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Maybe Tim Dickinson's Rolling Stone cover story on McCain the make-believe maverick emboldened the LA Times to examine Senator Flyboy's lousy career as an aviator.
McCain crashed five times during his years in the Navy. One time a missile hit his fuel tank, setting off a chain of events that caused one of the most lethal fires at sea in the history of the navy. That wasn't McCain's fault. Of course, it wasn't his fault that he got shot down over Vietnam.
However there were three other crashes where the Navy officially questioned McCain's skills and judgment as a pilot:
The crash was one of three early in McCain's aviation career in which his flying skills and judgment were faulted or questioned by Navy officials.
In his most serious lapse, McCain was "clowning" around in a Skyraider over southern Spain about December 1961 and flew into electrical wires, causing a blackout, according to McCain's own account as well as those of naval officers and enlistees aboard the carrier Intrepid. In another incident, in 1965, McCain crashed a T-2 trainer jet in Virginia. [LAT]
By McCain's own admission, he was more interested in chasing women and drinking than in achieving excellence in the cockpit. An ordinary airman might have lost his wings after the first crash, but McCain was the son and grandson of admirals. He was untouchable and he knew it.
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Getting shot down was not McCain’s fault, but examination of his judgment remains relevant, in my mind:
No matter how heroic — he was more likely to die than survive — this speaks to McCain’s long-standing preference to gamble on personal glory rather than be a steady hand.
Yeah, it’s not the talking point that’s going to be front and center with the Obama campaign. But, I keep coming back to it.
McCain is a risk-taker who neither fears death nor trusts long-term steadiness. In his heart of hearts, he knows he may not have 8 years to serve. This leaves him impatient to make his mark, and ready to act erratically and irrationally in the Oval Office. He will be sorely tempted to reach early and often for options with the glimmer of heroism.
The role of the heroic fighter pilot is essential to the country’s military effectiveness. Heroes who become effective admirals, generals, or presidents, though, grow to understand that it’s no longer about self-serving gestures. Four decades later, McCain has not learned that lesson.