Vietnam Veterans Against McCain (now with working links)

This is difficult. I’m no big fan of John McCain, but I really can’t let this stand. I read about this from Return of the Conservatives by way of Invincible Armor;

Supporters of Republican John McCain on Tuesday assailed a mailer sent to state newspaper editors claiming he sold out fellow POWs to get better treatment while held prisoner in Vietnam. “Nothing could be further from the truth. I know because I was there,” Orson Swindle, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel and former prisoner of war, said in a statement about the mailing from Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain.

Here’s the .pdf of the mailer; that was sent to newspaper editors from Vietnam Veterans Against McCain and it’s pretty weak. The guy who runs the thing is Jerry Kiley, a Vietnam veteran himself. He started the Vietnam Veterans Against Kerry movement long before Kerry ran for the Democrat nomination. But this time I think he’s gone off the deep end.

Kiley claims that one reason to be against McCain is because he lost five aircraft – one was shot down by the enemy and another was accidentally shot by another pilot behind McCain on the flight line of the USS Forrestal. I don’t know how Kiley can hold those against McCain. I mean seriously.

Kiley calls McCain a “songbird” for telling the NVA everything he knew for “preferred treatment”. Well, “preferred treatment” turns out to be medical attention for a broken leg. That’s hardly collaborating with the enemy. By the time the NVA interviewed McCain, anything he could have told them was worthless anyway.

The military understands that we’re not superhuman beings that can endure pain indefinitely, that’s why there’s leeway in the Code of Conduct for letting out bits of information so we can live to fight another day. If your ideal is Hollywood depictions of unbearable pain and lips sealed, try that stuff in the real world.
Kiley continues with a fairly pointless rant;

McCain III was awarded medals for valor equal to nearly a medal-and-a-half for each hour he spent in combat

For 23 combat missions (an estimated 20 hours over enemy territory), the U.S. Navy awarded

McCain III, the son of famous admirals, a Silver Star, a Legion of Merit for Valor, a Distinguished Flying Cross, three Bronze Stars, two Commendation medals plus two Purple Hearts and a dozen service medals.

“McCain had roughly 20 hours in combat,” explains Bill Bell, a veteran of Vietnam and former chief of the U.S. Office for POW/MIA Affairs — the first official U.S. representative in Vietnam since the 1973 fall of Saigon.

“Since McCain got 28 medals,” Bell continued, “that equals to about a medal-and-a-half for each hour he spent in combat. There were infantry guys — grunts on the ground — who had more than 7,000 hours in combat and I can tell you that there were times and situations where I’m sure a prison cell would have looked pretty good to them by comparison. The question really is how many guys got that number of medals for not being shot down.”

Um, 20 hours flight time plus 5 1/2 years in a brutal prison camp. Kinda left that part out didn’t you? An infantry grunt would’ve liked to spend five and a half years in prison instead of 12 months in the jungle on patrol? That’s a fanciful bit of hyperbole. I’ll bet there’s not a grunt on the planet that would preferred to be a prisoner of the enemy in exchange for getting out of some patrols. Especially in a prison camp where waterboarding would be considered recreation time.
From Jerry Kiley’s own bio at the US Veteran Dispatch;

Kiley is proud of his fourteen months’ service in a U.S. Army communications center in support of combat troops in Vietnam. Nearly thirty years after the end of the war he continues support of those who came home from an unpopular war to an unappreciative nation, as well those who were left behind.

Dredging up this stuff against McCain’s service deals dirt to all veterans. I’d never disparage Kiley’s service, for any reason unless I found out he’d lied about something and made himself out to be something he’s not. McCain has never hid anything about his service.

Kiley is trying to stretch a point because of McCain’s political record. If Kiley wants to criticize McCain’s service in Congress, that’s fine, but going after a truthful veteran’s service is beyond the pale.

Please notice, I’m a Blog for Thompson, so my intent here is to stand up for my fellow veterans, not a political statement of support for McCain.

Category: John McCain/Sarah Palin, Politics, Support the troops