need to run down McCain’s service. It’s time to put on your big boy pants and accept the following:

He served.

Many of us did.

4 years in the HH with two broken arms, a crushed shoulder and a broken leg was hell.

We’re not in competition with each other.

And by the way, how did that compare to your military service?

Disliking McCain’s political life/stands is certainly justified, but running down his military service is simply unfounded elementary school playground BS.

Regarding your need to do this, I might suggest you look at your need to try to convince all that he is some bad person because of something that happened while he was on active duty.

McCain is no saint, but he doesn’t deserve all the lies told about his service, lied disproved by respected people who were there.... and he doesn’t deserve the foolish people who repeat them 45 years later.

Thank you for your response. I appreciate you explaining your views. I have responded to what you said, but I don’t want to pressure you to continue with this. If you wish to, it’s okay with me. And if you don’t wish to, I understand.

Let me address the issue of his fellow POWs like this. We don’t know how many they contacted. There were a few who agreed to step forward. Those folks could have had first hand information, or they may have simply had the same outlook that you do. You don’t talk ill of the other POWs, and if you can help them, it’s the right thing to do.

Were there some who didn’t come forward who thought ill of McCain? Was it because they thought it would be wrong to do so? I can’t shake that possibility.

Here’s something else to think about. You just explained why criticizing McCain calls into question the good character of the other POWs, but it didn’t seem to bother you going the other directly by inferring a lot of our troops have as spotty a character as McCain. And as a defender of our people in the military, I have to object to that. Some problems? Sure. I’m on board. Being a total screw-up the caliber of McCain, that a pretty damning insult IMO.

I don’t think most of our military screws off when training. I don’t think all Naval pilots lose 3-5 aircraft. I don’t think they get the breaks McCain did that are on the record. They earn their way. This guy did not.

His record at Annapolis would have prevented him from becoming a pilot. A couple of crashes and they would have washed out. They would have had to complete all six deck landings. It would be interesting to see how many captured pilots came to the Hanoi Hilton with two broken arms. Were his injuries more severe because of his own refusal to pay attention and train hard?

Again, thanks for your comments. I respect your service and that of almost every member of our military.

You just explained why criticizing McCain calls into question the good character of the other POWs, but it didn’t seem to bother you going the other directly by inferring a lot of our troops have as spotty a character as McCain.

Here is my post : Some have a daredevil mentality, a rebel mentality, etc that their superiors see and then harness & redirect their focus of those skills for a military purpose. Thus those type warriors make pathetic politicians and often lousy in their home life.

I saw that in three of my uncles all WW2 Combat Vets. One was Army shot in France several times. He made Sergeant and lost it so many times he didn't even bother sewing the rank on anymore. His disobeyed orders in the best interest of those under him but more important the success of the assigned mission. Thus one mission he lost his stripes the next one got them back. The kindest, most gentle laid back man you'd want to meet and a good family man. Another uncle was USMC fought on the islands of Japan in WW2. Came home a less than desirable person a drinker, womanizer, often unemployed because of his own actions, and often abusive. But he was also a fighter in combat. He changed his last years of life finally. The last one was a career Navy WW2 enlisted man who worked his way up to Commander and a ship Command by the late 1960's. A good officer by accounts I've read even played a key part of the Gemini program recovery team. But he could not handle his home life. His son paid a huge price for that because he tried to run the house like a military officer rather than a husband or father. All of them made their positive contributions during the wars.

But it seems Nam changed the rules in society on how we look upon and treat those who served the nation in war time. The attacking of service members became a blood sport which has carried on even into the wars we are in today. John Murtha was such a scumbag in his political career persecuting troops in combat.

Let me ask you a question. Is Trumps life and character really any better morally than McCains? How has he made his money? What is on the bottom floor of those Hotels? The Trump comment fiasco has also diverted attention away from a lot of more important issues. McCain isn't running for POTUS. He'll be lucky to see another senate term and before Trumps comments may well have been on his way out in the primaries but then again Trump in his shooting off his mouth may have put him back in office. Politically I have never trusted McCain & in 2008 my vote went to Chuck Baldwin for POTUS. I do not trust Trump either for the same reasons I don't trust McCain. Politically he has been all over the place in the past couple of elections. It makes me wonder what he is really up to and possibly for whom is he doing this?

Back to McCain's flying skills. If they had been so horrible after they got his attitude in check he would more than very likely crashed on a carrier landing. Not many military pilots had that skill especially in the technology of that era. The Navy was dealing with crash losses on decks of ships, crash losses due to catastrophic events in the planes own electrical and mechanical systems which happened a lot even after Nam, and ones shot down.

Pilots were in huge demand because in Nam we had many more carriers to man. We had 23 carriers to man in 1967 compared to 10 left today. That included our then two carrier 24/7/365 maintained presence in the MED SEA. After the Six Day War was it got more demanding on the carrier fleet because Suez was closed to carriers until 1981. That meant East Coast Based Carriers had a 13000 miles extra ride to get to Nam adding weeks to transit times. During transit flight ops had to continue to keep the pilots skills sharpened.

Another ongoing misconception is McCains transfer from Forestall. Squadrons are assigned a specific carrier for their actual deployment {the three to eight month long one} but many carriers qualify squadrons from other carriers. A day or two before a carrier pulls in the pilots fly off to their squadrons land base. As such they are not Ships Company permanently assigned to the ship and neither are their enlisted support squadron members. Once the ship docks they are gone to the squadron land air base cutting the number of persons on ship in half. Those who stay assigned to the ship are refereed to as Ships Company. They are there usually for duration of enlistment.

When a carrier pulls out to sea the pilots with planes return usually the second day a ship leaves port. The enlisted squadron members usually come aboard the day before getting underway.

Forestall due to extensive damage was headed into a major shipyard repair and out of commission and everyone knew it. With pilots needed elsewhere his squadron would have been ordered elsewhere. Those decisions are made in the Pentagon based on needs.

Naval Aviation to be successful and mission ready takes pilots who are capable and willing to push the limits of their skills and the planes capabilities when needed. A pilot can have top notch flying skills and yet "might" choke when it comes to being pushed into flying into combat at their limits consistently. Another lesser skill pilot but still capable "might" not have mental issues with it. That's just the nature of it. It would be each individual pilots level of endurance and capabilities in all the factors it takes to do the job. It's high risk.

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