Yeah. That Scott O’Grady, who was shot down over Bosnia in the mid 1990s and survived by eating insects and drinking from puddles, is now a full-fledged conspiracy theorist in the Trump Administration, and it doesn’t help that he went trophy hunting a few years ago.
It sounds like some of his brain cells must have fallen out when his plane crashed.
I can’t recall where I read it, but from what I gather, the crash itself was largely due to his disregard for procedures and just being a cowboy douchebag. He apparently wasn’t all that well regarded by people who worked with him. I could be wrong and reading too much partisan twitter these days, but that’s what I read recently.
I wouldn’t say he was ever characterized as a “war hero.” His shootdown and dramatic rescue made him a “war celebrity”. But not really a hero any more than any other GI who somehow found him/herself in the spotlight then is duly lionized by first the press and then the public “for their service.”
cf.
Quoting myself in another thread:
That may be a misrepresentation by the movie Behind Enemy Lines, which was loosely based off of O’Grady but used a different aircraft, different crew, very different storyline and personalities. O’Grady filed a defamation lawsuit.
In fact, at the time O’Grady himself was at the forefront of people making that distinction:
Sad that his critical thinking abilities have apparently deteriorated since then.
Sketchy choice for a nomination - to be a fly on the wall hearing his colleagues constantly tearing him a new one. Wonder how much traction his Veterans For Trump thing ginned up. If I worked in the Pentagon and some newly-appointed senior official came up and blathered on about how great Michelle Taylor Green is (or X state should do a 17th recount) then I’d be inclined to scoff harshly with leather gloves slapped across his face. (I wish)
I find this vaguely frightening, making me wonder if his toxic influence might find safe harbour in others working there if he somehow got nominated. He’s given agency to a lot of CTers (or just CTs?) in spewing all his copious crap - they see a senior pentagon official nominee backing them, providing grist for their disinformation crusade.
from OP’s link:
doh!
You wouldn’t want to be a fly on the wall for that conversation; he’d probably try to eat you.
…or slowly pick my wings off, JR style.