1 of 2 | Pete McCloskey, a previous California congressman who established Earth Day and challenged President Richard Nixon for the Republican election in 1972, has passedaway at the age of96 Photo courtesy of Grand Canyon National Park
May 8 (UPI) — Pete McCloskey, a previous California congressman who established Earth Day and challenged President Richard Nixon for the Republican election in 1972, has passedaway at the age of 96.
McCloskey passedaway Wednesday at his home in Winters, west of Sacramento, according to household spokesperson Lee Houskeeper.
McCloskey, who was born in southern California and finished from Stanford and lateron Stanford Law School, was chose as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives to represent San Mateo County in 1967, after beating Shirley Temple Black in a unique election. He went on to serve 7 terms in the U.S. House till 1982, when he unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate.
Before getting into politics, McCloskey served in the U.S. Marine Corps throughout the Korean War, where he was granted the Navy Cross and Silver Star.
“I got injured twotimes,” McCloskey informed ABC7 in an interview. “The ridge lines were so narrow that you couldn’t state ‘Sergeant, take the hill.’ You simply had to state ‘follow me,’ since you might just get one guy on the hill.”
Despite serving in the Korean War, McCloskey was outspoken in his opposition to the war in Vietnam — calling it a war that might not be won — as he attempted to unseat Nixon for the Republican election in 1972.
“To talk, as the president does, of winding down the war while he is broadening the usage of air po