I despise McCain, he was a condescending, arrogant f**k. But, he did not start the USS Forrestal fire with a wet start of his A-4. I have watched the video at least a thousand times in damage control training. A rocket from across the flight deck hit the plane next to his. You can clearly see the rocket skip across the deck and McCain jumping out of his cockpit and running from the explosions.
Despised McCain, for a lot of reasons the Forrestal fire is not one of them. If his daddy covered for him it was hiding the fact he was a shitty pilot.
Many have reported average or below average pilot.
I give him high regard for his time as a POW, wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
I think he was a weaselly SOB as a politician and I wish following Hew Hampshire in 2000 he had never been in office!