Vietnam War assignment

Lieutenant Commander McCain being interviewed after his return from Vietnam, April 1973

Lieutenant Commander McCain greeting President Richard Nixon in May 1973

McCain requested a combat assignment  and was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal flying A-4 Skyhawks.   His combat duty began when he was 30 years old in mid-1967, when Forrestal was assigned to a bombing campaign, Operation Rolling Thunder, during the Vietnam War. 

 Stationed in the Gulf of Tonkin, McCain and his fellow pilots became frustrated by micromanagement from Washington, and he later wrote, "In all candor, we thought our civilian commanders were complete idiots who didn't have the least notion of what it took to win the war."

On July 29, 1967, McCain was a lieutenant commander when he was near the center of the USS Forrestal fire. He escaped from his burning jet and was trying to help another pilot escape when a bomb exploded;  McCain was struck in the legs and chest by fragments. 

 The ensuing fire killed 134 sailors and took 24 hours to control.   With the Forrestal out of commission, McCain volunteered for assignment with the USS Oriskany, another aircraft carrier employed in Operation Rolling Thunder   There he was awarded the Navy Commendation Medal and the Bronze Star Medal for missions flown over North Vietnam.