Bush escaped death and so did Kennedy. But you don't win wars that way.
You win
wars by attacking the enemy and burning his black heart out leaving his
nation
a smoking burning ruin.

The island of Chichi Jima had more troops than the citadel of Iwo Jima, and was
vastly easier to defend - luckily it was bypassed and we only bombed it as it
would undoubtably have been the most costly US invasion of the war. To attack
the critical radio relay stations and other facilities, carrier planes had to
come into a sort of bowl, with only one exit, out a narrow cleft that opened to
the sea. The Japanese had the ability to fire in a near 180 degree field,
knowing in advance that every attacker would have to flee through that pass -
guns were trained to fire down upon any such trespasser. One flight of three
Avengers were all destroyed, other groups hitting the same target collided in
the cramped confines of this bowl, leading to one of the more famous WWII
aviation images, the Avenger in flight, minus the outer 1/2 of its port wing.
Bush went down into the same firestorm of flak, pressed home his attacks and
was rewarded with multiple strikes on his own aircraft, including fatal hits.
Whatever he became later in life, Bush Sr. was in the middle of a shooting war
and he was doing his part.

Screw the "heroics" of the politicians. I'd rather
hear
the stories of the men who got the job done, many who never came home.

Well, the book Flyboys is not about Bush nearly so much as it is the story of
the other airmen, officer and enlisted, that were executed on Chichi Jima
during that time. They endured unbelievable cruelty and the Japanese relished
in punishing these captives for every bombing strike. The war crimes files
that are now open allowed the author to include statements of admission and
other interviews from the Japanese officers and soldiers, many of whom were
every bit as horrified by the actions of their commanders. In each case, the
demise of the individual airman is recorded and Japanese statements tie up the
details. Bush's somewhat miraculous recovery in the often-seen submarine SAR
footage is only a sidelight in a book that concentrates itself on telling the
story of Floyd and Jimmy and all the other heroes who gave their all on that
wretched little island.

v/r
Gordon