The venerable Senator from Arizona, John McCain is heading up the rough side of the mountain. Sen. McCain has decided to stop treatment for the brain cancer he has been battling for over a year. A especially aggressive form of cancer, Glioblastoma has a survival rate of less than 3% over 5 years. The average life expectancy for this disease is 16 months after it has been diagnosed. It has been a little over 13 months since the senator was found to have the incurable malady. Senator Ted Kennedy also dies as a result of glioblastoma in 2009.
John McCain was born on August 29, 1936, at Coco Solo Naval Air Station in the Panama Canal Zone, to naval officer John S. McCain Jr. 1911–1981 and Roberta (Wright) McCain. The senator’s mother is still alive. She was born in 1912 and is 106 years old. His father and his paternal grandfather, John S. McCain Sr., both became four-star United States Navy admirals. Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, McCain entered the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. McCain began his early military career when he was commissioned as an ensign and started two and a half years of training at Pensacola to become a naval aviator. He was thought of as a sub-par flier who was at times careless and reckless. During the early to mid-1960s, two of his flight missions crashed and a third mission collided with power lines, but he received no major injuries. His aviation skills improved over time, and he was seen as a good pilot, although not by everyone. In 1965 he married Carol Shepp, a model from Philadelphia. He adopted her two young children Douglas and Andrew and later he and Carol had a daughter named Sidney.
On July 29, 1967, McCain was a lieutenant commander when he was near the epicenter of the USS Forrestal fire. He escaped from his burning jet and was trying to help another pilot escape when a bomb exploded. McCain was struck in the legs and chest by fragments. The ensuing fire killed 134 sailors and took 24 hours to control. With the Forrestal out of commission, McCain volunteered for assignment with the USS Oriskany, another aircraft carrier employed in Operation Rolling Thunder. Once there, he would be awarded the Navy Commendation Medal and the Bronze Star Medal for missions flown over North Vietnam. Many of you may not be familiar with this tragedy, but it was really hot back in 1967. Another little tidbit is as recently as last year the incident was reignited when several news blogs attempted to smear McCain’s name and service record, after his vote against a GOP health care bill. You remember the one. They tried to get rid of Obamacare and the senator flew back to Congress against his doctor’s orders to vote nay. The GOP lost by a few votes largely because of McCain and they wanted his head on a stick with nails in it.
McCain’s capture and subsequent imprisonment occurred 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. McCain fractured both arms and a leg when he ejected from the aircraft, and nearly drowned after he parachuted into Trúc Bạch Lake. Some North Vietnamese pulled him ashore, then others crushed his shoulder with a rifle butt and bayoneted him. McCain was then transported to Hanoi’s main Hỏa Lò Prison, nicknamed the “Hanoi Hilton”. Although McCain was seriously wounded and injured, his captors refused to treat him. They beat and interrogated him to get information, and he was given medical care only when the North Vietnamese discovered that his father was a high-ranking admiral. His status as a prisoner of war (POW) made the front pages of major newspapers. If you were a pilot and shot down over North Vietnam, you pretty much better write your will on the way down. Nothing was more hated than American bomber pilots. It was like they would fight each other to see who would kill you first.
Being John McCain has its advantages and disadvantages. You are always the target of something or other. In the 2000 Presidential primary in South Carolina, racist try to bring out the inner racist in the electorate by putting out a flyer accusing McCain of fathering a black child. Nope, I’m not making this up… these people get stupid with it. The truth was he and his wife had adopted a girl from Bangladesh. Ever heard of a group that calls itself Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain? Well during the same primary they put out a flyer saying that McCain, widely regarded as a hero for his five years as a prisoner of war, is a traitor. Calling him the “Hanoi Hilton songbird” who collaborated with the enemy. The flyer was sent to about 80 media organizations in South Carolina. The flyer was subsequently deem as fake news, with little fact or corroboration. In fact George “Bud” Day and Orson Swindle, fellow POWs, said, “”We were all tortured and we wrote confessions under the pressure of torture,” said Swindle, who was a cellmate with McCain and is active in his campaign. “John McCain never collaborated with the enemy. He, like every one of us, submitted to severe torture. John McCain did nothing dishonorable. He was heroic.” Believe me… if someone was pulling my testicles out with pliers and promising me they just getting started, I’m going to sing like a Temptation. Not everybody is cut out to be a hero. We owe these people folks. Upon leaving the military in 1981, he moved to Arizona. His numerous military decorations and awards include the Silver Star, two Legions of Merits, Distinguished Flying Cross, three Bronze Star Medals, two Purple Hearts, two Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals, and Prisoner of War Medal.
Before he retired, he had an affair and his marriage with Carol did not survive. In April 1979, McCain met Cindy Lou Hensley, a teacher from Phoenix, Arizona, whose father had founded a large beer distributorship. They began dating, and he urged his wife Carol to grant him a divorce, which she did in February 1980; the uncontested divorce took effect in April 1980. The settlement included two houses, and financial support for her ongoing medical treatments due to her 1969 car accident; they would remain on good terms. In 1991, Cindy McCain brought an abandoned three-month-old girl needing medical treatment to the U.S. from a Bangladeshi orphanage run by Mother Teresa. The McCains decided to adopt her and named her Bridget. McCain’s Senate career began in January 1987, after he defeated his Democratic opponent, former state legislator Richard Kimball, by 20 percentage points in the 1986 election. McCain succeeded longtime American conservative icon and Arizona fixture Barry Goldwater upon the latter’s retirement as U.S. senator from Arizona. When I say “Barry,” you say “Hell No!!.” Barry… Hell No!!!… During his 1964 presidential campaign, Goldwater was attacked by Democrats and opponents within his own party as a demagogue and a leader of right-wing extremists and racists who was likely to lead the United States into nuclear war, eliminate civil rights progress and destroy such social welfare programs as Social Security. You gotta be careful who you associate with John. You have been tagged as a racist too!!
A lot of us may remember that McCain was in two Presidential races. The first one was against George W. Bush. This is the one which we talked about earlier, where they put out fliers saying he had a black child and the other bullshit. The Arizona Republic would write that the McCain–Bush primary contest in South Carolina “has entered national political lore as a low-water mark in presidential campaigns”, while The New York Times called it “a painful symbol of the brutality of American politics.” He lost the South Carolina and Bush went on to win the Presidency against democratic challenger Al Gore. McCain would say of the rumor spreaders, “I believe that there is a special place in hell for people like those, and according to one report, the South Carolina experience left McCain in a “very dark place” or as we like to say “the sunken place.”. The other Presidential contest, most of us remember. Our first black President, Barrack Obama, defeated McCain in the 2007 Presidential contest. This is the reason I have put him in our new blog.
McCain barred using the Jeremiah Wright controversy in ads against Obama. Wright was President Obama pastor and some of his sermons were, just lets say “not kosher.” President Obama denounced the sermons. McCain also did not get on the birther train. You know, the train that had him riding to America from Africa. A woman came up to McCain at a rally and said, “I can’t trust Obama. I have read about him, and he’s not, he’s not — he’s an Arab.” Her comment prompted McCain to immediately shake his head and take the microphone from her. “He is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as President,” McCain said. “If I didn’t think I’d be one heck of a better President I wouldn’t be running, and that’s the point. I admire Sen. Obama and his accomplishments, I will respect him. I want everyone to be respectful, and let’s make sure we are. Because that’s the way politics should be conducted in America.” Finally, he got out of his sickbed and flew to Washington to make sure the Trump administration did not take away our healthcare. Although there are many things I have disagreed with coming from this politician, I can never accuse him of being… a politician, just a servant of the American people, and yes a hero.
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