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.
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.