that he crashed a plane during training in Corpus Christi. He claimed the 'engine quit' - but factcheck notes;
"McCain and others have written that the plane went down in Corpus Christi Bay when the engine quit, but Navy investigators concluded that the engine was still running when the plane hit the water, and said that the accident resulted from pilot error."
http://www.factcheck.org/2008/10/mccain-found-at-fault-in-1960-navy-plane-crash/
If you weren't the son of one famous admiral, and the grandson of another, that would have ended your flying career.
As he was both, McCain went on to fly another navy plane into power lines, and to crash yet a second.
Then there was the Forrestal fire.
What happened there was closely investigated, and resulted in many changes - including the relearning of previously forgotten lessons.
In the end, the - I think valid conclusion - was that no one person was responsible - just the usual unusual chain of events in any major accident.
However, McCain's actions subsequent to the accident were, speaking as a former sailor, reprehensible and clearly demonstrated his unfitness for any command.
"Whatever the circumstances of the fire’s origins, McCain did not stay on deck to help fight the blaze as the men around him did. With the firefighting crew virtually wiped out, men untrained in fighting fires had to pick up the fire hoses, rescue the wounded or frantically throw bombs and even planes over the ship’s side to prevent further tragedy. McCain left them behind and went down to the hangar-bay level, where he briefly helped crew members heave some bombs overboard. After that, he went to the pilot’s ready room and watched the fire on a television monitor ...
New York Times reporter R.W. Apple, who helicoptered out to the ship the day after the tragedy and sought out McCain as the “son and grandson of two noted admirals ...
When New York Times reporter Apple finished gathering his notes on the fire, McCain boarded a helicopter with him and flew to Saigon. Given that fires still burned on the ship and some of his fellow airmen were gravely wounded and dying, McCain’s assertion that he left the carrier for “some welcome R&R” in Saigon has a surreal air."
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081007_investigating_john_mccains_tragedy_at_sea//
McCain deserted his shipmates to their fate, he deserted his post in time of war. If there is a God of War - perhaps that is why he got to spend some hellish time as a POW.
Indeed, had any other pilot simply decided, at that moment, to - in McCain's own words leave for "some welcome R&R” in Saigon - it seems unlikely that they would not have been brought back under arrest.
Reportedly, the chain of command on Forrestal did not know McCain had left for some thirty hours - as only the most severely wounded were being evacuated.
Ask yourself, why would such a person not be court-martialled, much less be allowed to continue to fly combat?
Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that after his "welcome R&R" (taken while his shipmates still battled fires on the stricken Forrestal) McCain " ...went to London, where his father, Adm. John S. McCain Jr., was stationed as commander in chief of the United States Naval Forces in Europe ..."
Likely it did not hurt that "The investigation into the Forrestal fire was in the hands of Adm. Thomas Moorer, chief of naval operations and a close friend of McCain’s father. (Their friendship was why Moorer would personally convey the news to Adm. Jack McCain three months later that his son had been shot down in Vietnam.)
McCain is more of a disgrace to the honor of the military than Bush ever was.
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