John McCain’s military records were made public yesterday and revealed that John McCain is truly a man of honor. Here is an excerpt from the AP Article that moved me to tears:
McCain, now the Republican Party’s likely presidential nominee, was taken prisoner in October 1967 after he was shot down while on a mission over Hanoi. He wasn’t freed until March 1973, after the United States signed peace agreements with the North Vietnamese. His captors tortured him and held him in solitary confinement. Still, he declined an offer of early release until those who had been at the prison longer than him were let go.
That decision earned McCain a Navy Commendation Medal. Although McCain was “crippled from serious and ill-treated injuries,” he steadfastly refused offers of freedom from those holding him prisoner. “His selfless action served as an example to others and his forthright refusal, by giving emphasis to the insidious nature of such releases, may have prevented a possibly chaotic deterioration in prisoner discipline,” the citation says.
John McCain exhibits the very characteristics that American’s should value in a leader - honor, dignity and incredible fortitude. John McCain stayed a captive although he could have very easily secured his release. Folks, that is leadership. Contrast that with Barack Obama who also stayed. That’s right, Barack Obama stayed in a church where the pastor preached hatred against his own country and subscribed to a brand of racism that is sickening. Why did Barack Obama remain a member of Wright’s church? He did it, in my opinion, in the name of political expediency. Being a member of Trinity United helped Barack Obama with his campaign for state Senator in Illinois.
Contrast his behavior with John McCain’s in Vietnam. We can talk about the issues until we are blue in the face, and quite frankly Obama and McCain are not all that far apart on most issues. That is, if Obama is being honest this week on where he stands on the issues. See NAFTA for exhibit A on how hard it is to figure out where Obama really stands on the issues. In the end, do we want a man in the White House who has exhibited honor and grace under the most difficult circumstances or do we want someone who has a good stump speech that is hollow when examined closely? Is there really a choice? John McCain’s military records should end the discussion.
May 8th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
[...] way a man conducts himself in times of trial are a measure of the man. The military records of John McCain were released to the public yesterday and reveal a great deal of the character of [...]
May 9th, 2008 at 6:11 am
[...] Star Chronicles notes that John McCain has released his military records to the public. John Kerry promised to release his, but still has not done [...]
May 9th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
MDefl, you have yourself made a very moving tribute. Bravo!
May 10th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Hehehe, so if I was a soldier for a long time and didn’t get killed that’s enough credit to be President…..and then use the argument of fear to discredit the other, while confessing to know anything about the economy…that’s how you win an election…
June 24th, 2008 at 11:37 am
blah, blah, blah,
So one of the original members of the Keating Five can do no wrong. So he got shot down over Vietnam, I’m pretty sure he was not following procedures! No everyone got shot down. He spent over five years as a POW and got special treatment because of his dad and grand dad that’s what he did. Ask him about junk bounds, who will he blame. The one thing he can’t change is that he is old!!! Very old…. You would’nt want him as a pilot, a bus driver or driving on our road… why would he be able to run the country?
July 1st, 2008 at 6:00 am
McCain divulged specific military information: he gave the name of the aircraft carrier on which he was based, the number of U.S. pilots that had been lost, the number of aircraft in his flight formation, as well as information about the location of rescue ships.
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:24 am
Contrary to claims from the whack-job fringe who give aid and comfort to al-Qaeda with their support of the occupation on Iraq, the best thing that could have happened to al-Qaeda (and the same crowd that still lies and claims that Saddam had WMD’s this century); Kerry did release ALL his records to the Press. Two media outlets were given full access.
But McCain has NOT released ALL his records.
July 18th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
I really don’t care about McCain’s military record or how long he’s been in the senate. The question remains the same. Is he trustworthy, truthful and grateful, that America gave him a future when he otherwise had none in the military? Does he have integrity, reliabilty and endurance….the answer to all of these is NO. He’s lazy, self absorbed, narcissistic and a blatant liar. He must know the World has less regard for him that even Bush. He was a traitor, flounderer, player and still is.
He has no respect for any nation, any country or any person. His message is always with a dull, uninterested crowd, with an anger that is seething just below the surface.
September 9th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Nonsense. The vast majority of his record was not released but rather withheld from public viewing. The public is making a huge mistake in not asking for full, unredacted release of his military record which will, show, I am certain, use of influence at every turn, poor judgement (three crashes of military aircraft), etc. Kerry released all of his records, why won’t McCain?
September 14th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Why is everyone saying that John McCain is a hero? Click on this Link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFhhvaIXA9A & Read Below: Nov. 9, 1967 (U.S. government documents) Hanoi press began quoting him giving specific military information.
One report dated read, “To a question of the correspondent, McCain answered: ‘My assignment to the Oriskany, I told myself, was due to serious losses in pilots, which were sustained by this aircraft carrier (due to its raids on the North Vietnam territory - VNA) and which necessitated replacements. From 10 to 12 pilots were transferred like me from the Forrestal to the Oriskany. Before I was shot down, we had made several sorties. Altogether, I made about 23 flights over North Vietnam.’”
Guy and Larson were senior ranking officers (SRO’s) in McCain’s POW camp at a time he claims he was in solitary confinement and being tortured.
Larson told the New Times, “Between the two of us, it’s our belief, and to the best of our knowledge, that no prisoner was beaten or harmed physically in that camp [known as 'The Plantation'].
“My only contention with the McCain deal is that while he was at The Plantation, to the best of my knowledge and Ted’s knowledge, he was not physically abused in any way. No one was in that camp. It was the camp that people were released from.”
Facts about the war “hero” McCain…… Just the facts
According to Fernando Barral, a Cuban psychologist who questioned McCain in January 1970, “McCain was “boastful” during their interview and “without remorse” for any civilian deaths that occurred “when he bombed Hanoi.” McCain has a similar recollection, writing in his [autobiography] that he responded, “No, I do not” when Barral asked if he felt remorse.â€?
McCain told [Barral] that he had not been subjected to “physical or moral violence,â€? and “lamented in the interview that ‘if I hadn’t been shot down, I would have become an admiral at a younger age than my father.’â€?
“Barral said McCain boasted that he was the best pilot in the Navy and that he wanted to be an astronaut.� The Cuban psychologist concluded that McCain was [a] ‘psychopath.’�
“He felt superior to the Vietnamese up there in his plane, with all his training,” Barral recalled.
Facts are facts or are they an “inconvenient Truth” for the Conservatives who revel in their “patriotic” blankie.
McCain told his North Vietnamese captors, “highly classified information, the most important of which was the package routes, which were routes used to bomb North Vietnam. He gave in detail the altitude they were flying, the direction, if they made a turn… he gave them what primary targets the United States was interested in.� Hopper contends that the information McCain provided allowed the North Vietnamese to adjust their air-defenses. As result the US lost sixty percent more aircraft and in 1968, “called off the bombing of North Vietnam, because of the information McCain had given to them.�
“Demands for military information were accompanied by threats to terminate my medical treatment if I [McCain] did not cooperate. Eventually, I gave them my ship’s name and squadron number, and confirmed that my target had been the power plant.” Page 193-194, Faith of My Fathers by John McCain
The Vietnamese capturers soon realized their POW, John Sidney McCain III, came from a well-bred line of American military elites. McCain’s father, John Jr., and grandfather, John Sr., were both full Admirals. A destroyer, the USS John S. McCain, is named after both of them.
The Vietnamese soon took McCain to a hospital reserved for Vietnamese officers. Unlike his fellow POWs, he received care from a Soviet doctor. McCain divulged specific military information: he gave the name of the aircraft carrier on which he was based, the number of US pilots that had been lost, the number of aircraft in his flight formation, as well as information about the location of rescue ships.
None of McCains’ awards, less the DFC, were for heroism over the battlefield where he spent no more than 20 hours. Two Naval officers described the awards as “boilerplate” and “part of an SOP medal package given to repatriated (Vietnamera) POWs.”
In McCain’s own words just four days after being captured, he admits he violated the U.S. Code of Conduct by telling his captors “O.K, I’ll give you military information if you will take me to the hospital.”
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 antiwar movement.
During his relative short stint on flight status, McCain III lost five U.S. Navy aircraft, four in accidents and one in combat.
September 14th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
BY THE WAY, JOHN MCCAIN’S VIETCONG NICKNAME WAS “SONGBIRD”.
September 14th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
BS, Kerry never released all his records. If you guys truly think using McCain’s military records against him is a good idea, ya’ll are truly delusional. Although we knew that any way. Good luck on this one guys.