There are some things that just wring my heart out.  Naval aviators who flew in Viet Nam are one.  And John McCain--among other friends of ours who were captured--has always held such a place of honor for me.  Every Marine and Naval aviator knew what was in store for them if they went down.  Ken was flying the same plane John was--at the exact same time, in the same war, and getting shot at by the same North Vietnamese military every day.  Praying they would miss.  Flying into enemy fire to support our ground troops.

Every pilot in that war was just doing his job, hoping that they would survive.  Hoping that the pols in Washington would figure out what they were doing.  Which they didn't.  America was at war with herself over all of it.  Ken despised McNamara and his "body counts" that supposedly showed that we were winning the war.  We weren't.  But he never said a word about his feelings until the war was over and he had retired--and McNamara was no longer in office.   Ken always said, "I serve at the pleasure of the President of the United States."  The people choose these presidents.  We elect them.

All of those pilots knew what capture meant.  Every one of them had a friend who had ejected.  Every one of them lived with the knowledge that they could be next.  John McCain lived through it.  And his finest hour was when he refused to come home because he wasn't next in line for that opportunity.  The rule was: first shot down, first to go home.  John didn't use his father's Admiral rank to move up his return--which the Vietnamese offered.  He paid dearly for that honorable decision.

Ken nursed a crippled plane back to base with an ejection seat that had been hit, blowing his canopy off--knowing all the way back that he could lose his seat through an unintended ejection, praying to God to get back over water before it blew.  Every Marine and Navy pilot had their survival stories.

War is a terrible thing.  And only those who serve through it can fully realize what it means.  Whether you agree with McCain's political position or not, you and I owe him and all those who honorably serve, and served, our country a deep, penetrating debt of gratitude for what they are willing to give, and give up, so that we don't have to.  Thank God we don't have to.  God bless every warrior out there who is willing to serve.  Yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  God bless America.