The McCain campaign launched a full-throated response to Wesley
Clark's comments attacking McCain's military service, with a
conference call unveiling a "Truth Squad" featuring fellow POWs
Orson Swindle and Bud Day, Sen. John Warner, advisor Bud McFarland,
and Carl Smith, a retired Navy pilot who served in the Navy
squadron that McCain commanded.
Sen. Warner said he was "utterly shocked" that Clark would
attack McCain in such a disrespectful manner, and it was an
"exercise in poor judgment" for Obama to allow Clark to make such
an attack.
Day noted how McCain could have went home early from Vietnam
because he was onboard the U.S.S. Forrestal
during a tragic fire on deck (video here, McCain was one of the pilots who had
to escape from his plane during the inferno). Instead, he
volunteered to join another ship and fly combat missions over
downtown Hanoi, which was the most heavily defended city in the
world, and spent 65 additional months in Vietnam, as a POW, as a
result. His experiences inside that camp, including the fact that
he refused offers of early release, made him a leader, Day
said.
Day attributed Clark's "shocking insults" to "political
shenanigans."
Smith spoke of serving with McCain during the time when he
turned a large, mediocre, and "clumsy" Navy squadron into a unit
that earned a citation for meritorious service.
"The credit goes to John McCain and his extraordinary
leadership, it's as simple as this," Smith said. He said that when
McCain came there, he fired all of the people who said that there
was no way they could do better, and demanded more.
"The results were truly exceptional," he said.
topics:
John McCain, Military
