Virginia Beach, Va.—When Campbell University students Eric Paul Hardy, Michael Meredith and Brendan Ahurns, who attends Virginia Technical Institute, were hanging out in Virginia Beach on Oct. 12, the night before a political rally for John McCain, the last person they thought they would meet was McCain himself. But that is exactly who they found themselves sharing hot chocolate with after stumbling onto McCain’s campaign touring bus, the “Straight Talk Express.” “We were just out and about and driving up the boulevard on Ocean Front approaching the Hilton Hotel,” said Hardy, who is a junior government major from Shoals, N.C. “There was no one around, but when we looked to our immediate left, there was the “Straight Talk Express.’”
Hardy yelled for the driver to stop the car and the students got out, wet, with towels wrapped around their waists, fresh from a swim at a nearby hotel.
“We began taking pictures with our cell phones as fast as we could,” Hardy said. “That is when we were suddenly surrounded by Secret Service.”
The Secret Service men confiscated the three’s cell phones and asked what the boys were doing.
“We were just taking pictures of ‘The Straight Talk Express,’” Hardy told them. “I’m a Republican, I promise,” he pleaded.
About that time, the door of the bus opened and out stepped Senator John McCain.
“Guys, what are you doing?’” he asked.
Hardy, Meredith and Ahurns introduced themselves.
“He just said, ‘I am John McCain,’” said Hardy, “as if we didn’t know.”
McCain noticed the boys’ wet clothes and invited them onto the bus for hot chocolate where the Republican presidential candidate and the students carried on a typical conversation about school, goals and life.
“He asked us where we went to school and what our plans were,” Hardy said. “He was relaxed, joking, a completely different fellow than the one you see scripted on TV.”
The boys asked McCain how the campaign was going. “Tough fight, tough fight,” he acknowledged.
When McCain asked them if they were planning on going to the rally the next day, he showed he still had a sense of humor, though.
“I hope you guys are going to be dressed better than you are now,” he laughed.
A junior from Virginia Beach who is majoring in Business Administration, Meredith was clearly overwhelmed by the meeting.
“You know how it is when you’re star struck? It was that kind of experience,” he said.
“We were in the presence of one of America’s most honorable heroes, someone who is very patriotic, someone who I would want to lead our nation,” said Hardy, “and it was just like talking to your grandfather or to a neighbor.”
Eric Hardy serves as Executive Vice President of the Student Government Association at Campbell and is active in the College Republicans. Michael Meredith is the Men’s Community Coordinator for the Student Government Association and the director of Marketing for the International Business Club.
Photo Copy: Campbell University students Michael Meredith, left, and Eric Hardy were allowed aboard Senator John McCain’s “Straight Talk Express” recently.