Netlore Archive: Forwarded email states that three of Republican presidential candidate John McCain's sons are in the military, and one, Jimmy McCain, served as a Marine infantryman in Iraq.
Description: Email flier
Circulating since: May 2008
Status: True
Email example contributed by Carole, May 22, 2008:
Fwd: John McCain's Sons
A LITTLE BIO INSIGHT INTO THE LIFE OF ONE OF THE CANDIDATES!!
Subject: John McCain's Sons
Talk about putting your money where your mouth is! Apparently this was not newsworthy enough for the media to comment about -- as if Chelsea or any of Obama's relatives would do anything similar.
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One evening last July, Senator John McCain of Arizona arrived at the New Hampshire home of Erin Flanagan for sandwiches, chocolate-chip cookies and a heartfelt talk about Iraq. They had met at a presidential debate, when she asked the candidates what they would do to bring home American soldiers -- soldiers like her brother, who had been killed in action a few months earlier.
Mr. McCain did not bring cameras or a retinue. Instead, he brought his youngest son, James McCain, 19, then a private first class in the Marine Corps about to leave for Iraq. Father and son sat down to hear more about Ms. Flanagan's brother Michael Cleary, a 24-year-old Army first lieutenant killed by an ambush and roadside bomb.
No one mentioned the obvious: in just days, Jimmy McCain could face similar perils. "I can't imagine what it must have been like for them as they were coming to meet with a family that ......" Ms. Flanagan recalled, choking up. "We lost a dear one," she finished.
Mr. McCain, now the presumptive Republican nominee, has staked his candidacy on the promise that American troops can bring stability to Iraq. What he almost never says is that one of them is his own son, who spent seven months patrolling Anbar Province and learned of his father's New Hampshire victory in January while he was digging a stuck military vehicle out of the mud.
Two of Jimmy's three older brothers went into the military. Doug McCain, 48, was a Navy pilot. Jack McCain, 21, is to graduate from the Naval Academy next year, raising the chances that his father, if elected, could become the first president since Dwight D. Eisenhower with a son at war.
Comments: Ironically, the only falsehood in the above text is the claim that the mainstream media didn't find it newsworthy enough to print. Lance Corporal Jimmy McCain's tour of duty in Iraq was covered in several high-profile venues, including United Press International, Time magazine, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. In fact, the bulk of the text was copied and pasted verbatim from a Times article dated April 6, 2008.
To whatever extent the military service of John McCain's sons has been underreported, it has been at the McCain family's request.
The family is nonetheless proud of its record of military service, with both McCain's father and grandfather having attained the rank of four-star Navy admiral during their distinguished careers. McCain himself, after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1958, trained as a Navy pilot and served as a flight instructor before signing up for combat duty during the Vietnam War. He was on his twenty-third bombing mission in North Vietnam when he was shot down over Hanoi and captured, ultimately spending five-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war. McCain retired from the Navy in 1981 and has held political office ever since.
Three of John McCain's sons have carried on the family tradition, with Doug McCain serving as a Navy pilot, Jack McCain soon to graduate from the Naval Academy, and Jimmy McCain enlisting in the Marines at the age of 17. The latter returned home safely from his seven-month tour of duty in Iraq in February 2008.
Barack Obama misquote
Some versions of the emailed text contain this addendum:
--------------------The quote is bogus, a butchered version of a passage in which Obama vowed to stand with American citizens of Arab or Pakistani descent should their civil rights be violated. Here is what he actually wrote on pp. 260-261 of The Audacity of Hope (New York: Crown, 2006):This is for all you Barack voters.
From Barack's book, Audacity of Hope:
"I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."
HE DID NOT SAY STAND WITH AMERICANS!!!!!
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Whenever I appear before immigrant audiences, I can count on some good-natured ribbing from my staff after my speech; according to them, my remarks always follow a three-part structure: "I am your friend," "[Fill in the home country] has been a cradle of civilization," and "You embody the American dream." They're right, my message is simple, for what I've come to understand is that my mere presence before these newly minted Americans serves notice that they matter, that they are voters critical to my success and full-fledged citizens deserving of respect.Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific reassurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.
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Sources and further reading:
Vocal on War, McCain Is Silent on Son's Service
New York Times, 6 April 2008McCain's Marine Son Home from Iraq
UPI, 14 February 2008For McCain, Son's Duty in Iraq Is Not a Talking Point
TheHill.com, 2 April 2008Troop Push Is Personal for McCain
Washington Post, 26 December 2006McCain Calls for More Troops - Including His Son
Sunday Times, 31 December 2006The McCains and War: Like Father, Like Son
Time, 29 July 2006
Last updated: 06/16/08
