Being given the nick "Reverse Ace" is not something a flyboy aspires to - it's something you're stamped with when you're doing a better job than the enemy of eliminating your own aircraft.
Having finished near the bottom of his class at the Academy, McCain was ready to join the rank of fighter jocks - and compared to Cheer Leader Bush he at least did go to Vietnam.
But en route, he experienced a daunting series of "mechanical failures," one freak accident and being shot down (which could be counted as a fifth event, but lets cut him some slack.)
Here's John McCain with his trusted parachute.
Number 1:
Practicing landings in 1958, near Corpus Christi (a city that is actually larger than Anchorage, AK, for the Palin fans out there) - McCain experienced "engine failure" and ditched into Corpus Christi Bay. He came to as the plane was settling on the bottom of the ocean.
That plane was salvaged, the engine was taken out of it, flushed with fresh water, fitted with a new propeller, and fired up - running just fine. Putting a question-mark next to McCain's claim of engine failure.
Below the fold, we keep hitting the ground hard.
According to Sidekick's instructor, he was "positively one of the weakest students to pass our way, and received consistently poor marks and a number of Dangerous Down grades assigned by more than one instructor. He had no real ability and was clearly out of his element in an airplane, and way over his head even as a junior naval officer."
Number 2:
While doing some low altitude, high-speed sight seeing over the Plains of Spain, McCain severed power lines, significantly reducing the airworthiness of his jet. It was duly noted in the local press that the person responsible for the blackout was the son of a prominent US admiral.
Number 3:
McCain jaunted to an Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia, flying a trainer jet solo. His aircraft flamed out during the return leg - McCain tried to relight the torch three times but no luck. Another ejection - much dejection. Plane crashing into treeline, McCain landing on the beach.
Number 4:
Now it's 1967, and McCain is on board an aircraft carrier, the USS Forrestal, in charge of an A-4 Skyhawk. This one is definitely not due to pilot error by McCain - a rocket from another plane hit McCain's fuel tank, setting his aircraft on fire.
Number 5:
Three months later he was piloting another A-4 Skyhawk over Vietnam, when it was downed by antiaircraft artillery. McCain acquitted himself admirably while a POW, though some did question the number of medals bestowed upon him. He logged 20 hours of combat flying before being downed, and received 27 medals.
"McCain had roughly 20 hours in combat," explains Bill Bell, a veteran of Vietnam and chief of the U.S. Office for POW/MIA Affairs -- the first official U.S. representative in Vietnam since the 1973 fall of Saigon. "Since McCain got 28 medals," Bell continues, "that equals out to about a medal-and-a-half for each hour he spent in combat. There were infantry guys -- grunts on the ground -- who had more than 7,000 hours in combat and I can tell you that there were times and situations where I'm sure a prison cell would have looked pretty good to them by comparison. The question really is how many guys got that number of medals for not being shot down."
"John McCain," says another Navy pilot and acquaintance of that era, "was the kind of guy you wanted to room with -- not fly with. He was reckless, and that's critical when you start thinking about who's going to be the president," The old pilot laughs, and then continues: "But the Navy accident rate was cut in half the day John McCain was shot down."
Without his admiral father running interception for him, it's highly likely that McCain's wings would have been plucked early in his flying career. That's the kind of connections we remember came in handy for Cheer Leader Bush while he was being served in the bars in the vicinity of TANG.
"Thank God not all pilots are like McCain," jokes another pilot, "or the government would be buying a hell of a lot more planes."
Yes - but can the government buy another government when he's done busting it up?
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