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John McCain Comments

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John Booth

Published: December 2, 2008

The comments in the Thanksgiving edition vilifying John McCain was an insult to every military serviceman who served our great country, especially those brave pilots, sailors and Marines who served during the Vietnam War aboard our carrier fleet.

It is obvious the writer had no military service experience and knows nothing of life aboard a carrier.

Aboard a carrier there are firefighters and damage control personnel who are trained to handle these kinds of emergencies.

Navy pilots are not trained for this work, and their job is to secure watertight doors and stay put and out of the way of the personnel engaged in the damage control effort.

After that, the wardroom would likely be their designated duty station. To suggest that since there was no news as to John McCain's acts of heroism during the disastrous fire aboard the Forrestal that John McCain sat idle while his shipmates perished is absurd and an insult to every pilot, sailor and Marine that ever served on a carrier.

I had the honor and privilege to serve aboard the USS Enterprise during the Vietnam War and observed first hand the daily acts of heroism of these brave men.

We lost many fine men from the  squadrons flying off the carrier fleet who, flying at least two missions a day, carried the war to North Vietnam knowing full well that they often were not allowed to hit the primary targets, and if captured, would face certain torture and death.

It's really sad that that on Thanksgiving Day and so close to Veterans Day that anyone regardless of their political affiliation could be so completely blind and insensitive.

John Booth Avon Park

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