Remembering McCain’s marks of distinction and honor
Captain John McCain was the U.S. Navy liaison officer to the United States Senate when we first met in 1977.
Thereafter, he was escort officer on a number of Senate delegation trips and my escort on board two aircraft carriers underway in the Indian Ocean. The most notable delegation included Sens. John Glenn, Sam Nunn, William Cohen, and myself on a tour of Asian nations ending in South Korea. Our report urged President Jimmy Carter not to carry out his proposed withdrawal of U.S. troops in South Korea and the president reluctantly conceded.
The aircraft carrier visits, thanks to John McCain’s arrangements, enabled me to fly off the decks in the radar operators back seat in high performance combat aircraft. For anyone who has shared that experience, it is one that is never forgotten.
Thereafter, in 1980, McCain persuaded the Navy to commission me as an officer (Lt. j.g.) in the U.S. Naval Reserves. My purpose was to gain insights on naval operations not otherwise available to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on which I served. I never put the commission on my bio and never referred to it for political gain.
Along with Sen. Bill Cohen, I was invited to be one of McCain’s groomsmen in his wedding to Cindy Hensley in 1980 in Arizona. Following his election to the U.S. House of Representatives, we served in Congress together until my departure in 1987.
Over the subsequent years, I tried to maintain contact with John and Cindy and once was invited to speak to a weekend retreat they maintained for friends and supporters at their home in Sedona, Ariz.
The story of McCain’s bravery as a prisoner in North Vietnam for five and a half years is well known. He refused early release if he would endorse a statement that he believed the war to be wrong and received special punishment when his captors discovered his father, Admiral John McCain, was commander of fleet forces off Vietnam.
When McCain referred to his experiences in jail it was with an amazing degree of candor and lack of bitterness. Some stories he would tell were in fact hu- morous and humane.
The world knew that McCain was ill. The outcome was never in doubt. With Cindy’s help, I managed to speak with him some time ago and did so through my tears.
McCain is a hero to me and millions of others. He ran for and could have been president. He has lived an abundant and remarkable life. With no provocation he was pilloried by a man who did become president, a man without an ounce of his courage, bravery and service. It was one of the ugliest moments in our current ugly times. It is a mark of these times that it should have disqualified that man from holding any public office, but it did not. That is how far down we have descended.
It is the mark of a coward that he seeks to bring anyone above him down to his level. He cannot stand to see anyone respected when he himself is not respected and does not respect the high office that he holds. One has only to look at those around that man to know why he could still not acknowledge John McCain’s patriotism, service and honors.
Those of us who knew John McCain pray for him and his family. Like most of us, McCain was not a man without faults. He is very human and the first to admit it. Despite those faults, though, he was an extraordinary human being.
He emerged from prison with broken bones badly set, walked with a limp, and saluted awkwardly. Those were marks of distinction and honor. Despite his afflictions, he laughed often and saw humor in the ridiculousness of the human folly we call politics.
Like many, many others, I am a better man for knowing McCain. I consider it a privilege to have had the honor. I am honored to respect his request to help deliver him to the gates of Valhalla.
As McCain enters the next life, his flight will be straight and level … and very fast. His laugh will be light, but he will mourn for the political chaos that is not his fault but that he could not cure. The rest of us left here have no choice but to try.
Anchors aweigh, John McCain. Set your course for the horizon and your friends will join you soon.