Sunday, April 06, 2008

Great Moments from the military career of John McCain

From 'Faith of My Fathers,' by John McCain with Mark Salter ©1999

I crashed a plane in Corpus Christi one Saturday morning. The engine quit while I was practicing landings. Knocked unconscious when my plane hit the water, I came to as the plane settled on the bottom of the bay. I barely managed to get the canopy open and swim to the surface.


My reputation was certainly not enhanced when I knocked down some power lines while flying too low over southern Spain. My daredevil clowning had cut off electricity to a great many Spanish homes and created a small international incident.


Somewhere between the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Norfolk, Virginia, as I was preparing to come in to refuel, my engine flamed out, and I had to eject at a thousand feet. The Christmas gifts were lost with my airplane.


I knew I was hit. My A-4, traveling at about 550 miles an hour, was violently spiralling to earth.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great fucking driving. Is he allowed to operate automobiles? Dim old POS...

Anonymous said...

Stranger than fiction, my father was a navy pilot in Corpus Cristi at that time and has similar stories of such shenanigans. In his words, "I must have bought him a drink at least once".

In terms of international incidents: my dad flew around inside Mt. Fuji, and I've seen the pictures.