2nd, Who the hell said anything about McCarthy??? My post was in response to a comment about LBJohnson's Silver Star. It had nothing to do with McCarthey. Johnson was on board as an observer. On top of that, the only reason he was there was to get 'personal knowledge of combat conditions'. In other words, he had NO military purpose for being on board.
You lack of knowledge on political motivations and agendas has not precluded your 'slam' on a post on which you lack accurate reading comprehension.
Separating might in reality have made them a target as the citation mentioned -- it happened plenty of times. The fighter pilots were not just concerned with the current raid, but also future raids. A bomber knocked down this time is a bomber they won't see next time -- so in fact a common tactic was for two or three fighters to immediately go after any bomber that separated from the group.