Rip Rokken wrote:X factor wrote:Well, Ripper, say what you will about Kerry being opportunistic, he WAS there, and he DID serve...which is a hell of alot more than our last TWO presidents can say!
I agree Kerry served --
himself. Watch "Stolen Honor" -- it's available streaming online, but you may have to search for it. If you can't find it, then try these mini-documentaries at the official Swift Vets site:
http://www.swiftvets.com/swiftvetsandpows/ The truth about Kerry in Vietnam is
appalling, and there is good reason he never wanted to release his actual military records for most of his campaign. Even worse that he'd come back to the U.S. as a protester to accuse fellow soldiers of FICTIONAL atrocities that he neither took part in nor ever witnessed or confirmed.
G.W. Bush was a pilot in the Air Force National Guard, and though there is controversy about whether or not he fulfilled all his requirements in the last few years, he is still considered as having served in the military. His father, Bush Sr., was actually shot down by the Japanese over the Pacific in WWII and had 58 combat missions under his belt.
I don't care whether McCain cracked under pressure or not -- anyone who is captured and endures that kind of abuse as a P.O.W. earns my respect and sympathy, though it stops there. Now, he's just another power-hungry opportunistic politician. That he got this nomination at all was a huge shocker to me.
Slick Willie was a straight-up draft dodger, plain and simple, who even wrote that he "loathed the military".
I most likely will not vote for John McCain, but I have profound respect for what he went through in Vietnam.
McCain requested a combat assignment,[25] and in December 1966 was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal flying A-4 Skyhawks.[26][27] McCain's combat duty began when he was 30 years old. In summer 1967, Forrestal was assigned to a bombing campaign during the Vietnam War.[13][28] McCain and his fellow pilots were frustrated by micromanagement from Washington,[29] and he would later write that "In all candor, we thought our civilian commanders were complete idiots who didn’t have the least notion of what it took to win the war."[28]
By then a lieutenant commander, McCain was almost killed on July 29, 1967 when he was at the epicenter of the Forrestal fire. McCain escaped from his burning jet and was trying to help another pilot escape when a bomb exploded;[30] McCain was struck in the legs and chest by fragments.[31] The ensuing fire killed 134 sailors and took 24 hours to control.[32][33] As Forrestal headed for repairs, McCain volunteered for the USS Oriskany.[34]
John McCain's capture and imprisonment began on October 26, 1967. He was flying his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam, when his A-4E Skyhawk was shot down by a missile over Hanoi.[36][37][38][39] McCain fractured both arms and a leg,[40] and then nearly drowned when he parachuted into Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi.[36] After he regained consciousness, a mob attacked him,[41] crushed his shoulder with a rifle butt, and bayoneted him; he was then transported to Hanoi's main Hoa Loa Prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton".[41][42]
Although McCain was badly wounded, his captors refused to treat his injuries, instead beating and interrogating him to get information.[41] Only when the North Vietnamese discovered that his father was a top admiral did they give him medical care[41] and announce his capture. His status as a prisoner of war (POW) made the front pages of The New York Times[43] and The Washington Post.[44]
McCain spent six weeks in the Hoa Loa hospital, receiving marginal care.[36] Now having lost 50 pounds (23 kg), in a chest cast, and with his hair turned white,[36] McCain was sent to a different camp on the outskirts of Hanoi[45] in December 1967, into a cell with two other Americans who did not expect him to live a week.[46] In March 1968, McCain was put into solitary confinement, where he would remain for two years.[41]
In July 1968, McCain's father was named commander of all U.S. forces in the Vietnam theater.[2] McCain was immediately offered early release.[36] The North Vietnamese wanted a worldwide propaganda coup by appearing merciful, and also wanted to show other POWs that elites like McCain were willing to be treated preferentially.[41] McCain turned down the offer of repatriation; he would only accept the offer if every man taken in before him was released as well.[47]
In August of 1968, a program of severe torture began on McCain, at the same time as he was suffering from dysentery,[41][36] and McCain made an anti-American propaganda "confession".[36] He has always felt that his statement was dishonorable,[48] but as he would later write, "I had learned what we all learned over there: Every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine."[41] His injuries left him permanently incapable of raising his arms above his head.[49] He subsequently received two to three beatings per week because of his continued refusal to sign additional statements.[50] Other American POWs were similarly tortured and maltreated in order to extract "confessions" and propaganda statements,[41] with many enduring even worse treatment than McCain.[51]
McCain refused to meet with various anti-war groups seeking peace in Hanoi, not wanting to give either them or the North Vietnamese a propaganda victory.[41] From late 1969 on, treatment of McCain and some of the other POWs became more tolerable.[41] McCain and other prisoners cheered the B-52-led U.S. "Christmas Bombing" campaign of December 1972 as a forceful measure to push North Vietnam to terms.[41][52]
Altogether, McCain was held as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five and a half years. He was finally released from captivity on March 14, 1973.[53] McCain's return to the United States reunited him with his wife and family. His wife Carol had suffered her own crippling ordeal during his captivity, due to an automobile accident in December 1969.[54] As a returned POW, McCain became a celebrity of sorts.[55][41][54]
Interview with McCain on April 24, 1973, after his return home, McCain underwent treatment for his injuries, including months of grueling physical therapy,[56] and attended the National War College in Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. during 1973–1974.[54][18] By late 1974 McCain had his flight status reinstated,[54] and in 1976 he became commanding officer of a training squadron stationed in Florida.[54][18][57] He turned around a mediocre unit and won the squadron its first Meritorious Unit Commendation.[56]
