At Fort McNair, an army base located along the Potomac River in the nation's capital, a chance reunion takes place one day between two former POWs. It's the spring of 1974, and Navy commander John Sidney McCain III has returned home from the experience in Hanoi that, according to legend, transformed him from a callow and reckless youth into a serious man of patriotism and purpose. Walking along the grounds at Fort McNair, McCain runs into John Dramesi, an Air Force lieutenant colonel who was also imprisoned and tortured in Vietnam.
McCain is studying at the National War College, a prestigious graduate program he had to pull strings with the Secretary of the Navy to get into. Dramesi is enrolled, on his own merit, at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in the building next door.
There's a distance between the two men that belies their shared experience in North Vietnam — call it an honor gap. Like many American POWs, McCain broke down under torture and offered a "confession" to his North Vietnamese captors. Dramesi, in contrast, attempted two daring escapes. For the second he was brutalized for a month with daily torture sessions that nearly killed him. His partner in the escape, Lt. Col. Ed Atterberry, didn't survive the mistreatment. But Dramesi never said a disloyal word, and for his heroism was awarded two Air Force Crosses, one of the service's highest distinctions. McCain would later hail him as "one of the toughest guys I've ever met."
On the grounds between the two brick colleges, the chitchat between the scion of four-star admirals and the son of a prizefighter turns to their academic travels; both colleges sponsor a trip abroad for young officers to network with military and political leaders in a distant corner of the globe.
"I'm going to the Middle East," Dramesi says. "Turkey, Kuwait, Lebanon, Iran."
"Why are you going to the Middle East?" McCain asks, dismissively.
"It's a place we're probably going to have some problems," Dramesi says.
"Why? Where are you going to, John?"
"Oh, I'm going to Rio."
"What the hell are you going to Rio for?"
McCain, a married father of three, shrugs.
"I got a better chance of getting laid."
Dramesi, who went on to serve as chief war planner for U.S. Air Forces in Europe and commander of a wing of the Strategic Air Command, was not surprised. "McCain says his life changed while he was in Vietnam, and he is now a different man," Dramesi says today. "But he's still the undisciplined, spoiled brat that he was when he went in."
Morehttp://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain
3 comments:
"The Make-Believe Maverick" is an excellent and informative story. There is a link to a short video that highlights only 5 myths about John McCain. But if you really want to known who McCain is, read the entire article.
I read the article earlier in the day. And, though I am a Democrat, I couldn't help but feel a sense of sadness on several different levels. If true, a lie is being sold to all of his supporters, and to all Americans. I think of a first wife, abandoned. I think of the man himself....and how I felt him a better person than this article portrays him.
For his sake....hopefully... the story Dickinson tells isn't totally accurate.
But if it is true, a whole lot of people will see a myth shattered.
Because without his personal integrity, John McCain will have very little left.
A pity.
Get a clue! Men and women all want to get laid. And as far as career ... why did the writer write the article ... to get attention so he/she would keep their job and write more articles!
Until you have faced death and seen the faces of those who fight for you, some who may have privileges beyond the normal average citizen, and those who are left by the wayside, don't create platitudes.
On one hand I have reasons not to vote for McCain, but i have to count my fingers and toes for the reasons NOT to vote for Barack Obama which are all based on what he does or says. Everyone has an agenda, sometimes it takes some keen powers of observation to figure it out.
Obama the Preacher who never lays out the exact methods of CHANGE he preaches, or McCain, whose platform holds up as the economy goes to hell? Obama must abandon his platform, if he is elected and adopt the McCain platform.
So why are we hypnotized by the Preacher and put off by the Statesman/ politician? Figure it out.
Look at the big picture.
Who are the heroes of Rolling Stone? People who are sometimes morally bankrupt for the sake of popularity and fame. Maybe not totally bad people, but then what you learn from your experiences shapes you, changes you for what choices you make in the present and the future.
I believe .... John McCain is a common man who has learned for his experiences, and chooses to do more good for the majority than Obama because Obama has not had enough experiences to make the right choices, not yet.
If Obama cleans up his closet of explaining about Mr. Davis, Mr. Ayers, Rev. Wright, Mr. Resko, and why he never answers a question except when he makes a mistake by giving a answer to Joe the Plumber who his campaign attacks, then maybe he will be ready.
Until all the answers are on the table for Obama ... I am not gonna worry about the problems I have on one hand for McCain. I am gonna worry how to reconcile the problems I have with Obama that the snake-medicine traveling PREACHER keeps dodging again and again and again.
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