War-hero John McCain returned home to a true hero, Carol McCain to find a changed woman. While John was suffering in a prison camp in Vietnam, his wife Carol was enduring her own trials the result of a tragic car accident that nearly took her life. Her car had skidded on icy roads into a telegraph pole on Christmas Eve, 1969. Her pelvis and one arm were shattered by the impact and she suffered massive internal injuries. She was hospitalized for over six months and when discharged her prognosis was still bleak. Surgeons had cut away huge sections of shattered bone leaving her confined to a wheel chair and forced to use a catheter.Through sheer determination and painfully hard work, Carol learned to walk again. Not the tall beauty she once was, the former model, at 5'4", walked with a limp. Her body held together by screws and metal plates contained the inner-beauty of a mother determined to be strong, determined to hold her family together, determined to be there when her husband returned from war.
When McCain returned home in 1973 to much fanfare of publicity and to the handshake of Richard Nixon, it was not to the wife he remembered. His own body had changed. He was a thin as a skeleton and his hair had turned snow-white. He told reporters he was overjoyed to see Carol, but friends say that privately he was appalled by the change in her appearance. At first he was reassuring saying, "It's fine, I don't look so good myself," but his friends say that he began running around on her almost right away. Everybody knew it.
(In this picture, does he looked over-joyed to see Carol or really happy to be getting some press? "Over-joyed to see your wife picture" would have him with at least one arm around Carol, while waving to the press. In this picture he is already walking away towards the bright lights.)
Ted Sampley, who fought with US Special Forces in Vietnam and is now a leading campaigner for veterans' rights, said: 'I have been following John McCain's career for nearly 20 years. I know him personally. There is something wrong with this guy and let me tell you what it is: deceit.'
'This is a guy who makes such a big deal about his character. He has no character. He is a fake. If there was any character in that first marriage, it all belonged to Carol.'
But Ross Perot, who paid her medical bills all those years ago, now believes that both Carol McCain and the American people have been taken in by a man who is unusually sick and cruel even by the standards of modern politics. 'McCain is the classic opportunist. He's always reaching for attention and glory,' he said. 'After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her overboard for a poster girl with big money from Arizona. And the rest is history.'
sources:
DailyMail, The wife U.S. Republican John McCain callously left behind
Salon.com, Mothers Who Think, Different Hero, Different War
The US Veteran Dispatch, McCain's Divorce
AZ Central, Arizona, the Early Years
New York Times, P.O.W. to Power Broker, A Chapter Most Telling
Let's Talk, Mac Daddy McCain?!
Buzz it up
For the next four years? Oh my! I certainly hope not!
The Raw Story, Book: McCain temper boiled over in '92 tirade, called wife a 'c***'
