Well, sort of…

In the interest of accuracy, I checked further into Carter, since it has been a long time and I wasn’t sure of my details. It turns out that he was qualified to command submarines, and was for a time senior officer on the pre-commissioning crew of SSN-575 (Seawolf), the second nuclear sub in the US Navy, but did not actually command it. That billet eventually went to CDR R. B. Laning.

See the letter here, excerpted below:

After graduation, Jimmy Carter served as a surface warfare officer for a two years and then volunteered for the submarine force. He served in a variety of billets, including engineer officer of diesel submarines and qualified to command submarines.

In November 1952, he began a three month temporary duty assignment at the Naval Reactor branch. He started nuclear power school (a six month course of study that leads to operator training) in March, 1953. In July 1953, his father passed away and he resigned his commission to run the family peanut farm. He was discharged from active duty on 9 October, 1953. According to an old friend of mine who served as Rickover’s personnel officer at Naval Reactors, LT Carter did not complete nuclear power school because of the need to take care of business at home.

The third and last boat of the new Seawolf class of attack submarine, SSN-23, is named USS Jimmy Carter.

Mr. McCain is a hero. Established. Old news. However, I don’t see how his having been unfortunate enough to run into a SAM with his jet forty years ago has anything at all to do with his fitness to be president, any more than my experiences as a young pilot bear on my ability to do my job today. The facts are, John McCain is the grandson of a 4-star admiral, the son of a 4-star admiral, and got his appointment to the academy as a legacy. He got through training as a naval aviator (no small feat), flew jets, got shot down, spent time as a POW, married into money, and became a US Senator. His accumulated experience from that point seems to be far more important.

As to President Carter, keep in mind that he was career Navy, captain of a nuclear submarine, and an academy grad himself. It seems to me that those credentials and his experience as president make him uniquely qualified to comment on Mr. McCain’s suitability for the job.