Through the various groups I have come in contact with while working on this presidential campaign, I have had the pleasure of meeting many amazing people, from all walks of life. Meeting so many people who are deeply engaged in this process has restored my faith in our ability to take back our government.
There is one person in particular who it has been my distinct honor to have met. He is a retired Army officer who is also a chaplain. Through our communications, he has shared a unique insight into this election from a perspective I had not had the opportunity to experience.
Recently, he shared the following essay with me, which he wrote. With his background as an officer in the Army, he is in a real position to evaluate the appropriateness of military service as preparation for political office. I found his insights to be most enlightening, and asked if I might share them with the online community.
He graciously agreed, with the one stipulation that I not share his name with the readers. As I know for a fact he truly is who he says he is, I felt anonymity was a small price to pay, to be able to share his perspective with so many others.
McCain and Leadership
The US Navy is the most rigidly hierarchical service of the four (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines) military arms of the Department of Defense. This is largely because of the venue in which they do battle. A ship depends on its hierarchy for survival, there is no place for the crew to go once the firing starts, and the obedience to and execution of orders is a life/death situation on shipboard. The ship is the ultimate weapon of the navy, so it is the norm for all relationships which impact on the success/failure equation.
The top echelons of the Navy, even more so than those of the Air Force and Army (the Marines are technically subordinate to the Navy, though they have their own Chief of Staff) are the elites of the services. They not only have more perquisites, there are few subordinates in a position to question their judgment on any issues. The best illustration I know is in the novel, "The Caine Mutiny" - fun reading, about WWII action in a storm at sea.
John McCain's father was a four-star Admiral, the highest rank anyone can attain in the Navy. His father's father was also a four-star family, so John McCain was raised in an atmosphere of hierarchy and subordination, where authority is questioned somewhere between rarely and never. He was a shoo-in for selection to attend the Naval Academy. It is rare for such a relationship (between cadet and the Regular Navy) to result in less than success for the candidate. If my experience with West Point graduates whose fathers were famous Generals is a valid comparison, John McCain was born with a ticket to Annapolis in his pocket and success in that school was certain. It is entirely normal and both expectable and respectable for faculty members to give such students the benefit of the doubt - as it is also common for such heirs to receive quiet special consideration and attention, especially when that is deniable, during their entire careers.
John McCain was never in his life what could be called "a man of the people", unless it was of Navy people - that's just how hierarchical organizations are. He was, of course, convivial and popular with his fellow pilots - for lots of reasons. But for McCain and his handlers to criticize Obama for being an "elitist" is laughable. I would certainly like to know whether or not John McCain would have been accepted as a student at Harvard, or its Law School, or Yale, or any other Ivy League school. You, I, and our parents paid for every dime of tuition he never had to pay. He has trouble understanding the difference between Shiite and Sunni - has to be prompted by Joe Lieberman, whose nose is so far up his candidate's nether regions he has trouble sometimes hearing the question, and both get it wrong.
Like each of us, Obama has faults (you can see Michelle warning him with her fingers not to take himself too seriously in one of the TV snaps of the acceptance speech). But arrogance and the notion that he somehow deserves all the breaks is certainly not among them. He has made his own breaks.
McCain has made one of his, too - he got himself shot down over North Vietnam, and was tough enough to survive the imprisonment suffering that followed. I had very close older friends who were captured after being shot down over Schweinfurt in World War II - they were not considered heroes when they got back to Louisville, but we loved them and treasured their survival, just as we do McCain's. But that doesn't in itself make him a good candidate to be our President.
The reason senior officers do not make good political leaders is very simple. In order to lead, you need to be an expert at asking questions. You need to be able to hear what the messenger is saying, and you need a special ear (called the "attention of experience") that hears what is NOT being said as well as what IS being said. Only the greatest of commanders have this ability. I was fortunate to have served under three of them, at different levels of command. There is nothing in John McCain's appearances to date that makes me confident he is even aware of the questions which need to be asked - especially before decisions are made.
Due to the terrible economic conditions we are all currently suffering under, it's perhaps somewhat understandable the war in Iraq has fallen to second place in voters' minds as the issue which most concerns them. Unfortunately, because of this, it seems our soldiers and veterans are not receiving the coverage they need and deserve (Winter Soldier Blackout and Why Are Winter Soldiers Not News?) because we are all so focused on the Presidential race. However, we might all do well to heed the words of this very wise veteran and ask ourselves this question: If a veteran doesn't believe Senator McCain has what it takes to lead our country, and bring our soldiers safely home, shouldn't we take that very seriously?