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Cheng being privy as to who leaves the ship? Really? The only ones CHENG would be aware of leaving the ship would be in body bags. You see when someone passes on a ship they place them in a body bag and they are taken to the walk in cooler where the food is kept. How do I know? It was part of my shops duty to maintain the coolers and stand a watch outside any walk in cooler with a deceased shipmate inside until the body was flown off.

The CHENG would not know the whereabouts of one LTCDR because his ship was in danger and he had more pressing demands than having the John McCain Watch. There were about 500 officers on that ship. Most of them Squadron. He may have seen McCain the the wardroom at a meal possibly. Ships company and Squadron officers did not even sleep in the same area of the ship.

Even as a LRCDR McCain answered to a bunch of people including the Captain of the ship, his squadron C.O., the Air Boss, The Admiral onboard aka Carrier Group {whatever group number the Admiral onboard commanded}, and it would take permissions not just permission to leave the ship including getting orders in hand.

Logistics wise once you leave a ship that is underway or has gotten underway it can take even a couple of weeks to return to it. I was Medivaced from Naples, Italy to Rota, Spain and back and it took two weeks to get back to my ship and I was just there for an outpatient appointment of an hour. I had to have orders in hand to board the plane. I had to have orders to get a place to sleep in Rota and eat. I had to have orders to get paid. See a problem here?

McCain if he left may well have flown off under orders for reasons you may not even consider and others would not maybe ever be privy too. It is protocol for after any large fire to immediately be investigated by N.I.S. I've been questioned about one myself as were some of my fellow firefighters and it was over a far smaller fire that damaged two decks in the shipyards. Having him off ship and questioning him and having another witness somewhere else and questioning gives answers before stories can be compared. Or if he left the ship with the remains of deceased crewmembers to escort them to Saigon he would still likely not get back to the ship before next port.

When the ship reached Subic Bay it was patched to get back to Mayport. Now using some good old fashioned knowledge of a carriers layout and some common sense my bet is all but the air wing which were actually stationed out of Mayport were off loaded in Subic including Air Wing officers and they would be reassigned meaning either sent back to their home based N.A.S. or to another ship with another squadron. But why? Because of the location of the Air Wings enlisted and berthing quarters which would have been destroyed. They would want as many persons off at Subic Bay before the transit back as possible for many reasons including sanitation.

I don't like McCain but this kinda stuff is conspiracy site click bait.