A Sailor’s Tribute To Another Sailor

On the 25^th of August 2018, four days shy of his 82^nd birthday, John McCain died at his home in Sedona, Arizona. For just over a year, he had fought with a particularly aggressive strain of malignant brain tumour. What was remarkable was, that not only had he continued to work at the Senate between bouts of chemotherapy but had performed his duties as the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee from home. This was typical of his feisty nature and a reflection of his inner resilience.

Born to a Navy family on the 29^th of August 1936 at the Coco Solo Naval Air Station in Panama, to Roberta and John S McCain (Jr), who later became a four star admiral, theirs was a typical navy family that moved along like flotsam, living out of suitcases and making new friends while they followed their father in his tours of duty around the world. His grandfather had also been a four star admiral in the US Navy. Although they were Southerners on both sides of the family, he regarded his heritage as military rather than Southern and chose to live by military values as emerged later.

His mother was a great influence in his early life teaching him to find joys in everyday life. She also instilled a love for history and culture in young Johnny.

With so much of salt in his blood, it was not unexpected that John chose the Navy as a career. His performance at the academy was however below par on account of an indifference to rules and poor performance in academic subjects other than English Literature, History and Government Studies. Concerned at his wild ways and poor performance, his father was forced to visit the academy twice to reprimand young John.

He excelled in boxing, where he made up for technique with fearlessness and stubborn determination, traits for which he came to be well known. Although he finished near the bottom of his class, McCain acknowledged that the Academy had taught him “to serve for something greater than his self interest.”

McCain eventually became a Navy pilot. Volunteering for combat duty he found himself on board the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal, where the first few missions were uneventful. One day, a missile accidentally self-ignited, took off and hit another parked aircraft rupturing its fuel tanks, resulting in a sea of burning fuel on deck. McCain crawled out of his aircraft, running through burning fuel with his flying suit on fire. After the flames on his clothes had been put out, he ran back to help another pilot, when an explosion threw him backwards. Disregarding his injuries, he joined sailors in disengaging bombs and helping throw them overboard.

This first hand brush with the effects of ordnance, made him seriously question the morality of raining bombs on civilians.

Transferred to another carrier, McCain began flying combat missions in A4 Skyhawks, earning both a Navy Commendation Medal and the Air Medal within one month. On his 23^rd mission over Hanoi, his aircraft was hit by a missile and he ejected over Truc Bach Lake, in the process fracturing his right arm in three places, his left arm, and his right knee. He was pulled out and set upon by locals who beat him, stripped him of his clothes and injured him further, breaking his left shoulder as well.

It was in this state that he reached the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ Prison. He was beaten repeatedly and denied medical attention unless he divulged military information. His refusal to give them anything more than his name, rank, number and age did not amuse the Vietnamese

Soon enough the Vietcong discovered that his father was a serving Admiral and assumed that they had snagged someone from ‘American aristocracy’. He was then given the barest of medical attention most of which was unsuccessful, all the while continuing his interrogation and beatings. Eventually the relentless pressure and merciless torture began to tell and he revealed his ship’s name, his squadron and their intended target, which was by then irrelevant as it was several days old. Further coerced to give future targets, he named cities that had already been bombed, and for names of his squadron's members, he supplied instead, the names of the Green Bay Packers' offensive line.

While still on a stretcher, McCain was transferred to a prison camp where he shared his cell with two other American flyers. It was the care and attention by these two men, who were themselves barely able to get by, that really helped him to survive. A few months later his cellmates moved out. Thus began his solitary confinement. His cell was semi-darkened while a dim bulb remained on, night and day for the next two years. In the absence of any form of communication, it was a struggle to stay sane. He forced his mind to work, memorizing the smallest of details and even writing books in his head. With time he managed to open a communication channel comprising of taps, with the occupant of the next cell.

All the while, the Vietnamese used psychological methods to break him. On the day his father’s appointment as C-in-C Pacific Forces was announced, they offered him a chance to go home early for treatment, in return for a statement denouncing his own crimes. They were hoping for a publicity coup by sending him home early. Knowing that his assent, however attractive the prospect, would provide them this victory, while undermining the morale of other prisoners, McCain stood his ground and refused early release.

One day he was taken out of his cell and asked by the Camp Commander to confess for his crimes. When he refused, it was taken as a sign of defiance and he was beaten brutally, breaking his left arm again and his ribs. On the fourth day he reached the lowest point of his imprisonment. With his shattered left arm, he couldn’t get up off the floor and just lay there in his own dysentery. Reduced to a beaten and battered wreck, he finally gave in.

He learned that every man has his breaking point and he had reached his.

He prayed for strength to get through each day and slowly began to improve, though his treatment showed no signs of letting up. Beatings were commonly dished out for the tiniest of infarctions and he was no exception, though he affirmed that some got much worse torture. McCain was eventually released in March 1972, after 5¹/₂  years as a POW.

On return, he received extensive corrective surgery for his injuries and, recovered sufficiently to fly again. He was appointed to head a combat squadron where he worked hard to improve its flight safety record so that the squadron earned a unit commendation under his watch. In 1977 he was appointed to the Senate Armed Services Committee as a liaison officer, a job that most regarded as a glorified valet. But McCain turned it around into an apprenticeship for his later role.

His home life meanwhile took a downturn. The long separation had put his marriage under tremendous strain and he broke up with his wife Carol. Later he remarried, this time to Cindy Hensley. He retired from the Navy in 1981 with a chestfull of medals, and moved to Arizona. After working for his father-in-law’s firm for a while, he went into politics, winning the North Arizona seat to the House of Representatives as a Republican candidate.

In 1986, McCain got elected to the Senate and continued to be reelected till the very end. He became a member of the Armed Services Committee, Commerce Committee and other high profile organisations. Along with the highs of visibility on the national stage, he had his share of lows, as he got embroiled in scandals and smear campaigns. His role in the Keating scandal earned him a mild rebuke but he continued to serve public office. McCain developed a reputation for independence and common sense politics. He took pride in challenging party leadership and establishment forces, becoming difficult to categorize politically, coming to be known as the Maverick Republican.

He advocated for restoration of normal relations with Vietnam reasoning that instead of seeking to vainly isolate Vietnam from the rest of the world, America should use its influence and power to render that country more susceptible to their own values. He praised the Democrat president, Clinton for his efforts to reopen dialogue with Vietnam.

McCain was particularly aware of the problems of military veterans and in 1991 he worked successfully to introduce the Veterans Hospice Benefit Act, that provided care to terminally ill veterans, and, the Agent Orange Act, legislation that affirmed certain diseases suffered by veterans could be the result of harmful chemical exposure related to their service, making them eligible for compensation.

As a member of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, along with fellow Vietnam vet John Kerry, Democrat, he investigated into the possibility of American POWs remaining in Vietnam. The committee could find no evidence and concluded that there were no more POWs, a finding that was opposed by some veterans’ families.

In 1997, Time magazine counted McCain among the 25 most influential people in the US. Two years later he announced his candidacy as the Republican nominee for President. In his opening speech he downplayed his POW role stating, “I begin this campaign with no sense of entitlement, America doesn’t owe me anything.” He would eventually endorse President George Bush, though the two didn’t see eye to eye on many issues.

McCain made it his mission to go after issues where he saw the corrupting influence of large political contributions likely to twist issues in favour of large corporations, labour unions, wealthy individuals and other influencers. Along with Democrat Sen Feingold, he attempted to introduce a bill to limit the power of financial contributors. Despite widespread media support, the proposed reforms didn’t make it to vote. Similarly he took on the tobacco industry, seeking to raise taxes on cigarettes, aimed at discouraging teenage smokers, and providing more money for health care. Once again, despite support from the Clinton administration, it failed to become a law, primarily due to strong opposition from the moneyed tobacco lobby.

In 2008, he once again ran for President, choosing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, surprising many, as she was considered a political lightweight. Though it was a strategic error that eventually cost him the Presidency, as he later realized, he continued to defend Ms Palin’s performance, never once criticising her. He later admitted that he should have chosen Sen Joseph Lieberman, as he had been advised. He had not forgotten the lessons learned at the Naval Academy years ago, it was important to stand up for your team while acknowledging your own mistakes.

He avoided getting personal and showed respect to his opponents, just as he had refused to vilify the Vietnamese. During his 2008 election rallies when a woman passed disparaging remarks against President Elect Obama, he immediately cautioned her saying, “No ma’am, he’s a decent family man, a citizen with whom I just happen to have disagreements on fundamental issues.”

It was a measure of his greatness that President Obama often consulted him in private, since neither doubted the other’s sincerity and patriotism.

He avoided responding to provocative remarks. When President Trump, during one of his campaign speeches, tried to ridicule McCain’s time as a prisoner and the torture he had endured, McCain remained silent, choosing instead to let the wave of public indignation that followed, do the speaking on his behalf.

McCain’s insistence on doing what he believed to be the right thing was legendary. He had worked to introduce a bill to improve the lot of immigrants, while putting pressure on Mexico to strengthen their own measures to curb illegal migration. He had earlier even opposed US involvement in Lebanon and later Somalia, calling it a war without clear aims.

In 2017, he was diagnosed with brain cancer but came back to vote in the Senate on the Obama Health Care bill, which had been opposed by President Trump. He voted against his own party on the move to dismantle the Bill, saying “I believe that we (Republicans and Dems) should learn to work together and we haven’t really tried. Nor can I support (the motion) without know how much it would cost and how it would affect people.”

McCain had no time for tyrants and he perceived Vladimir Putin of Russia as one such person. When in July 18, President Trump met with Putin in private, later speaking favourably of him, overriding his own intelligence reports, on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections, McCain scathingly declared, “No prior president has abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant.”

A month later, he was gone. McCain chose his own pallbearers from both sides of the political divide. Leading his funeral procession were two ex-presidents – George Bush and Barak Obama. Among others was Vladimir Kara-Murza, a vocal critic of Putin.

 Most of all, he was seen as a man of principle, someone happy to sit down with his political opponents if there was a compromise to be reached.
"I will work with anyone to get this country moving again," he once said. "I will listen to any idea that is offered in good faith and intended to help solve our problems."

-       Cmde Sanjay Kris Tewari