John McCain asked Paul Fay, Undersecretary of the Navy, for help in getting a combat tour in Vietnam.  McCain was advised he would be sent to Vietnam after he finished his current rotation.

McCain at the end of 1966 was ordered to report to Jacksonville, Florida, and join the USS Forrestal, flying the A-4 Skyhawk.

McCain was now 31 years old, and had flown five bombing missions over North Vietnam without incident. On the morning of July 29, 1967, McCain was in his A-4, third in line on the port side. He got the thumbs up signal, his canopy was shut, and then all hell broke loose. A Zuni missile somehow fired from across the deck struck his belly fuel tank igniting 200 gallons of fuel that spilled on the deck. The impact knocked two bombs loose, both falling to the deck. An electrical charge used to start the engine of an F-4 Phantom waiting for take off had fired the Zuni that struck McCain's plane. As McCain's fuel tank exploded his plane became a flaming fireball. He managed to open the canopy and crawl out on the nose, and jumped ten feet into the flaming inferno setting his flight suit on fire. At that time one of the thousand pound bombs that had been knocked loose from his A-4 exploded, sending small pieces of hot shrapnel into his legs and chest. More bombs exploded destroying many planes. Pilots ejected into the firestorm. More Zunis were fired setting off huge explosions. Burning fuel poured into the holes spreading the fire below. The fire was consuming the Forrestal and she was in grave danger of sinking. Fires burned below deck for 24 hours. It was a total disaster. 134 men died, dozens were wounded and more than 20 planes were destroyed. The Forrestal suffered several large holes below the waterline, but managed to make it's way to Subic Naval Base in the Philippines. It took over two years before she was seaworthy enough to return to duty. McCain was upset with the idea of waiting that long. An officer from the USS Oriskany requested volunteers for combat duty aboard his ship. They had lost a number of pilots and were undermanned. McCain signed up immediately. The Oriskany had suffered a terrible disaster at sea when a magnesium flare ignited a blaze which very nearly destroyed the ship. 44 men were killed, and they were also suffering from high combat loses. On Sept. 30, 1967, McCain requested immediate duty on the Oriskany. The Oriskany during Operation Rolling Thunder lost 38 pilots and 60 aircraft. In 1967 alone one third of the squadrons pilots were either killed or captured. Of the 60 planes lost 29 were A-4s. Every one of the original fifteen A-4s were destroyed. It was indeed a very dangerous ship for McCain to transfer to.

Orders came down to escalate the bombing, and McCain was scheduled to bomb the city of Hanoi with it's extensive network of Russian made SAM missile sites. On McCain's next mission he was headed for Hanoi and ran into a wall of antiaircraft fire and 22 SAM missiles. One of the missiles blew the right wing off McCain's A-4 Skyhawk.

After the SAM struck McCain's plane he was spiraling violently toward earth at over 500 miles per hour. He managed to pull the ejection seat handle blowing him out of his disabled aircraft. He struck part of the plane, breaking his left arm, his right arm in three places, and his right knee. He landed in the middle of a lake in the center of the city. He pulled the life vest toggle with his teeth. In a matter of seconds hundreds of Vietnamese were beating him. Someone smashed a rifle butt into his shoulder, breaking it. Another jabbed him in the ankle and the groin with a bayonet. Fortunately an army truck arrived and he was thrown in the back and taken away from the savage mob. For sure he would have been killed in another minute or so. He was taken to the famous "Hanoi Hilton" where the dreaded interrogations began. In exchange for information he was promised medical treatment. He gave them his name, rank, and serial number. They beat him until he blacked out.

A John McCain Flameout will Happen on September 4

It was a SAM missile that brought down McCain's A-4 Skyhawk. It was not a flameout.

A flameout refers to the failure of a jet engine caused by the extinction of the flame in the combustion chamber. It can be caused by a number of factors: including fuel exhaustion, compressor stall, insufficient oxygen supply, engine ingestion of foreign substances, severe inclement weather, mechanical failure and other factors.

Flameouts occur most frequently when the engine is at an intermediate or low power setting such as during the cruise and descent phases of flight. Most of the time, they are recovered from uneventfully.

In the film Top Gun, a flameout and flat spin is the cause for the crash of Tom Cruise's character's aircraft during a mock dogfight.

When the Republicans choose their candidate on September 4th, there is a very real chance they could throw the election into an unexpected chaos as John McCain experiences a flameout due to exhaustion and insufficient oxygen supply.

Senator Barak Obama will have sucked out all of the oxygen out of McCain's campaign causing extinction of the flame in McCain's combustion chamber.

It will not come as a surprise. McCain is dragging more and more with each passing day. The rigors of a presidential campaign is taking its toil on McCain.

It is truly sad. I admire some of McCain's qualities but if anyone should understand and accept Bush purposefully and with malicious intent, manipulated intelligence data justifying the war in Iraq, it should be John McCain. This is not case ― for John McCain's stalwart support of invading Iraq and the continued failure of war strategy, now more than five long years that began on March 19, 2003, John McCain is equally to blame for Bush's failed military strategy because John McCain has been George Bush's advocate and most ardent supporter of the Iraq War.

Since clinching the Republican presidential nomination, John McCain has sought to hide the forest of his neoconservative alignment with George W. Bush amid the trees of details, such as stressing differences over military tactics used in Iraq.

But the larger reality should be clear: McCain is a hard-line neoconservative who buys into Bush's "preemptive war" theories abroad and his concept of an all-powerful "unitary executive" at home.

From McCain's pre-Iraq invasion speeches to his campaign's recent embrace of Bush's imperial presidency, American voters should realize if they choose John McCain, they will be locking in at least four more years of war with much of the Islamic world while selling out the Founders' vision of a democratic Republic where no one is above the law.

Yet, John McCain became self appointed former Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office charged with maintaining doctrinal orthodoxy. Cardinal McCain became the prefect for President Bush and for this reason alone, the United States can not elect John McCain to follow in the footsteps of George Bush and send one more American to die in Iraq.

Of all the persons with a remarkable service in serving our country, McCain should know every life is precious and should not be discarded by the whims of a delusional schizophrenic American president. History will record the dismal failure of George Bush to lead our country.

A John McCain presidency will be continuation of the George Bush policies and programs.

Yet, no illustrious military service and sacrifice substantiates a continuation of the George Bush policies of a disastrous war and for the continued demise of the national economy.

Americans have had enough and a new direction is required. Not just a mere tangent but a complete reversal of a 180 degree turnabout.

It is not only Democrats who demand this but most Americans.

There are substantial reasons why John McCain won't be the Republican candidate in November.

The pretext will be health problems. Not entirely untrue as witnessed by recent McCain appearances. He seems to be aging with each passing day.

This is the pretext but the underlying cause will be: John McCain can not win the White House in 2008.

Polls are already given validity to not winning with John McCain's unrelinquished support of George Bush's Iraq War which has become John McCain's Iraq War.

The Iraq War is insurmountable but today's issue is the national economy as highlighted each day by the rising cost of gasoline. The millions of persons who have lost their home will be one more nail in the coffin then add conservative issues McCain does not support makes McCain an unpopular candidate among Republicans.

McCain won't be the nominee.

With two months before the November election, a new Republican candidate will have little time to be scruntized but the new Republican nominee will be new on the scene and will get a lot of media attention as Obama's uniqueness will be yesterday's news headlines will have become ― by then ― tarnished or at least no longer the surprise that it has been as he unseated Hillary.

So, who will be the Republican candidate that faces Obama in the fall?

There is a whole list of Republicans who in many ways are more likely to energize the Republican base. One thing is certain ― there are candidates that will play to the core issues in ways that McCain simply can't.

For Republicans, a wide open convention would be both good theater and good politics.

Then we turn to 2010. John McCain will be up for re-election and with loss of the Republican nomination in 2008, John McCain will be vulnerable. It is not too soon to start thinking about a candidate.

And no — Napolitano will not be the Democratic candidate. If she enters the primary, we will support the other candidate.