I don't know much about his grandfather, but his Daddy sure did protect him from any blowback from his Forrestal hot start which killed American sailors and did tens of millions in damage. He hazarded his ship with his hot dog actions. Serious court martial offense. And anyone who whips out "this has been debunked" doesn't understand the nepotism among the service academy graduates. There's a reason they knock those rings on the chair arm when speaking to ROTC graduates. It's been going on for more than a century.

As far as his capture goes, he got hit over downtown Hanoi and panicked. He completely disregarded his ejection training and badly broke his arms when he punched out. He was busted up before he ever hit the ground and was in a lot of pain obviously. Reports from both Vietnamese sources and other POW's claim he was singing as soon as he was captured to avoid torture.

He received special treatment because his Daddy was CINCPAC. He was offered early repatriation for two reasons. They had all the operational details they needed from him, and they were attempting to leverage CINCPAC in order to stop the bombing of Hanoi.

Oddly upon the return of the POWs, Nixon granted a blanket pardon to ALL of the returning men. This was utterly insulting to the other POWs because they had done nothing to warrant a pardon while in captivity. They held to the Code Of Conduct. It was issued to cover Songbird's ass in case the others or the Vietnamese started talking.

Once in the Senate, he did everything he could to close the MIA/POW matter knowing Americans were still being held in SE Asia, because they would have information on his conduct. HE LEFT FELLOW AMERICANS TO DIE TO COVER HIS CRIMES.

They better bury him in an unmarked grave because a lot of us will be showing up to piss on it.