John McCain has died

I have been fortunate to have been in his presence quite a few times both in and out of the public sphere...regardless of your view of his politics, he is one of the true class acts as a human being.

He will be missed.
 
Just saw the news. What a life he experienced!

Sad.

:(
 
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Literally walked into him once many years ago while on a tour of the Capital, momen I still remember.

One may not have agreed with his politics but cant argue the fact that he was a true American and sacrificed much for our country during his service in Vietnam
 
I'm proud to have known him and after one of my presentations when he found out I had gone to the Academy, he was quite friendly and helpful. Not so much during the brief. After I had told him what I had found out while on a tour of Iraq, he told me I was wrong. I had no response since I prefaced everything with "I saw" or "I spoke with xxx and he/she said...." He was a brave man who went above the call of duty as a Naval officer. When I complete this post I will go lower my flag in his honor.
 
The man endured the unimaginable in service to his country, declined to be released from captivity ahead of his comrades, and continued to serve to the end. RIP, Sir.
 
Thank you for your service to our country, Senator McCain. May you now enjoy all the rewards in Heaven. Rest In Peace, Sir.
 
RIP. Never read the book but Faith of My Fathers is a good movie if you get a chance to watch it.
 
cgrab said:
He was a brave man who went above the call of duty as a Naval officer. When I complete this post I will go lower my flag in his honor.
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A warrior gone west. Thanks for the reminder. Just lowered my flag.

Cheers
 
A good man for sure, and suffered an illness at the hands of our own military that took his life the same as it took my father’s and my uncle’s.

And yet - nary a word from the ones responsible for any of their deaths about their mistakes in leadership or in the insanity of having used Agent Orange to begin with despite knowing the dangers in our own troops in using it.

Regardless of our military failures in that decision, McCain was an amazing man who had convictions that not everyone agreed with - yet they were strong enough that he remained true to them. That is honorable.
 
On an aviation forum, I'm not much interested in hearing about who agreed or disagreed with his politics.
 
SkyHog said:
A good man for sure, and suffered an illness at the hands of our own military that took his life the same as it took my father’s and my uncle’s.
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John McCain was not an Agent Orange victim, he operated on and off a carrier deck and was imprisoned in Hanoi, no where near where agent orange was used.
 
Palmpilot said:
If you don't like my posts, quit reading them.
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I can easily put you ignore, But your whining about subjects you don't like is just childish.

SkyHog said:
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/did-agent-orange-cause-mccains-cancer#3
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That's something I didn't know, I do know it was not handled on deck, and the A4 He flew didn't carry it. I worked the carriers in that era.

From your article
Experts say Agent Orange was in the air, water, and food in Vietnam.
 
Due to the fanboys, I’ll just keep my mouth shut :)
 
Bulldog573 said:
The man endured the unimaginable in service to his country, declined to be released from captivity ahead of his comrades, and continued to serve to the end. RIP, Sir.
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Yes indeed. Very honorable....I'll reserve the hero part.
 
SkyHog said:
A good man for sure, and suffered an illness at the hands of our own military that took his life the same as it took my father’s and my uncle’s.

And yet - nary a word from the ones responsible for any of their deaths about their mistakes in leadership or in the insanity of having used Agent Orange to begin with despite knowing the dangers in our own troops in using it.
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Ted Kennedy was an honor guard at the embassy in Paris for less than two years and he ended up with a malignant glioma. So do a lot of folks who were never anywhere close to the Vietnam battlefield. The reality is that if you are old and white, it is one of the cancers you may get, with or without agent orange exposure.
 
Yeah I think he stopped flying after the Navy. I was surprised he continued to fly after his injuries as a POW. Flew A-7s and was CO of VA-174 at Cecil Field.

Also surprised that he had over 3,600 hrs when he was shot down in 1967. He sure wasn’t flying a desk to accumulate that much time in 9 years. Of course, different time, different climate.
 
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Velocity173 said:
Also surprised that he had over 3,600 hrs when he was shot down in 1967. He sure wasn’t flying a desk to accumulate that much time in 9 years. Of course, different time, different climate.
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It wasn't uncommon for a nav-cad to have 1000 hours when they get out of training command.
 
Tom-D said:
It wasn't uncommon for a nav-cad to have 1000 hours when they get out of training command.
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Makes sense. Starting from scratch in T34's all the way through advanced jets and Carrier Quals. Not much for simulators in those days. It was done in the air.
 
Velocity173 said:
Yeah I think he stopped flying after the Navy. I was surprised he continued to fly after his injuries as a POW. Flew A-7s and was CO of VA-174 at Cecil Field.

Also surprised that he had over 3,600 hrs when he was shot down in 1967. He sure wasn’t flying a desk to accumulate that much time in 9 years. Of course, different time, different climate.
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You'd think with all of his injuries that he could have gotten out after the war. If only he would have had something more serious wrong... like bone spurs.
 
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who passed away Saturday from brain cancer, wrote a farewell message to the country that was delivered by his friend and former top aide, Rick Davis, on Monday in Phoenix.

The full text is below:

My fellow Americans, whom I have gratefully served for sixty years, and especially my fellow Arizonans,

Thank you for the privilege of serving you and for the rewarding life that service in uniform and in public office has allowed me to lead. I have tried to serve our country honorably. I have made mistakes, but I hope my love for America will be weighed favorably against them.

I have often observed that I am the luckiest person on earth. I feel that way even now as I prepare for the end of my life. I have loved my life, all of it. I have had experiences, adventures and friendships enough for ten satisfying lives, and I am so thankful. Like most people, I have regrets. But I would not trade a day of my life, in good or bad times, for the best day of anyone else’s.

I owe that satisfaction to the love of my family. No man ever had a more loving wife or children he was prouder of than I am of mine. And I owe it to America. To be connected to America’s causes — liberty, equal justice, respect for the dignity of all people — brings happiness more sublime than life’s fleeting pleasures. Our identities and sense of worth are not circumscribed but enlarged by serving good causes bigger than ourselves.

'Fellow Americans' — that association has meant more to me than any other. I lived and died a proud American. We are citizens of the world’s greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil. We are blessed and are a blessing to humanity when we uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world. We have helped liberate more people from tyranny and poverty than ever before in history. We have acquired great wealth and power in the process.

We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been.

We are three-hundred-and-twenty-five million opinionated, vociferous individuals. We argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each other in our raucous public debates. But we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement. If only we remember that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our country we will get through these challenging times. We will come through them stronger than before. We always do.

Ten years ago, I had the privilege to concede defeat in the election for president. I want to end my farewell to you with the heartfelt faith in Americans that I felt so powerfully that evening.

I feel it powerfully still.

Do not despair of our present difficulties but believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history.

Farewell, fellow Americans. God bless you, and God bless America
 
As a POW, John McCain was an inspiration to all patriots.
 
Got to spend an evening with Herb Hope, who was McCain's wing man. As far as war time serice, Herb was a better exemplar. When the Forrestal broke into flames, McCain went down and hid. Herb rolled off the deck and then led a bunch of enlisted guys attacking the fire with a hose line.
 
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