Yahbutttt! He was a "war hero" with an exemplary record, or so we're told. Pay no attention that a trainee who crashes multiple training jets usually gets washed out of flight school.
@Cyber LibertyMcCain almost never followed the rules. He was near the bottom of his Naval class when he graduated. Yes, he crashed planes. Read below he almost died when his plane was on deck, and caught on fire by spilled fuel.
When shot down, one of his shoulders was mostly destroyed and his captors left it that way plus tortured him other ways. When the captors found out his father was an Admiral, they offered to let his go and he would not go unless the men went with him, so he stayed in that situation longer. For the rest of his life, he could not raise either arm past his shoulders, so could only wear shirts with buttons, no pull over shirts. That captivity changed his life forever.
"McCain graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1958 and received a commission in the United States Navy. He became a naval aviator and flew ground-attack aircraft from aircraft carriers. During the Vietnam War, McCain almost died in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire. While on a bombing mission during Operation Rolling Thunder over Hanoi in October 1967, he was shot down, seriously injured, and captured by the North Vietnamese. McCain was a prisoner of war until 1973. He experienced episodes of torture and refused an out-of-sequence early release. During the war, McCain sustained wounds that left him with lifelong physical disabilities. He retired from the Navy as a captain in 1981 and moved to Arizona, where he entered politics."
