McCain raps about 13 soldiers from 13 wars at National Press Club

"At least you were president of something," Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona and 2008 Republican presidential nominee, joked with National Press Club President Myron Belkind at the start of a Veterans Day Book Rap Nov. 11 on Thirteen Soldiers: A Personal History of Americans at War, co-authored by McCain and longtime-literary collaborator Mark Salter.

The Book Rap took the form of an interview, with Belkind leading the senator in a discussion of the new book, which tells the stories of 13 service members from 13 American wars, starting with the Revolution and continuing to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "We tried to portray different values and virtues that different individuals had in different conflicts in different times and to try to put them in the context, to some degree, of the conflict in which they fought, McCain said, explaining the challenge posed by the broad scope of the book.

McCain described the privations experienced by Joseph Plumb Martin of the Continental Army, and the sacrifice of Michael Monsoor, a Navy SEAL who was killed during the Iraq War and posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Another chapter is on Monica Lin Brown, a frontline Army medic who won the Silver Star in Afghanistan. "One of the reasons why we talk about her," McCain said, "is because it should really dispense with any arguments about whether women are capable of engaging, fighting in combat or not. I think the argument should be over."

"A couple of our people are scoundrels," McCain noted of his 13 subjects. "But at their moment in time, they performed."

"After the war I fought," McCain concluded, "unfortunately we didn't honor our veterans, and that is still kind of an embarrassment to me. But I think we've more than made up for it by the way we honor them today."

Salter was present in the audience, as was Mary Rhoads, an Army reservist during the Persian Gulf War, who is the subject of one of the book's chapters. Both McCain and Belkind acknowledged Rhoads and thanked her for her service.

Audience questions touched on a variety of issues beyond the book, such as McCain's thoughts on U.S. policy toward Russia, the use of drones in warfare, the prospects of reforming the Department of Veterans Affairs, and whether he's planning another book (perhaps a memoir of his time in the Senate and of his run for president).

Jan King, co-vice chair of the NPC's Book and Author Committee introduced the Book Rap.