A Life Serving Others

"In prison, I fell in love with my country..." John McCain.

Mourning the passing of John McCain, senator, naval aviator, patriot.

John McCain (right)

Required viewing in my "knife and fork class" as a new direct commission ensign in the Naval Reserve was a series of videos shot aboard the carrier USS Forrestal on 29July 1967. Multiple aircraft sat running, fully fueled and armed, awaiting launch for an attack against North Vietnamese forces. 

A flash... An errant missile from an F-4 Phantom. One explosion after another. A dozen pilots trapped in their cockpits as flames threaten to cook off their ordinance. A chief, wearing shipboard khakis and carrying a hand-held fire extinguisher, runs toward the planes as canopies come slowly open. Another explosion and the chief is gone.

Lieutenant Commander John McCain's A-4 Skyhawk is right in the middle of the holocaust. The cameras record him jumping from his cockpit onto a wing, then tumbling off down to the deck awash with spilled jet fuel.

He escaped the disaster that killed 134 sailors and pilots, only to be shot down and captured in October of the same year. He spent the next six years in a North Vietnamese prison camp. He was tortured, his injuries ignored. Yet, he demonstrated courage, leadership and an iron will. He would suffer the after effects of his injuries for the rest of his life.

His political career took him first to the House of Representatives, and later to the Senate. He developed a reputation as a maverick, with the unique ability to anger and frustrate both sides of the aisle. A bill meant to curtail lavish political contributions designed to influence politicians (some would say purchase their services) was co-sponsored with Russ Feingold, left wing Democrat senator from Wisconsin.

His run for president in 2008 was pure McCain. He chose as his running mate a little known woman governor from Alaska with a reputation for bucking well-connected political machines. She initially appeared to be a fresh, plain-spoken breath of fresh air. That she turned out to be a lessor figure on the national stage, probably responsible for voters souring on their ticket, did not cause McCain to toss her to the wolves.

On election night, the presidency lost, he took to the stage and... Marveled, celebrated, that he had lived to see the day the United States of America had chosen an African-American as her president. He was proud to be an American, he said.

As one might imagine, he was opposed to the unconventional interrogation methods used in the aftermath of 9/11. Reasonable people disagree on this subject, but Senator McCain never waivered.  Agree or disagree, it is always the right of a man who endured torture to hold his country to higher standards than the ones he had been shown.

He was not perfect. He could be difficult, petulant, petty. But, on the short list of great Americans he finds a comfortable place among our most distinguished servants, and warriors.

Fair winds and following seas, sir. The battles you fought on our behalf were worthy of you.