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  • From: "Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>
  • To: <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>, <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Joe'Porter's view
  • Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:44:35 -0800

And for the complete few of his record:

Besides the jet he lost when he was shot down over Vietnam, he lost 4 other jets. One in training, one hotshoting over the Iberian Peninsula where he took out power lines, another one when he decided he needed to get to a Army-Navy football game faster than standard transportation and the one where he killed over a hundred people, again due to hotshoting::

"McCain’s most horrendous loss occurred in 1967 on the USS Forrestal.
Well, not horrendous for him. The starter motor switch on the A4E
Skyhawk allowed fuel to pool in the engine. When the aircraft was
“wet-started,” an impressive flame would shoot from the tail. It was
one of the ways young hot-shots got their jollies. Investigators and
survivors took the position that McCain deliberately wet-started to
harass the F4 pilot directly behind him. The cook off launched an M34
Zuni rocket that tore through the Skyhawk’s fuel tank, released a
thousand pound bomb, and ignited a fire that killed the pilot plus 167
men. Before the tally of dead and dying was complete, the son and
grandson of admirals had been transferred to the USS Oriskany."

Was he a hero in Vietnam. Quite a few Vietnam vets disagree and both they and the press called him the PW Songbird.

Further, when he was on the Senate committe working on getting info to find any POW/MIAs still in Vietnam, he pressured the Vietnam government to not release any records they have on his time as a POW! Before glorifying his time in Vietnam, one might want to know the reasons behind keeping the Vietnam records sealed!

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- From: "bob ford" <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>


John McCain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Service/branch United States Navy
Years of service 1958 - 1981
Rank Captain
Battles/wars Vietnam
Awards Silver Star,
Legion of Merit,
Distinguished Flying Cross,
Bronze Star

Purple Heart,
Meritorious Service Medal,
Air Medal,
Navy Commendation Medal,
Combat Action Ribbon,
Prisoner of War Medal,
(partial list)



Prisoner of war
John McCain's capture and imprisonment began on October 26, 1967. He was flying his twenty-third bombing mission over North Vietnam, when his A-4E Skyhawk was shot down by a missile over Hanoi.[33][34] McCain fractured both arms and a leg, and then nearly drowned, when he parachuted into Trúc Bạch Lake in Hanoi.[33] After he regained consciousness, a crowd attacked him, crushed his shoulder with a rifle butt, and bayoneted him;[33] he was then transported to Hanoi's main Hoa Lo Prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton".[34]


McCain being pulled from Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi and becoming a POW[35] on October 26, 1967.Although McCain was badly wounded, his captors refused to treat his injuries, instead beating and interrogating him to get information.[36] Only when the North Vietnamese discovered that his father was a top admiral did they give him medical care.[36] His status as a prisoner of war (POW) made the front pages of The New York Times[37] and The Washington Post.[38]

McCain spent six weeks in the hospital while receiving marginal care.[33] Now having lost 50 pounds (23 kg), in a chest cast, and with his hair turned white,[33] McCain was sent to a different camp on the outskirts of Hanoi[39] in December 1967, into a cell with two other Americans who did not expect him to live a week.[40] In March 1968, McCain was put into solitary confinement, where he would remain for two years.[41]

In mid-1968, McCain's father was named commander of all U.S. forces in the Vietnam theater, and McCain was offered early release.[42] The North Vietnamese wanted to appear merciful for propaganda purposes,[43] and also wanted to show other POWs that elites like McCain were willing to be treated preferentially.[42] McCain turned down the offer of repatriation; he would only accept the offer if every man taken in before him was released as well.[33]

In August of 1968, a program of severe torture began on McCain.[44] He was subjected to rope bindings and repeated beatings every two hours, at the same time as he was suffering from dysentery.[33][44] Further injuries led to the beginning of a suicide attempt, which was stopped by guards.[33] After four days, McCain made an anti-American propaganda "confession".[33] He has always felt that his statement was dishonorable,[45] 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."[46] His injuries left him permanently incapable of raising his arms above his head.[47] He subsequently received two to three beatings per week because of his continued refusal to sign additional statements.[48] Other American POWs were similarly tortured and maltreated in order to extract "confessions" and propaganda statements.[49]


Interview with McCain on April 24, 1973, after his return home.McCain refused to meet with various anti-war groups seeking peace in Hanoi, wanting to give neither them nor the North Vietnamese a propaganda victory.[50] From late 1969 on, treatment of McCain and many of the other POWs became more tolerable,[51] while McCain continued to be an active resister against the camp authorities.[52] McCain and other prisoners cheered the B-52 Stratofortress-led U.S. "Christmas Bombing" campaign of December 1972 as a forceful measure to push North Vietnam to terms.[46



--- On Mon, 7/21/08, william Eggers <wce1482 AT yahoo.com> wrote:

From: william Eggers <wce1482 AT yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Homestead] Joe'Porter's view
To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Monday, July 21, 2008, 6:42 AM
I don't generally reply to this kind of stuff, but in
this case I guess I will. About John McCain. From my
understanding, he broke his leg when he was captured and
they refused to set it until he cooperated with his
captures, which he did. So he didn't need the
fortitude. Look it up about his prison experience.




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