McCain lauded as a friend of Yuma
Locals recall his visits, work on behalf of area
While the state and nation continue to honor the memory of Sen. John McCain, Yuma County leaders say he was a friend of Yumans and of Yuma, going back to his pilot-training days.
Phil Townsend, president of the Yuma Union High School District governing board and former chairman of the Yuma County Republican Party, said he was McCain’s “liaison/driver” when he visited the area throughout McCain’s 30 years in the U.S. Senate.
“Being able to watch what he did for this community from a front-row seat was really interesting and kind of amazing,” Townsend said Monday.
He said the senator had a fondness for the community going back to the early 1960s, when as a Navy pilot, he participated in joint ex-
ercises and training at Marine Corps Air Station-Yuma.
“He grew to love places like Chretin’s (Mexican restaurant), and Johnny’s Other Place, which isn’t here now, and Lutes’ Casino,” Townsend said. “And even those last few trips, if he had time he would always have lunch at Chretin’s, and depending on what it was, a milkshake at Lutes’ Casino,” Townsend said.
McCain is remembered as a war hero, longtime public servant in Congress, supporter of the military, presidential candidate and all-around “maverick” unafraid of bucking Republican orthodoxy, but is also being celebrated for what he brought to the Yuma area, both politically and personally.
Yuma Mayor Doug Nicholls said the senator made it clear on every visit he had more than a passing familiarity with the county and its issues, including the military, agriculture and redevelopment efforts along the riverfront. “He knew Yuma expertly,” he said.
McCain stepped in to save the MCAS-Yuma Search and Rescue unit, after it was put on the chopping block in 2015. “He understood how important the program is to the military as well as to the entire community, and he fought to keep it,” Nicholls said.
Townsend said he saw McCain spring into action on the military front in ways small and large, while in Yuma. One day, he met a recruiter from the Marine Corps recruiting station a few doors down from the Pacific Avenue Starbucks that was always his first stop, and walked over for an impromptu meeting with some potential recruits.
“The military was nearest and dearest to John McCain’s heart, and he generally had a meeting with a base commander or something on base” when in town, Townsend said.
McCain met with about 200 officers and pilots at MCAS-Yuma at one point during the Clinton administration when funding had been cut back, leaving the base without enough fuel and spare parts for pilots to fly for their required hours.
“I don’t remember who the secretary of defense was at the time, but within a minute of getting in that car he was just chewing them out, telling them that they would get the supplies, the fuel, the money to the military so these pilots weren’t at risk, so they could take care of their aircraft,” Townsend said.
State Rep. Tim Dunn, R-Yuma, was active in advocating for agriculturerelated policies on Capitol Hill during the height of McCain’s power as chairman of the Armed Services Committee during the war on terror.
It could be difficult to get an audience with him, he recalled.
“I remember being in his office, we weren’t able to meet with him but we were going to meet with his staff, but they had one of the evening briefs, on that committee and the person bringing him the briefcase had armed guards, and it was handcuffed to his wrist, to take in in there to give him the briefing of the day.
“So he was a little bit busy to be meeting with us, because he had all this going on,” Dunn said.
After McCain lost the presidential election to Barack Obama in 2008, “we were able to visit him in his offices and he said, ‘I have time now. Elections have consequences.’” Dunn said.
McCain supported the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area from its beginning, co-sponsoring the bill that created it in 2000 with former Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl. He also sponsored the act to re-authorize its funding in 2014.
“The Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area is a success story within the National Heritage Area system,” McCain said during a congressional hearing at the time. “It has a long track record of success in the preservation of the Yuma Territorial Prison and the Yuma East Wetlands restoration project, and has served as a central component of the city’s downtown redevelopment initiative.”
Townsend said, “He loved that heritage area. In fact, one of his last trips he came to Yuma, (his wife) Cindy came with him. And we went to the heritage area, through the prison, so they could overlook the wetlands and the prison. He wanted to bring Cindy to see what Yuma had done in our wetlands area.”
The McCain mystique worked on just about everyone, including those across the ever-widening partisan divide.
State Sen. Lisa Otondo, D-Yuma, said, “I hold him in such high regard. I may have differences of opinion with him politically, on some issues, but he’s a hero, and he had dignity and integrity, and I hold him in very high regard.”
Yuma County Board of Supervisors Chairman Tony Reyes said he and McCain kind of helped each other out during their early political careers. It started when McCain came to his office to seek his support, during his first run for the Senate in 1986.
“He’s the only Republican I ever endorsed, when I was mayor of San Luis. It cost me dearly, but it was worth it,” he said.
“He was one of those guys who, if you asked for help, he wouldn’t look at the letter beside the name, whether it was Republican or Democrat. If the issue he was something he could do something about, he would do it,” he added.
Then in the early 1990s, McCain enrolled him in an exchange program for the bipartisan American Council of Young American Leaders, Reyes said. He took a 3-week tour of the Netherlands and Belgium, and got to run a meeting which included the prime minister of the Netherlands.
By doing this, McCain was his most valuable political mentor, Reyes said: “That trip really broadened my horizons, and so, even at that level, I think what he did for Yuma County can really be counted in material things, infrastructure, but what he did for me was more personal. He gave me a sense of direction, broadened my perspective, and I owe him a lot.”
The county could always turn to McCain and his office when it came to federal issues, Reyes said, even once his final battle with an aggressive form of brain cancer began a year ago.
“We will miss him. Even at the end, when he wasn’t physically present, his staff continued to do what he always did for us,” he said.
Townsend said McCain’s 2001 appearance at Kofa High School, shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, might have been one of the most effective messages he ever brought to Yuma.
McCain, who held a series of such assemblies around the state, spoke to students bused in from all the local high schools, and was a source of information and reassurance, days before the dawn of the War on Terrorism they would be asked to fight.
“Those kids were so impressed that somebody like him would come. They had lots of questions,” Townsend said. “I’ve had teachers and administrators call me up in the last few days and say, “I remember when he came to Kofa High School right after 9/11 and how much of a comfort that was to our kids.
“That was the kind of thing he did. Didn’t get a lot of recognition for them, but they were the right thing to do. He understood that. I don’t know where you’re going to find that kind of leadership today,” he said.