I sent this earlier as a comment, but it seems more appropriate today as a diary. McCain's belittling of Obama as a non-military man (and we know how well they have done in the White House in the last seven years) bothers me a lot. I don't doubt that McCain suffered terribly at the hands of the North Vietnamese before signing a "confession," but to attack Obama on this point is upsetting. The question is not about military service, at least it certainly wasn't when Bush was concerned according to most Republicans. The question is character. Who is the man we will vote for? I can answer that. Jump below.
My uncle is a retired Navy pilot who trained with McCain at Corpus Christi. He told me last summer, although he was a lifelong Republican, he would vote for any Republican presidential candidate except John McCain.
Here's why. All of those young pilots back in those days wanted to fly hotshot, single-seat fighters when they arrived for training, but during that time in Vietnam, the Navy needed pilots for the slower two-seater Phantom fighter bombers. Only one pilot in my uncle's squadron got to train on the single-seat fighter - John McCain - because a phone call was made by a certain admiral to demand it. During training McCain was such a lousy pilot he flew his jet into Corpus Christi bay and claimed fuel line failure on the best-maintained jets in the fleet. No one believed him.
Known even then for his famous temper, McCain, a Golden Gloves boxer, was constantly picking fights with other pilots, most of whom shrugged him off, knowing who his daddy and grandpa were. According to my uncle, one pilot finally had taken enough and met McCain behind the barracks that night. That pilot, a black belt, "cleaned McCain's clock in a minute and a half." Nothing was said by anyone. After training, however, all the pilots "made rank" except one, the pilot who fought McCain, and unfortunately, that pilot's career was ruined because every officer knew what it meant if you finished flight training and didn't make rank. According to my uncle, he would never wish on any American soldier the curse of becoming a POW, but "if it had to happen to one American pilot, I'm was glad it was John McCain."