<< Show Caption >>
John McCain was a sailor, a straight talker and a statesman. From the day he entered the U.S. Naval Academy with the class of 1958, John's character, courage and charisma were evident. Like all of us, John had his weaknesses. But he will be rightly remembered for his candor, his valor and heroism, his self-deprecating sense of humor, his cantankerism and a greatness that had few boundaries.
John kindly wrote a foreword for one of my books along with blurbs in others. I had the good and great fortune to know him first as a Navy captain when he headed the Navy's delegation to the Senate. From time to time after he was elected to the House in 1982 and then to the Senate four years later, he tolerated visits to his office and my invitations to speak at various events.
Perhaps the most stunning political valedictories so far have come from Democrats: Barack Obama, Joe Biden, John Kerry, Joe Lieberman and Hillary Clinton. More will be forthcoming. All are well deserved.
Three small vignettes reinforce the best in John. Each took place after a sorry period in his career following his involvement as one of the "Keating Five" in the Savings and Loans scandal of the late 1980s. An important book on five Naval Academy graduates called The Nightingale's Song, written by journalist Bob Timberg who had been hideously burned as a marine in Vietnam, had come out. The title arose in that Nightingales could only sing after first hearing another Nightingale's song.
Ronald Reagan was the head Nightingale and the five were chicks. McCain was the only one who came out well in the book.Three fell victim to the Iran-Contra mess. In one passage, McCain was portrayed as using the foulest language to abuse his Vietnamese captors. Realizing his mother would not be pleased, John would tell how he broached this chapter with her. Her response, as McCain retold it, went like this: "Johnnie, I don't care about the circumstances. Gentlemen should never use that language."
But John could and would. Once, while in his office, the senator said he would have to take a call. I asked if I should leave. He said no. We were laughing and exchanging pleasantries when the phone rang.
John's face hardened and turned almost gargoyle-like. There was no hello. A string of invectives and expletives exploded over the phone. After a minute or two, McCain concluded by saying, "And I want your [expletive] resignation now, you [expletive]."
I could not stop laughing. One of John's senior aides, Chris Paul, who went on to become a Reserve Navy rear admiral, grimaced. McCain trained his eyes on me still furious with the conversation.
"John," I said, "We have known each for a long time. I have never heard you speak so eloquently before."
McCain first glowered at me and then, realizing the absurdity, laughed out loud. The other party was the then-Secretary of the Navy. McCain was outraged with him for withholding a promotion to an officer he believed deserved it.
After the 1991 Gulf War, the Navy held its annual "Tail Hook" party in Las Vegas. It turned out to be a drunken orgy in which some female officers were harassed and abused. Dozens of senior officers were fired or reprimanded. The Secretary of the Navy, not the one noted above, was forced to resign.
McCain, known as a womanizer in his earlier years, was highly vocal in his criticism of Tailhook. He had been invited by me to address a seminar for the Navy's most senior admirals. McCain also had voted against buying a new nuclear submarine that same day.
When the group convened and the senator arrived, the atmosphere was frigid and hostile. McCain began by acknowledging why these admirals might have been so furious with him. Turning to the vice chief of naval operations, McCain stared and said: "Jerry, when we were younger, I probably slept with more women than everyone present." That was not his exact language.
"But Jerry, we never treated women like that, did we? That conduct was intolerable." Many admirals were now looking at their shoes.
McCain went further, arguing that the submarine was overpriced and the program not mature enough. "We cannot waste taxpayer money, can we?" In a moment, the mood was transformed. John had turned some very angry admirals around in an extraordinary display of iconoclastic leadership.
McCain will be missed. He will be remembered. And there will not be anyone like him for a very long time to come.
Harlan Ullman has served on the Senior Advisory Group for Supreme Allied Commander Europe (2004-16) and is senior adviser at Washington D.C.'s Atlantic Council, chairman of two private companies and principal author of the doctrine of shock and awe. A former naval person, he commanded a destroyer in the Persian Gulf and led over 150 missions and operations in Vietnam as a Swift Boat skipper. His latest book is "Anatomy of Failure: Why America Has Lost Every War It Starts." Follow him @harlankullman.
