Woster: McCains, Thunes share connection

By Kevin Woster | Monday, August 14, 2006

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The Thune-McCain connection made the news last week. Turns out Sen. John Thune is bringing Sen. John McCain of Arizona to South Dakota this October for an event in Sioux Falls.

That's pretty cool. McCain makes news wherever he goes. And he and Thune are getting to be pretty good pals through their work on the Senate Armed Services Committee and an earlier trip to Iraq.

But there's another Thune-McCain connection. And this one goes back to World War II and the militarily stormy skies over the Pacific.

Thune's dad, Harold, was a Navy pilot flying some pretty hairy combat missions against the Japanese under the wide umbrella command of McCain's grandfather, John Sidney McCain.

Actually, that's Admiral John Sidney McCain Sr., a major figure in U.S. military history and the guy who signed the letter authorizing Harold Thune to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross back in December of 1944.

I know that because I was pestering Harold Thune by telephone Sunday afternoon. Because I'm nosy and he's nice, Harold spent five or 10 minutes shuffling through papers in his Murdo home to find the official commendation signed by Admiral McCain.

"Wait, here it is," Harold said. "It says, 'United States Pacific Fleet Commander, Second Carrier Task Force, in the name of the President of the United States. And it's signed by J.S. McCain, vice admiral."

It must be nice to have something like packed away in the den. Don't get me wrong, I'm plenty proud of my Cub Scout lion badge. And I'm pretty sure that if I dug around long enough, I could find my certificate for winning the northern-pike division (mine was a 3-pounder, the only entry) of the Mitchell Daily Republic fishing contest back in the early 1960s.

Still, that admiral thing is pretty nice, too. So is that Distinguished Flying Cross.

Harold Thune - officially Lieutenant Junior Grade Harold Richard Thune - has both back in Murdo, although he didn't say anything about any angling awards or a lion badge.

Thune was a tiger, however, at the controls of his Grumman F6F Hellcat back in the day. Hence, the flying cross, among other medals, and the certificate from Admiral McCain.

And, in fact, Harold Thune has a connection to Sen. John McCain as well. Both of them were Navy pilots. And both flew off the U.S.S. Intrepid - Thune in his prop-plane out in the Pacific and a jet-propelled John McCain 20 years later in preparation for service in Vietnam.

McCain's father, Admiral John S. McCain Jr., was Pacific forces commander during that war. And things went south for his son in North Vietnam. In 1967, the jet flown by John McCain III was hit by a missile over Hanoi. He bailed out, broke a bunch of bones upon landing and suffered additional injuries at the hands of some angry North Vietnamese.

As most of us know, McCain then spent 5-1/2 years as a prisoner of war, part of it in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton."

Harold Thune avoided that kind of misery but saw enough action to make him hesitant to yak much about it. Under polite pressure, he will admit to shooting down four Japanese Zeros and damaging two others in one especially hot firefight over Formosa.

He also lived through an explosive crash during take-off from a temporary landing strip in the Philippines.

Harold talked about those experiences, grudgingly, for a column I did last Memorial Day. But he wasn't about to expand the story on Sunday.

"It's ancient history," he said.

Well, sure, so is my lion badge. But I'm always willing to talk about that.

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com