A Reflection by Mayor Schneider

Senator John McCain was a patriot in every respect. The son and grandson of Navy Admirals, McCain became a top notch Navy Pilot and flew missions off the Carrier Deck of the USS Forestall where he narrowly escaped death in a hanger fire in 1967. That same year, while on a bombing mission during Operation Rolling Thunder over Hanoi in October, McCain was shot down, seriously injured, and captured by the North Vietnamese, and held as a prisoner of war in Hanoi.

I went to Navy boot camp in Nov 1967, spent parts of ’68, ’69 & “70 in Viet Nam and left active duty from Guantanamo Bay Cuba in 1972, and John McCain was POW during the entire 4 years I was on active duty plus a year longer. I remember reading in the Stars and Stripes about how he refused special treatment to leave early due to his father being an admiral and that as a result he invited more abuse upon himself.

McCain served 35 years in the US Senate, and, with his fighter pilot moxie, he became chairman of the Armed Services Committee. He said he would like to be remembered for making a contribution to the defense of the Nation. He will also be remembered for dealing with his own imprisonment by never forgetting those who are oppressed, both friend and foe.

In the Senate he was famously known for his stubborn streak and occasional orneriness, yet he was always admired by both sides of the isle for a spirit of service and bipartisanship and his unswerving defense of our National values.

He ran twice for President, and the two men he lost to in those bids, President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama, will speak at the funeral which speaks volumes about our country and about a man who always tried to put people before politics.

2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney said it best:“No man in this century better exemplifies honor, patriotism, service, sacrifice and country first than Senator John McCain.”

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