Fred Harteis - At a meeting in his Pentagon office in early 1981, Secretary of the Navy John F. Lehman told Captain John S. McCain III that he was about to attain his life ambition: selection for admiral.
But Mr. McCain, the son and grandson of revered Navy admirals, was having second thoughts about following his family’s vocation. He had spent the previous four years as the Navy’s liaison to the Senate, sampling life in the world’s most exclusive club as he escorted its members on trips around the globe — sitting with the Sultan of Oman on the floor of his desert tent, or smuggling a senator’s private supply of Scotch through Saudi Arabian customs.
He had found a sense of purpose in an apprenticeship to some of the Senate’s fiercest cold warriors. And in
With Mr. Tower’s encouragement, Mr. McCain declined the prospect of his first admiral’s star to make a run for Congress, saying that he could “do more good there,” Mr. Lehman recalled. But he knew duty to country was only part of the reason.
“He just loved it up there,” Mr. Lehman recalled. “Like very few military people, John heard the music up there, and he really wanted to do it.”
From prisoner of war to politician in a hurry, it was the turning point that started Mr. McCain on the trajectory toward this year’s Republican presidential nomination.
After five and a half years of listening to senators’ antiwar speeches over prison camp loudspeakers, Mr. McCain came home in 1973 contemptuous of America’s elected officials, convinced Congress had betrayed the country’s fighting men by hamstringing the war effort. But in the halls of the Senate, Mr. McCain discovered a new calling, at once high-minded and glamorous.
Source; Cnn.com
About Fred Harteis: Fred Harteis leads Harteis International. Fred Harteis has a background in agriculture and has created many successful business ventures.
