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John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018.
- 1958–1981
- Republican
- 7, including Meghan
- Early life
- Family
- Early years
- Quotes
- Death
- Later career
- Early career
- Facts
- Assessment
- Education
- Military service
- Mission
- Details
- Aftermath
- Health
- Later years
- Prognosis
- Plot summary
- Release
- Synopsis
- Trial
- Later life
- Marriage
- Retirement
- Elections
- Academic career
- Political career
U.S. Senator John Sidney McCain III was born on August 29, 1936 at Coco Solo Naval Air Station in the Panama Canal Zone to Lieutenant John S. Jack McCain Jr. and Roberta Wright McCain. The son and grandson of four star admirals, he was raised in the navy and in a tradition of military service that began before the American Revolution.
His grandfather, John S. McCain Sr., called Sid or Slew, was the first of the family to attend the United States Naval Academy, and the first to become a naval aviator, earning his wings at the age of fifty. As a passed midshipman, he served in the Philippines on a gunboat skippered by Chester Nimitz, and sailed home to America on the flagship of T...
The Senator was the second of Jack and Roberta McCains three children, arriving after his older sister, Sandy, and before his younger brother, Joe. His early life was nomadic as the family accompanied his father to various duty stations.
I was rootless for more than half of my eighty-one years, beginning with my itinerant childhood, he recalled in his last memoir, The Restless Wave. I lost track of how many places we lived, how many schools I had attended. The actual moving, of course, was undertaken by my capable, adventurous mother, hauling three kids across country, detouring he...
A few days later, at a homecoming party his wife Katherine had arranged, the sixty-one-year-old, Admiral John S. McCain Sr. suffered a massive heart attack and died. Its believed he had a milder heart attack during the last weeks of the war, and had tried to hide the fact from his subordinates.
John S. McCain Jr. was back in harms way in 1950, serving as executive officer on a cruiser during the Korean War. His subsequent commands included the Navys Office of Legislative Affairs, where he earned the admiration of prominent members of Congress serving on the House and Senate armed services committees; the 1965 Dominican Republic incursion,...
He joined the USNA Class of 1958 in June of 1954. He didnt mind the first weeks of plebe summer, and enjoyed fighting in the class boxing smokers. Robert Timberg described his style in the ring in The Nightingales Song. Unschooled as a boxer, McCain would charge to the center of the ring and throw punches until someone went down. That summer it was...
His roommate, Frank Gamboa, recalled an incident in the mess hall where a first classman at their table was abusing a Filipino steward. Hey mister, why dont you pick on someone your own size, McCain blurted out. Whats your name, mister? the stunned senior demanded in response. McCain, came the reply. Whats yours?
For his regular infractions of the rules he accumulated enough demerits to become something of a class legend, although not so many to require his expulsion. By his own, possibly exaggerated calculation, he marched enough extra duty on the weekends as punishment, to walk to Baltimore and back many times. He became an informal leader of his class, t...
He was an engaged student in classes where he enjoyed the subject material, chiefly literature and history, and a poor one in mathematics and engineering classes where he didnt bother to feign an interest. Nevertheless, to the surprise of some of his contemporaries, he did well enough to graduate, barely, fifth from the bottom of his class, and was...
McCain spent the next two years training to be a naval aviator, first at Pensacola Naval Air Station and later at Corpus Christi Naval Air Station, where he crashed his single-engine AD-6 Skyraider into Corpus Christi Bay on a training run. He was knocked unconscious on impact, but came to in time to swim to the surface and return to his quarters i...
While preparing for his fifth mission over North Vietnam on July 29, a Zuni missile accidently fired from an F-4 Phantom on the other side of the flight deck struck McCains A-4, ruptured its fuel tank, and ignited the spreading fuel. McCain crawled out of the cockpit and onto the planes refueling probe. He dropped to the deck, rolled through a fire...
Striking part of the airplane and hitting the airstream, he broke his left arm, his right arm in three places and his right knee, and was knocked unconscious. He came to when he hit the water of Truc Bach lake in the center of the city. He pulled his life jacket toggle with his teeth and a group of Vietnamese using bamboo poles fished him out of th...
McCain came to two days later in a filthy hospital room with pools of mud and water on the floor. He was given a blood transfusion and a glucose IV drip, and after his condition had stabilized, he was interrogated, threatened and struck repeatedly when he refused to answer questions. Eventually he gave them the names of his ship and squadron, and i...
After initially refusing him an operation on his broken leg, the Vietnamese relented in December 1967. During the course of the surgery, which the Vietnamese filmed, the surgeon severed the ligaments on the inside of his knee.
Two months later, in February 1968, the Vietnamese offered Norris Overly and two other prisoners amnesty, and Overly returned to the United States. The following April, Bud Day was taken to another prison, and McCain was moved into the cell where he spent the two worst years of his captivity. He was still suffering dysentery and weighed little more...
He worked hard to improve his physical condition and preserve his sanity. But his chronic dysentery and resulting weakness limited the former effort, and only his regular communications in whispers and tap code with his immediate neighbors, Air Force Major Bob Craner and Air America pilot Ernie Brace kept him from losing his mind.
In late June 1968, as Admiral McCain Jr. was preparing to assume command of U.S. forces in the Pacific, his son was summoned to the first of several interviews with the senior Party cadre in charge of the POW camps, the man the POWs called, the Cat. Using as an interpreter an English speaking officer, the Cat asked McCain if he would like to go hom...
Several days later McCain informed the Cat that he wouldnt accept his offer of early release. The Cat told McCain that President Johnson had ordered him home. McCain asked to see the order, and the Cat handed him a letter from his wife, Carol, expressing her hope he would be released, and instructed him to reconsider his answer. On July 4, he was s...
Nothing out of the ordinary happened until late August, when several guards took to him to a large room, where the camp commander was waiting, and demanded, why do you treat your guards disrespectfully?
The commander shouted an order and the guards began to beat and kick McCain severely. When they stopped, McCain was ordered to confess his war crimes. He refused. His arms were tied behind his back, the ropes cinched tightly around his biceps restricting circulation. He was left seated on stool overnight in considerable pain. He was taken to anothe...
He was reunited a few days later with his family in Orange Park, Florida. He underwent three operations to treat his injuries at Navy hospital in Jacksonville. He was promoted to commander in July 1973, and in the fall enrolled in the National War College at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C., where he studied the history of the French and American wa...
The McCains marriage ended during this period, which he attributed to my own selfishness and immaturity. Their divorce was final in April 1980. The following month, McCain married Cindy Hensley, whom he had met in 1979 at a reception in Hawaii, while escorting a senate delegation.
He failed his flight physical in 1980, which ended his ambition for a command at sea that would ensure his rise to flag officer. He made the decision to retire from the Navy, and pursue a career in politics. His last day in uniform, March 27, 1981, was the day of his fathers funeral at Arlington National Cemetery. Admiral McCain had died of a heart...
He won a narrow plurality in the Republican primary in August, and a much more convincing victory in the overwhelmingly Republican district in the general election that November.
He was elected president of the Republican freshman class of 1983, and given a coveted seat on the Interior committee, where he would be tutored by the committees Democratic chairman, the legendary Mo Udall. Mo taught him the ins and outs of issues vital to Arizonans, such as resource conservation, federal land management, and Native American affai...
In his first year in office, McCain opposed a resolution authorizing the Reagan Administrations deployment of Marines to Beirut, believing they lacked an unachievable mission, even though he had a personal connection and very high regard for Reagan. It was the first of many acts of independence that would advance McCains reputation as a political m...
Apr 2, 2014 · John Sidney McCain III was born on August 29, 1936, at Coco Solo Naval Air Station in the Panama Canal Zone (then a U.S. territory), the second of three children born to naval officer John...
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Apr 29, 2024 · John Sidney McCain III. Born: August 29, 1936, Panama Canal Zone. Died: August 25, 2018, Cornville, Arizona, U.S. (aged 81) Title / Office: United States Senate (1987-2018), United States. Political Affiliation: Republican Party. Awards And Honors: Legion of Merit. Purple Heart. Presidential Medal of Freedom (2022) McCain and Reagan.
Aug 25, 2018 · Aug. 25, 2018. John S. McCain, the proud naval aviator who climbed from depths of despair as a prisoner of war in Vietnam to pinnacles of power as a Republican congressman and senator from...
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Nov 9, 2009 · John Sidney McCain III was born on August 29, 1936, at Coco Solo Naval Air Station in the Panama Canal Zone, the second of three children born to naval officer John S. McCain Jr. and...
Aug 26, 2018 · Senator John Sidney McCain III, who has died of brain cancer aged 81, was in many ways in a class of his own. A storied war veteran and 36-year fixture in the US Congress, he forged a career...
