http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2689&s_pos=

Brothers in Arms Hit Road to Rally Support for McCain

By Krissah Williams Thompson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 29, 2008; Page A08

AKRON, Ohio -- The men gathered for breakfast around the long table at a Bob Evans restaurant here consider Sen. John McCain a brother. Most have never met him and never will, but he is a veteran, just like them, and that is enough.

"He is one of us, a military man, and he has never forgotten who we are," said retired Maj. Gen. Edward Mechenbier. "He is a person that I could look at with great admiration and pride and say, 'He is my commander in chief.' "

...
Early this month, three of the campaign's most notable military supporters -- Mechenbier and Col. Thomas Moe, who were POWs in Vietnam, and Capt. Leslie Smith -- traveled through Ohio on a three-day bus tour to rally support for McCain. At one stop after another, at veterans nursing homes and memorial parks, at small gatherings and in restaurants, they shared their war stories and received a hero's welcome.

Veterans along the way said they support McCain partly because of their shared experience and partly out of concern for the nation's security. Although polls show that terrorism and the war in Iraq have faded as issues for most voters, they remain prominent in the minds of veterans, many of whom said they do not trust Obama to run the military.

"All of us have been fighting, shot and wounded, and we know how dangerous the world is," said George Manos, 75, a Korean War veteran who wore his VFW post's dress uniform to the breakfast at Bob Evans. Obama, he said, "does not seem to realize how dangerous the world is."
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Their bond is marked by their definition of patriotism. At the breakfast stop in Akron, Mechenbier, who was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967, asked an intimate gathering of 15 military reservists and representatives of local VFW posts to set aside the issues in the campaign and consider one question as they decided between McCain and Obama.

"When it comes down to people like us, the question is: Which one would I be more proud to have go around representing my country?" said Mechenbier, who was a POW for six years. "And on a more personal basis, which one would I be more comfortable saluting as my commander in chief?"

Mechenbier lives in Beavercreek, Ohio, and retired from the Air Force in 2004 after four decades of service. McCain is the first candidate he has campaigned for, and he serves as chairman of a Veterans for McCain chapter near his home. After breakfast, Mechenbier pulled an Air Force coin out of his pocket and read aloud the core values of the service inscribed on it -- integrity first, service before self and excellence in all we do. "This is what John McCain represents," he said.

Obama, who did not serve in the military, has attracted some support among veterans groups, particularly younger veterans who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan and want to see U.S. troops return from Iraq soon. According to a report by the Center for Responsive Politics, Obama has received more money from troops deployed overseas than McCain has through June. At that time, Obama's donations from deployed troops totaled $60,642, compared with $10,665 for McCain.


There are also groups of veterans, some backed by liberal advocacy organizations, that have produced Web sites and online ads opposing McCain and questioning whether he has the temperament for the presidency.

The older veterans drawn to the bus tour voiced few doubts about McCain's temperament or what he would do with the military, but a couple expressed concerns about his support for veterans issues.

Unlike Obama, McCain did not back legislation this year that would pay tuition and other expenses at four-year public universities for veterans who have served at least three years since the 2001 terrorist attacks. McCain said at the time that he did not support the bill, which passed 75 to 22, because it would be a disincentive for service members to become noncommissioned officers, whom he called "the backbone of all the services." McCain co-sponsored a bill that would have required troops to serve more time to get full benefits.

When a question about McCain's votes on such bills came up at the breakfast, Col. Moe said, "Now, ask yourself, does it make sense that John McCain, who has served and sacrificed so much for this country, would not support veterans? Is it logical to you for a man who has served his country as a war hero? Most of these bills had a lot of pork in them."

Moe is respected among Ohio veterans and was given a raucous ovation at the Republican National Convention when Palin highlighted him in her speech. As he boarded the bus, en route to a memorial park in Canton, a police officer and Army veteran pulled him aside for an autograph.

"We've got to win," the officer told Moe, who had lived within a few feet of McCain for a time in Hanoi.

At each stop, Moe told of watching McCain through a pinhole drilled through his cell door after he returned from brutal torture sessions.

"Even today he cannot lift his arm to salute the flag he serves," Moe said. "Sometimes I would see him coming back from a particularly bad torture session walking with his arms on his knees to hold himself up. John, in all the pain he was in, would stand up and give me a big smile and thumbs-up. . . . John McCain has got the grit to see us to victory, and he's never going to run up that white flag, because that's death."

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"I've walked around from group to group, and I've said, 'We have an American hero who wants to be president, let's support him,' " Perciak said, before posing for a picture with the other veterans who had come to campaign for their brother.

I just feel sad when I see McCain.

And Sarah Palin is a woman, so should I vote for her based solely on that fact ?

McCain sounded more like a professional military man than a potential POTUS during the Fri. debate. He missed his calling and I don't mean that in a negative way.

I believe gender and military service are apples and oranges.
However, I understand others don't see through the same prism...

I wouldn't feel too sad for Mac...even if he loses he's a US Senator,
with plenty of bucks and a beautiful wife...we should all be so cursed.

No mater what trappings of success, John McCain may accumulate, I can not imagine not feeling
sad for him.

What were these veteran's reasons for voting for Bush? He was no war hero, and his military service was a big question mark. The fact that McCain was a war hero is just a big excuse to vote for the Republican.

McCain is in good company.

George Washington - Commander in Chief of Continental Army during the American Revolution.
James Monroe - served in American Revolution
Andrew Jackson - American Revolution, War of 1812, First Seminole War
William Henry Harrison - Indian wars in the NW territory, War of 1812
John Tyler - War of 1812
Zachary Taylor - War of 1812, Black Hawk, Second Seminole, and Mexican wars
Franklin Pierce - Mexican War
James Buchanan - War of 1812
Abraham Lincoln - Black Hawk War
Andrew Johnson - Civil War
Ulysses Grant - Mexican War, Civil War
Rutherford Hayes - Civil War
James Garfield - Civil War
Chester Arthur - Civil War
Benjamin Harrison - Civil War
William McKinley - Civil War
Theodore Roosevelt - Spanish-American War
Harry Truman - WWI
Dwight Eisenhower - WWII General
John Kennedy - WWII
Lyndon Johnson - WWII
Richard Nixon - WWII
Gerald Ford - WWII
George Bush - WWII

? - Vietnam War