Phoney Hero

Senator Joseph McCarthy (1908 - 57), the scourge of alleged Red traitors in the United States in the early 1950s exaggerated hjs war record to further his political career. He had been a ground intelligence officer with a marine dive-bomber squadron in the Pacific during the Second World War, but his campaign literature described him as ‘Tail Gunner Joe’ and showed him wearing a flying helmet and standing by a bomber’s machine guns. McCarthy did fly some operational missions as a gunner and photographer, but the number he claimed to have flown multiplied over the years - from 14 in 1944 to 32 in 1951. His commanding officer put McCarthy's total at only 11.