You conveniently missed some years. 5 1/2 Years.
John S. McCain III, Lieut. Commander, U.S. Navy
John McCain spent 5½ years in captivity as a POW in North Vietnam. Shot down in his Skyhawk dive bomber on Oct. 26, 1967, Navy flier McCain was taken prisoner with fractures in his right leg and both arms. He received minimal care and was kept in wretched conditions
in his own words, based on almost total recall, is Commander McCain’s narrative of 5½ years in the hands of the North Vietnamese.
The date was Oct. 26, 1967. I was on my 23rd mission, flying right over the heart of Hanoi in a dive at about 4,500 feet, when a Russian missile the size of a telephone pole came up—the sky was full of them—and blew the right wing off my Skyhawk dive bomber. It went into an inverted, almost straight-down spin.
I pulled the ejection handle, and was knocked unconscious by the force of the ejection—the air speed was about 500 knots. I didn’t realize it at the moment, but I had broken my right leg around the knee, my right arm in three places, and my left arm. I regained consciousness just before I landed by parachute in a lake right in the corner of Hanoi, one they called the Western Lake. My helmet and my oxygen mask had been blown off.
I hit the water and sank to the bottom. I think the lake is about 15 feet deep, maybe 20. I kicked off the bottom. I took a breath of air and started sinking again. Of course, I was wearing 50 pounds, at least, of equipment and gear.
Some North Vietnamese swam out and pulled me to the side of the lake and immediately started stripping me, which is their standard procedure. Of course, this being in the center of town, a huge crowd of people gathered, and they were all hollering and screaming and cursing and spitting and kicking at me.
When they had most of my clothes off, I felt a twinge in my right knee. I sat up and looked at it, and my right foot was resting next to my left knee, just in a 90-degree position. I said, “My God—my leg!” That seemed to enrage them —I don’t know why.
One of them slammed a rifle butt down on my shoulder, and smashed it pretty badly. Another stuck a bayonet in my foot. The mob was really getting up-tight.
During 5 1/2 years as a POW John McCain was 2 years in
solitary confinement
a program of vigorous torture methods began on McCain, using rope bindings into painful positions and beatings every two hours, at the same time as he was suffering from dysentery. Teeth and bones were broken again
Various tortures throughout those years along with
left arm was broken again and ribs were cracked.
Yes I have, as you label it, conveniently left out McCain’s five and one half years. What we get from that period of time is conflicting information. Some say he acted honorably during that time and others say he provided information to the NVC, and participated in propaganda above and beyond what he should have, and got special treatment for it.
Since I cannot know what actually took place, I refrain from addressing that period. I don’t heap praise on McCain, and I don’t criticize. I’ll leave that to others. And others have weighed in.
I consider the U.S. P.O.W. experience in Vietnam to be perhaps the pinnacle thing we can ask a fellow citizen to endure for his/her nation. If it was not a holy religious experience for them, it was probably as close to one as it could be, without it actually being one.
Some people think we should honor all P.O.W.s. I don’t believe that is our only obligation. We are obligated to hold deep respect for our honorable P.O.W.s. That much is undeniable. I also believe are owe it to honorable P.O.W.s to hold dishonorable P.O.W.s. to account.
All this being said I don’t honestly know which John is. A good case can be made for either scenario, and they have been. I’m not Solomon on this so I take no position.
I will admit to not being able to comprehend the driving force behind McCain’s seeming respect for Vietnam’s politicos. Even his former P.O.W. prison guards are treated like long lost friends. Considering how Hanoi Hilton P.O.W.s were, treated that astounds me.
What we do know from John’s own recollection and the recollection of others is that John liked to fight in grade school. He made his way to West Point, screwed around there and graduated fourth from the bottom of his class of just short of 900 people.
Despite this John was allowed to enter flight school. There he continued to screw around. Around this time John lost two aircraft. Some reports state be was screwing around each time. This raises serious questions about whether John’s immature screw-up mentality had been grown out of by the time his active duty was in full swing, another thing I don’t know for sure. None of us do.
So when John brings up his military service for me to salute, I see a big question mark. I don’t salute question marks.
John got out of the service and was elected to Congress. He then proceeded to accept favors from Charles Keating. John took over $13,000 in favors that be didn’t report for 5 to 7 years. He only made restitution once it became clear the gift would be discovered anyway.
Then John interceded inappropriately on behalf of Keating with regulators.
John scated on all that. and since those days be has been backing leftist policy whenever the mood moved him, which was fairly often.
When it comes to character, what we do know about the man is enough. He’s been far too willing to sell out his own political party at the drop of a hat, so there hasn’t been any character on display.
He’s made his mark. It’s time for him to retire.
Honestly...
Who gives a f-—?
Im sick of hearing about how his time in Vietnam made him a “hero” and somehow qualifies him to be as big a friggen douche bag as he can possibly be without the risk of suffering the consequences of his douchebaggery.
Its time for McCain to step down and go home to his wife and fat a$$ daughter.
NO MORE RINO’s!