Posted on 09/01/2018 4:36:21 PM PDT by Ceebass
John McCain is being hailed by the press as a "genuine war hero." But is he a war hero in the conventional sense like Audie Murphy and John Glenn? Or is his "war hero" status the creation of a very slick publicity campaign that plays on flag, duty, honor and country?
For sure, McCain has the fruit salad - a Silver Star, a Legion of Merit for Valor, a Distinguished Flying Cross, three Bronze Stars, two Commendation medals plus two Purple Hearts and a dozen service gongs. On a purely medal-count basis, he outweighs Murphy and Glenn, who both for years repeatedly performed extraordinary deeds on the ground or in the air against an armed enemy.
McCain's valor awards are based on what happened in 1967, when during his 23rd mission over Vietnam, he was shot down, seriously injured, captured and brutally imprisoned for 5 1/2 years.
I asked his Senate office three times to provide copies of the narratives for each medal. I'm still waiting. From the Pentagon, I received a recap of his medals and many of the narratives that give the details of what he did.
Only the DFC was for heroism over the battlefield - where he spent no more than 20 hours. Two Navy officers described the awards as "boilerplate" and "part of an SOP medal package given to repatriated (Vietnam-era) POWs."
McCain's Silver Star narrative for the period from Oct. 27, 1967 - the day after he was shot down - to Dec. 8, 1968, reads: "His captors ... subjected him to extreme mental and physical cruelties in an attempt to obtain military information and false confessions for propaganda purposes. Through his resistance to those brutalities, he contributed significantly towards the eventual abandonment" of such harsh treatment by the North Vietnamese.
Yet McCain admitted that just four days after being captured he violated the U.S. Code of Conduct by telling his captors "OK, I'll give you military information if you will take me to the hospital."
A Vietnam vet detractor says: "He received the nation's third-highest award, the Silver Star, for treason. He provided aid and comfort to the enemy!"
The rest of his valor awards - issued automatically every year while he was a POW - read much like the Silver Star. More boilerplate often repeating the exact same words.
McCain's conduct while a POW negates these glowing comments. The facts are that he signed a confession and declared himself a "black criminal who performed deeds of an air pirate." This statement and other interviews he gave to the Communist press were used as propaganda to fan the flames of the anti-war movement.
Accounts by McCain and other writers tell of the horrors he endured: relentless beatings, torture, broken limbs. All inflicted during savage interrogations. Yet no other POW was a witness to these accounts.
A former POW says, "No man witnessed another man during interrogations. ... We relied on each other to tell the truth when a man was returned to his cell."
The Navy says two eyewitnesses are required for any award of heroism. Only McCain and his captors witnessed the behavior for which the awards were granted.
Our POWs in Vietnam were treated appallingly. The Viets would either break a POW or kill him. POWs provided information beyond name, rank and serial number or they didn't come back.
Based on these stalwart men's horrific experiences, the Code of Conduct has been changed. Now troops are trained to give (the enemy) something and not "to risk permanent damage to health, mind or body."
McCain refused an early release. An act of valor? Three former POWs told me he was ordered to turn it down by his U.S. POW commander, and he "just followed orders."
McCain certainly doesn't appear to be a war hero by conventional standards, but rather a tough survivor whose handlers are overplaying the war hero card.
That said, the author of the posted piece, David Hackworth, died in 2005.
Much has happened, much to be thoughtfully analyzed, since 2005
Hack is always a good read.
Yet he didn't want us to get information from our enemies to save our military members or citizens lives.
I am no fan of McCain. But if he signed a bogus confession to avoid further torture, I have no problem with that. It’s not a Rambo movie out there. Nonetheless, he was also not that much of a hero either.
mccain was a Vietnam communist collaborator. He was a blatant traitor to the United States Americans that fought with valor and honor.
mccain was a Vietnam communist collaborator. He was a blatant traitor to the United States Americans that fought with valor and honor.
McCain is confirmed, a traitor in violation of the UCMJ and federal statutes covering treason:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3683280/posts?page=2067#2067
Yes.
McCain served his country and we should honor him for that.
He has passed away.
America remembers him and it is time to move on.
RIP, Sen. McCain.
Ate a few too many bugs while at the Hanoi Hilton has always been my assumption.....
Did McCain ever act honorably? We have seen his character time and time again, that tells me all I need to know.
> “But if he signed a bogus confession to avoid further torture, I have no problem with that”
The UCMJ requires a different course. McCain violated the UCMJ. Other POWs were beaten worse and did not break.
A true hero would die before signing a false confession.
But the real wrong that McCain committed was that he allowed the tape of his confession to be buried for decades while he played to the lie by the corporate media that he was a ‘hero’.
McCain wanted to boost his image as a ‘hero’ when in fact the real heroes lay dying and rotting in the jungles.
McCain was hated because he was an ‘Admiral’s Boy’ that got special attention and special favors, and he thought himself a prince looking down his nose at common folk. He was a phony and people around him could see right through him.
Did he just do bombing missions or did he ever actually shoot down enemy aircraft.?
Fair question.....right?
Just never heard.
Wasn’t there a story about him being offered freedom, but he refused it so as to stay with the other POWs for years? Is there anything to that story?
What a stupid question.
Have you ever worn a uniform?
McCain is no “war hero” - and what kind of brainless a-hole compares McCain to Audie Murphy?
F*** John McCain.
I hope he is rotting in hell.
F*** him, and F*** his entire family!
And while I’m at it - F*** George W. Bush too.
A coward can never rest. McShame proved his cowardice for the last time when he made his funeral arrangements.
He was.an A-4 driver. Light.attack bomb delivery.
I agree let’s move on, but the sob still isn’t in the ground. Bury him already
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