I was not on the ship, I was only one year old when it happened, but I do have 8 years’ experience in naval aviation including experience on both the F4 and the A4 but you have a degree in literature so you awesome spelling powers trumps my actual experience on subject? Well you always have been arrogant and it is nice to see you don't let ignorance get in the way of that. "I have never been near a jet fighter but I won my high school spelling bee" ? Not sure I follow that logic train but it could be more poor spelling that is the problem.

First neither one of your links support the asinine idea that McCain should have driven his aircraft over the edge of the ship so it looks like my argument that you are putting forth nothing more the hate filled flailing without even a hint of rational thought stands. But hey you sure are a great speller.

The video is joke that rivals the Truthers in tinfoil hat crazy. To be honest I didn’t get past the "wet start" part. The entire wet start conspiracy theory is like a stupid onion and the more you peel it the more layers of stupid you find. Once I ran in to that level of stupid watching the rest was pointless.

Stupid layer one. The missile is fired electronically so stray voltage not a fireball caused the misfire. I used to work on the test system the developed after this disaster that tested for those stray voltages. I it had been properly pinned it never would have misfired.

Stupid layer two. A wet start is when the pilot dumps fuel into the exhaust while starting. To dump fuel directly in the exhaust requires an after burner which the A4 doesn't pose.

Stupid layer three. We know exactly where each aircraft was parked where and his aircraft was facing the aircraft that had the misfire and his exhaust was directed out over the side of the ship so they were facing each other. You don’t have know anything about turbo jet engines or missile firing circuits to understand that missiles come out the front and exhaust goes out the back so if two aircraft are facing each other then they can't hit each other with their exhaust regardless of what internet crazies wet start fantasies are kicking around. If my criticism seems exceptionally harsh it is because I am sickened by the level of stupidity some people are willing to rise to in order to believe something a four year old would understand to be BS simply because it gives them rationale for their hate. In short the only valid reason to believe McCain was responsible for the fire on that ship is that you spent a significant amount of time deprived of oxygen.

The article is better because even though it is grossly misleading at least it doesn't descend into loopy theories about wet starts. I wasn’t surprised to find that her main claim to fame is a writing a book that supports Hanoi Jane while attacking the soldiers who fought there. It does correctly point out that McCain was probably incorrect about the exact sequence of events and that his aircraft was probably not the one struck directly by the missile. Since he was sitting in the cockpit at the time he would not have been able see where the missile struck but he likely saw the missile heading at him and felt the shock when White's aircraft exploded so it is not surprising he thought he had been hit directly. Keep in mind the missile has a safety feature that keeps it from exploding until it has traveled a certain distance so all the damage at that time was either kinetic or was caused by the spilt fuel the missile's exhaust ignited. By the time McCain dove off the nose of his aircraft it was already sitting in a pool of burning JP5. It is well know that memories tend to be inaccurate in chaotic and dangerous situations and if having your friend blow up right next to you then having to unbuckle and take a diving leap of the twelve foot high nose of your aircraft and the have to rollout of a pool of burning pool jet fuel doesn't qualify then I'm not sure what would. The whole "he is liar" argument is nothing more than a load of BS from people who have never had the guts to find themselves in that sort of situation. Screw them.

The article also points out that he is probably incorrect about it being his bombs that dropped from his aircraft and exploded but it does try and imply that McCain “may” have panicked and accidentally dropped his bombs. She does break out the tinfoil hats when she explains that “unnamed sources” assured her that it is very difficult to accidentally drop a bomb and requires you to flip two switches. How stupid is her average reader if they buy BS like this? She needs unnamed sources to confirm something any pilots or crew member who worked on an A4 could have told her and she needed it to confirm the probability of something she cannot even confirm actually happened??? Now that is some gifted double speak. Of course the way you know she is full of shit is it doesn’t matter if the bombs were dropped or not since the fire would have cooked them off just the same siting on the deck or hanging off the wing. All that matters is the seed of an idea that maybe McCain panicked. Absolutely no evidence to support that idea but can’t let that stop you when you are running a smear campaign and pretending to be a journalist.

She also questions whether or not McCain was injured and her main argument is that it was not well documented and the stories are confusing and often contradictory. It takes a pretty disingenuous mind set to believe there was a cover up going while the ship was on the verge of being abandoned and men were dying by the dozens. America was on the verge of losing its first aircraft carrier since WWII and McCain has his daddy running interference? Sorry again I asked how stupid is her average reader that they just nod along to this kind of harebrained logic? Of course she also implies that f he was not a real hero he or would have been up there helping to fight the fire. None us really know what McCain was doing during that time but having spent eight years in Marine Aviation (which is part of naval aviation and we did fly off carriers) I can tell you what we were told to do. Stay the hell out of Damage Controls way, go to you assigned duty satiation and don’t leave unless you are given orders. They have people trained to save the ship and they get really pissed if they have to waste time saving you. I can assure that if the Capitan of that ship had wanted his pilots on the deck fighting fires McCain would have been up there manning a hose no matter who his daddy was. The planes and their personnel are not ship's company and are neither trained nor expected to take part in running the actual ship. McCain was attached to VA-46 out of Florida and was not ships' company. I can assure that if the Capitan of that ship had wanted his pilots on the deck fighting fires McCain would have been up there manning a hose no matter who his daddy was.