Published: October 10, 2008 11:48 pm            

Prepping for Palin: For Democratic councilman, McCain family is a cut above

As a three-term Democratic councilman in a heavily Democratic city, Jack Williams would seem like an unlikely speaker at today’s rally for Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

But Williams will take the stage this morning at Cambria County War Memorial Arena in downtown Johnstown.

And his reasons have a lot to do with a chance encounter in a Navy base barbershop 47 years ago.

“In this case, it transcends politics for me,” Williams said.

Ask the councilman about his loyalty to the John McCain GOP presidential ticket, and he begins to talk about January 1961.

Williams was nearly 19 and newly dispatched to active military duty at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base near Norfolk, Va. His duties could not have been considered glamorous.

“I was assigned to what they called the Navy Exchange, like an on-base service center,” he recalls. “I was a barber before I went in the Navy, so they assigned me to the barbershop.”

One day, his supervisor dispatched him to fill in at the officers’ barbershop.

“He said, ‘You’ve got to be over there in 30 minutes, because Admiral McCain’s coming for a haircut.’ ”

That would be Adm. John S. McCain Jr., the father of this year’s presidential candidate.

“I was very nervous,” Williams said with a laugh. “I’d have to say, scared.”

But Williams ended up more impressed than intimidated. During a few subsequent hair-cutting sessions, the senior officer offered small talk about the Navy, family and sports.

“It was more relaxed in the barbershop than it would be standing at inspection,” Williams said, adding that he also was sent on a mission to go downtown and pick up two boxes of cigars for the admiral.

“I don’t think I’d ever seen him without a cigar in his mouth,” Williams said.

Later, when Williams had been transferred to a ship at the same base, McCain showed up for an inspection.

“He did a double take, and he said, ‘This is my barber,’ ” Williams said.

While acknowledging that “enlisted men don’t get too close to admirals,” McCain obviously made a big impression on the young Williams.

And that feeling deepened later that decade, when Adm. McCain’s son John, by that time a Navy pilot, was shot down and taken prisoner in Vietnam.

The elder McCain had to order airstrikes against Hanoi, though he knew his son was being held there.

“I really can’t imagine being in that position,” Williams said.

Though the elder McCain died in 1981, Williams said he has continued to follow the political career of the admiral’s son.

The councilman, whose father and son also served in the military, believes the McCain family’s experiences make Sen. McCain the right fit for the White House.

Political affiliation, Williams contends, has little bearing on the issue.

“If he’s going to commit men and women (to war), he’s not going to do that without deep thought and the absolute need to do so,” Williams said.

        

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