[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 146 (Tuesday, September 4, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6011-S6013]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        REMEMBERING JOHN McCAIN 

  Mrs. ERNST. Mr. President, today I rise to honor a dear friend of the 
Senate and a dear friend to me. This weekend many of us had the honor 
of joining the family of John Sidney McCain III as we walked through 
his life and shared memories of such a wonderful man, a true patriot, 
an American hero, a wonderful Senator, a father, and a wonderful 
friend.
  The first time I met Senator McCain was in 2014, and he was larger 
than life. I was engaged in my primary for the Senate, and I had the 
opportunity to visit Washington, DC, and sit down with Senator McCain 
in his office and visited and talked with him about what it was like to 
be a U.S. Senator.
  Immediately, I felt that bond with John McCain as a fellow veteran. 
It was one thing that he was truly interested in. He had been through 
the political stuff with a lot of other folks running for the Senate--
what it is like to engage in a campaign. That is all good and fine, but 
what he really took an interest in was my experience in the war in 
Iraq. He asked me about my service. I talked to him about the National 
Guard--all of those things he truly understood and connected with. He 
really enjoyed that aspect of our discussion.
  It was that first meeting--again, meeting with somebody that to me 
was larger than life, someone who truly had served his country--and we 
felt that connection.
  The months progressed, and I got through the primary campaign and 
moved on into the general election cycle. During that time, a number of 
Senators came to Iowa. They would hop on my bus, which we fondly called 
the ``squeal mobile,'' and we would travel around the State of Iowa.
  John McCain is so well known for his codels, or his congressional 
delegation visits to other countries. I have heard many of my 
colleagues refer to those codels as the ``McCain death marches'' 
because he is going from sunup to sundown--no resting, no stopping. He 
was visiting with world leaders all over, furthering our American 
interests.
  My bus tour was a lot like that in the fall of 2014. John graciously 
agreed to come out and spend a day on the road with me in the ``squeal 
mobile.'' That day we were doing eight different events in eight 
different counties in Iowa. We were going from sunup, literally, to 
sundown, and we were traveling in this big RV.
  I remember having a conversation with him. We were sitting at a 
little table. I was facing the rear of the bus. He was facing the 
front. It was late at night. It was dark. The sun had already gone 
down. We were approaching Bloomfield, IA, which was the last stop for 
the day. All of a sudden and out of nowhere, as we were having this 
conversation, boom, and we hit something. The bus did. John McCain, in 
true John McCainism, said: What the ``fill in the blank'' was that?
  I didn't even have to turn around. I knew immediately. Again, it is 
Iowa. It is the fall. It is after dark. I said: John, we hit a deer.

[[Page S6012]]

  That deer took out the front end of the bus. The bus was going no 
further. Immediately, John was up. He was at the front of the bus, 
ready to get out the door, and he said: I have to see this.
  There was the enthusiasm and the energy that man had. It was a unique 
experience for him to be in the ``squeal mobile,'' and it was the 
eighth stop of the night. John was used to the ``go, go, go,'' not just 
in campaign cycles but in anything he did. He was committed to 
finishing out that last stop of the night. We got out of the bus, which 
was incapacitated from that deer, and we hopped in a car that had been 
following us from one event to the next and went on to Bloomfield, to 
the diner, where he talked about service and commitment to country.
  We did a lot of veterans stops that day. I will always fondly 
remember that and how many Iowans' lives he had touched, sharing his 
stories and his thoughts about how we should do better for American 
service men and women.
  After that incident, I made sure anytime somebody supplied me with 
deer jerky from Iowa that John got a little of it, and he always loved 
that.
  When I was elected and I entered the Senate at the end of 2015, one 
of the very first things Senator McCain did for me and for several 
others who were freshmen was to make sure we secured seats on the 
Senate Armed Services Committee. This is one of the most important 
committees, in my estimation, of the U.S. Senate. Again, because I am a 
veteran and because I grew up as a soldier, it is very important to me. 
He took the time to make sure that Senator Tom Cotton, Senator Dan 
Sullivan, and I each had a seat on that committee.
  He thought of us as the new era veterans--those that could really 
bring real world experience to the table from our time in Iraq and for 
Tom and Dan, their time in Afghanistan. Again, this was under the 
mentorship of a wonderful American, a patriot, and a true warrior--John 
McCain. He valued our input. He valued our time, and he encouraged us 
to get involved and stay involved, and I loved that.
  Going back to the McCain death marches and the congressional 
delegations that John would plan for those of us who served on the 
Armed Services Committee, there was a trip I took in 2015 that was very 
important to me, and that was a trip I did with Senator McCain and 
Senator Dan Sullivan to Vietnam. Senator McCain took many Senators to 
Vietnam.
  To me, it was such an incredible trip and probably one of the most 
treasured times I had with John McCain in the Senate. During that trip 
to Vietnam, of course, one of the usual stops for him was a trip to 
Hanoi, where he took us to the Hanoi Hilton, where he had been 
imprisoned so many years ago by the North Vietnamese. I found this time 
very sad, thinking about the pain and the agony Senator McCain had gone 
through at the hands of his North Vietnamese captors. At the same time, 
what I experienced from John was something that I will never forget; 
that is, a sense of forgiveness. Having endured so many years of 
torture and hardship in Vietnam, what I found truly remarkable about 
Senator McCain was the fact that so many years later he had spearheaded 
the efforts to normalize relations between the United States and 
Vietnam. He forgave. He forgave.
  There we were in Hanoi, walking through the very place I estimated 
had been so evil to him, and yet in those moments, he found his sense 
of humor. If anybody spent time around Senator John McCain, they know 
of his sharp wit and his humor. As we walked through the museum portion 
of the Hanoi Hilton, he would stop in front of a picture. He would look 
at it, and we would all look at it. Dan and I would look at it with 
John, and there would be a picture of American servicemen standing 
around a Christmas tree with smiles on their faces. He would look at 
it. He would look it up and down, and he would say: Bull ``bleep''--
fill in the bleep. Then, he would laugh, and he would move to the next 
picture. In the next picture, there were American servicemen playing 
sand volleyball, having a great time at the Hanoi Hilton. He would look 
at it, and he would shake his head and would say: Bull ``fill in the 
blank.''
  Then, we would move to the end of the room, and in this glass case 
with a plaque, there was a naval flight suit and flight helmet. On the 
plaque it said: John McCain's flight suit and helmet. He looked it up 
and looked it down, and he said again: Bull ``fill in the blank.'' He 
said: That is not my flight suit. That is not my helmet.

  This grand display at the Hanoi Hilton was to show what a wonderful 
experience it was for our service men and women, and we know that it 
wasn't. But through all of that, John McCain forgave. He forgave, and 
he helped bring our countries closer together.
  We still have a long journey ahead to totally repair relations 
between Vietnam and the United States, but because John McCain found it 
within himself to dig deep and forgive, we are on that path. We are on 
that path.
  Later that evening, after having been to the infamous Hilton, John 
took us all to supper, and we were able to share traditional Vietnamese 
dishes. He shared a lot of stories with those of us who were on that 
delegation trip--stories that you will not find written in books, but 
things that were very personal and intimate to him and his experience.
  He knew that Dan Sullivan and I, also being veterans, would 
understand the thoughts and the experiences that he had had in Vietnam. 
I will treasure that time with John McCain forever.
  A little over a year ago, John was diagnosed with brain cancer, and I 
know, for me personally, that was very hard, and I think a lot of other 
folks were shocked, again, because John's persona was so big, larger 
than life. He had lived through so much in his lifetime, only to be 
diagnosed with something that we knew would be very difficult to 
overcome.
  John stayed the course, though, working very hard here in the U.S. 
Senate, and I do remember there were times he would take votes that I 
totally disagreed with, and we got into a heated argument over one of 
those votes. As many of us have experienced with John and his temper, 
man, he got after me. I took a vote that he didn't agree with. He 
yelled at me. He was all over me, and I wouldn't let it go. He knew my 
personality. I wasn't going to let it go. So after he had gotten on me, 
I would try to explain my position to him, and he would just walk away. 
For days after that incident, he would avoid me. I would be tracking 
him down, and he would avoid me. He would go down a hallway or try to 
get away from me. I finally caught up with him, and I said: John, I 
love you. We need to talk about this. And he said: Oh, Joni, I can't 
stay mad at you. Then life went on as normal.
  He was just a great man--a great man--and we knew that we could 
disagree, but we would get beyond it. We would get beyond it.
  In the Senate Armed Services Committee, we always teased each other. 
He would call me colonel, and I would call him admiral. The funny thing 
is, he served in the Navy and retired as a captain. He did not achieve 
the rank of admiral. I served in the Iowa Army National Guard. I 
retired as a lieutenant colonel; I did not achieve the rank of colonel. 
But we would tease each other. He would call me Colonel Ernst, and I 
would call him Admiral McCain, and we would have a good chuckle over 
it.
  He loved his time as a naval aviator. It was very significant to 
him--a very important part of his life. I had the wonderful experience 
in November of 2017, having gone to Oceana, down to Norfolk, and I was 
able to go through swimming physiology and then take my first flight 
ever in an F-18 with a naval aviator, and I was able to ``bag some 
traps'' out on the Abraham Lincoln.
  After that weekend, I had a number of photos from that time. It was a 
great experience. I had been working on some issues with physiological 
episodes with some of our naval aviators, and I came back and was in 
votes that next week. I sat down with John here on the floor, and I 
pulled out those pictures, and he ate them up. He just continued 
flipping through those pictures, flipping through them, and I could 
just see the light in his eyes. I could tell that John was reliving 
some of the memories that he had in the cockpit--the times that he had, 
the times that he loved, the times that he enjoyed doing what he did as 
a naval aviator, fighting for the United States of America, doing what 
he believed to be true

[[Page S6013]]

and worthy. That was a precious time to share my tiny, tiny experience 
in the air with Senator John McCain.
  So, again, I just wanted to share with everyone, with my colleagues, 
with my constituents the fact that I value the time that I spent in the 
U.S. Senate with Senator McCain. He taught us all a lot about love of 
country, duty, honor, commitment, service, leadership, patriotism, 
forgiveness, and how to love your brother and your sister, regardless 
of who you are and where you come from. I will treasure that time; I 
will treasure the man.
  To his family--they have my deepest sympathies in the loss of their 
husband, their father, their brother, their son, their uncle. I think 
we will all feel the hurt of the loss for a long time. His spirit will 
live on with us in this Chamber.
  Every time I walk into an Armed Services Committee meeting, I will 
always think of John McCain and how he strove to be a great leader for 
all of us, the mentorship that he provided.
  John, I know you are with us, and it is my turn to say thank you for 
everything that you have done for your great State of Arizona, for all 
of us who have served in the U.S. Senate, and of course for these great 
United States of America. We honor you, John; we thank you. God bless 
you. Thanks so much, John.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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