Ouch.
In today's military, a lapse in judgment that causes a crash can end a pilot's career. Though standards were looser and crashes more frequent in the 1960s, McCain's record stands out."Three mishaps are unusual," said Michael L. Barr, a former Air Force pilot with 137 combat missions in Vietnam and an internationally known aviation safety expert who teaches in USC's Aviation Safety and Security Program. "After the third accident, you would say: Is there a trend here in terms of his flying skills and his judgment?"
Jeremiah Pearson, a Navy officer who flew 400 missions over Vietnam without a mishap and later became the head of human spaceflight at NASA, said: "That's a lot. You don't want any. Maybe he was just unlucky."
Naval aviation experts say the three accidents before McCain's deployment to Vietnam probably triggered a review to determine whether he should be allowed to continue flying. The results of the review would have been confidential.
And then there's this line: "A Times review of his record suggests he was cocky, occasionally cavalier and prone to testing limits."
Also, don't miss the Rolling Stone expose on John McCain, "Make-Believe Maverick: A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty." Starting to sense a pattern here? Key words: reckless, cocky, cavalier, dishonest, poor judgment. In other words, just the kind of person you want with his finger near the nuclear button. Not!
"It was July 29th, 1967, a hot, gusty morning in the Gulf of Tonkin atop the four-acre flight deck of the supercarrier USS Forrestal. Perched in the cockpit of his A-4 Skyhawk, Lt. Cmdr. John McCain ticked nervously through his pre-flight checklist."
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"Then, in an instant, the world around McCain erupted in flames. A six-foot-long Zuni rocket, inexplicably launched by an F-4 Phantom across the flight deck, ripped through the fuel tank of McCain's aircraft. Hundreds of gallons of fuel splashed onto the deck and came ablaze. Then: Clank. Clank. Two 1,000-pound bombs dropped from under the belly of McCain's stubby A-4, the Navy's "Tinkertoy Bomber," into the fire. McCain, who knew more than most pilots about bailing out of a crippled aircraft, leapt forward out of the cockpit, swung himself down from the refueling probe protruding from the nose cone, rolled through the flames and ran to safety across the flight deck. Just then, one of his bombs "cooked off," blowing a crater in the deck and incinerating the sailors who had rushed past McCain with hoses and fire extinguishers. McCain was stung by tiny bits of shrapnel in his legs and chest, but the wounds weren't serious; his father would later report to friends that Johnny "came through without a scratch."
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"The damage to the Forrestal was far more grievous: The explosion set off a chain reaction of bombs, creating a devastating inferno that would kill 134 of the carrier's 5,000-man crew, injure 161 and threaten to sink the ship."
But McCain helped with the situation only briefly, embellished his supposed "heroism" (when he caused the conflagration), and then retreated to an area reserved for off-duty aviators. As the crew on the damaged US Forestall limped into port in the Philippines, and as that crew worked to recover bodies of the fallen, McCain flew off to Saigon for some "R and R" with a New York Times reporter whom McCain had regaled with his puffed-up story of his own survival and supposed heroism. From the friendship with the NY Times reporter was born the myth of "The maverick." The upshot is McCain has written a Hollywood movie-like story about his life that is just so much rubbish.
This is as pitiful a story of supposed heroism as I have ever heard. Previously he had flown so low over southern Spain he had hit electrical wires and caused a wide area to lose electricity. I had read of that story when it happened years ago, but the newspaper article didn't name the pilot. I had never read Nightingale Song or McCain's "autobiography." John McCain crashed a plane for the second time. And with the Forrestal crash, McCain had crashed two planes. Normally, an aviator responsible for just one of those three events would lose his wings. Not the nepotism appointment, John McCain.
I remember when I heard about the Forrestal. I was a young girl living in Roanoke at the time. My cousin had married her high school sweetheart who was stationed on the Forrestal. I wasn't sure exactly what had happened but I knew my family was worried.
He ended up being sealed below until the ship could be secured from sinking. He told my cousin he could smell the charred bodies of the burned sailors. He lost friends.It affected him a great deal.This is the family story I have been told. It's second hand, of course, but it's what I remember.
I have no idea if the accusations about McCain are accurate in regards to the Forrestal but I do know that what happened back then screwed up my cousin's husband and affected HER life, marriage and children subsequently and not in a positive way.