The early life and military career of John Sidney McCain III spans the first forty-five years of his life (1936–1981).
McCain's father and
grandfather
Grandparents, individually known as grandmother and grandfather, are the parents of a person's father or mother – paternal or maternal. Every sexually-reproducing living organism who is not a genetic chimera has a maximum of four genetic ...
were
admirals in the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
.
McCain was born on August 29, 1936, in the
Panama Canal Zone, and attended many schools growing up as his family moved among naval facilities. McCain graduated from the
United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy ...
in 1958. He married the former
Carol Shepp in 1965; he adopted two children from her previous marriage and they had another child together.
As a
naval aviator, McCain flew
attack aircraft from
carriers. During the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
, he narrowly escaped death in the
1967 ''Forrestal'' fire. On his twenty-third bombing mission during
Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder was a gradual and sustained aerial bombardment campaign conducted by the United States (U.S.) 2nd Air Division (later Seventh Air Force), U.S. Navy, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) against the Democratic R ...
in October 1967, he was shot down over
Hanoi
Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...
and badly injured. He subsequently endured five and a half years as a
prisoner of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...
, including periods of torture. In 1968, he refused a
North Vietnam
North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...
ese offer of early release, because it would have meant leaving before other prisoners who had been held longer. He was released in 1973 after the
Paris Peace Accords.
Upon his return, McCain studied at the
National War College, commanded a large training squadron in Florida, and was appointed the Navy liaison to the U.S. Senate. He divorced his wife Carol in 1980 and married the former
Cindy Hensley shortly thereafter. He retired from the Navy in 1981 as a
captain.
Early years and education
Family heritage
John Sidney McCain III was born on August 29, 1936,
at a United States Navy hospital
[Alexander, ''Man of the People'', p. 12.] at
Coco Solo Naval Air Station[Timberg, ''An American Odyssey'', p. 21.] in the
Panama Canal Zone, which at that time was considered to be among the
unincorporated territories of the United States
Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions overseen by the federal government of the United States. The various American territories differ from the U.S. states and tribal reservations as they are not sove ...
. His parents were Navy officer
John S. "Jack" McCain, Jr. (1911–1981) and
Roberta (Wright) McCain (1912-2020). McCain was of
Scots-Irish and
English ancestry.
John McCain's grandparents were natives of
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...
,
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
, and
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
, and much of his ancestry was
Southern on both his mother's side and father's side.
The McCain family's
patrilineal ancestral home is in Mississippi's
Carroll County;
they owned and ran a plantation in
Teoc from 1848 until 1952.
[McCain, ''Faith of My Fathers'', p. 21. Used to supply details about the Teoc plantation, which was formally named Waverly.] The plantation had
slaves before the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
– some of whose descendants share the surname and call themselves the "
black McCains" – and
sharecroppers afterward; influential blues guitarist
Mississippi John Hurt
John Smith Hurt (March 8, 1893 – November 2, 1966), better known as Mississippi John Hurt, was an American country blues singer and guitarist.
Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself to play the guitar around the age of nine. He w ...
was born on the plantation to one of the latter.
The McCain family tree has a long heritage of American military service, with ancestors fighting as soldiers in the
Indian Wars
The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, were fought by European governments and colonists in North America, and later by the United States and Canadian governments and American and Canadian settle ...
,
[Timberg, ''An American Odyssey'', pp. 19–20.] American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
(due to which McCain maintained a membership with the
Sons of the American Revolution
The National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR or NSSAR) is an American congressionally chartered organization, founded in 1889 and headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. A non-profit corporation, it has described its purpose ...
),
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...
, for the
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...
in the American Civil War,
and in World War I.
The tree also includes roguish behavior and economic success. John McCain's maternal grandfather, Archibald Wright (1875–1971),
was a Mississippi native who migrated to
Muskogee, Oklahoma, in his twenties, ran afoul of the law with several gambling and bootlegging charges,
then became a strong-willed
wildcatter
A wildcatter is an individual who drills wildcat wells, which are exploration oil wells drilled in areas not known to be oil fields. Notable wildcatters include Glenn McCarthy, Thomas Baker Slick Sr., Mike Benedum, Joe Trees, Clem S. Clarke, ...
who prospered on land deals during the
early statehood years and struck oil in the
Southwest
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
.
Rich by age forty, he never worked again and became a stay-at-home father.
[Timberg, ''An American Odyssey'', p. 22.][Alexander, ''Man of the People'', p. 11] Raising a family in
Oklahoma and
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...
, he instilled in Roberta and her twin sister Rowena a lifelong habit of travel and adventure.
There is also independent-minded behavior in the family tree: Jack McCain and Roberta Wright eloped and married in a bar in
Tijuana
Tijuana ( ,["Tijuana"](_blank)
(US) and [< ...]
, Mexico, when Archibald Wright's wife Myrtle objected to Roberta's association with a sailor.
McCain's father and paternal grandfather eventually became Navy
admirals, and were the first father–son pair to achieve
four-star admiral rank.
His grandfather, Admiral
John S. "Slew" McCain, Sr. (1884–1945), was a pioneer of
aircraft carrier operations
[Timberg, ''An American Odyssey'', p. 18.] who in 1942 commanded all land-based air operations in support of the
Guadalcanal Campaign, and who ultimately in 1944–1945 aggressively led the
Fast Carrier Task Force
The Fast Carrier Task Force (TF 38 when assigned to Third Fleet, TF 58 when assigned to Fifth Fleet), was the main striking force of the United States Navy in the Pacific War from January 1944 through the end of the war in August 1945. The task ...
in the
Pacific Ocean theater of World War II
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
. His
operations off the Philippines and
Okinawa
is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi).
Naha is the capital and largest city ...
, and air strikes against
Formosa and the
Japanese home islands
The Japanese archipelago (Japanese: 日本列島, ''Nihon rettō'') is a group of 6,852 islands that form the country of Japan, as well as the Russian island of Sakhalin. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to the East Chin ...
, caused tremendous destruction of Japanese naval and air forces in the closing period of the war.
His death four days after the
Japanese surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay was front-page news.
Jack McCain was a submarine commander in several theaters of operation in World War II and was decorated with both the
Silver Star Medal and
Bronze Star Medal.
[Alexander, ''Man of the People'', pp. 13–14.]
Early life
For his first ten years, "Johnny" McCain (the nickname he was given as part of a family tradition of distinguishing the generations)
was frequently uprooted as his family, including older sister Sandy (1934–2019) and younger brother
Joe (born 1942),
followed his father to
New London, Connecticut
New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States, located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut. It was one of the world's three busiest whaling ports for several decade ...
,
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...
, and other stations in the Pacific Ocean.
Summer vacations were sometimes spent at the family's Teoc plantation,
but McCain always felt his heritage was military, not Southern.
McCain attended whatever naval base school was available,
[Alexander, ''Man of the People'', p. 19.] often to the detriment of his education, as schools were sometimes substandard and their curricula often erratic.
After the 1941
attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...
, his father was absent for long stretches.
[Timberg, ''An American Odyssey'', pp. 28–30.] His formal education was supplemented by the efforts of his mother, who took advantage of the family's many long-distance travels to expose him to historical and cultural sites.
[McCain, ''Faith of My Fathers'', pp. 101–03. Used to give role of mother in upbringing not fully detailed by any other source, and for direct quotation.] He later wrote, "She taught me to find so much pleasure in life that misfortune could not rob me of the joy of living."
A
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
, she also made sure that he followed current events, although his parents avoided outward partisan affiliations due to his father's military career.
After World War II ended, his father stayed in the Navy, sometimes working political liaison posts.
The family settled in
Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia, locally referred to as NOVA or NoVA, comprises several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. It is a widespread region radiating westward and southward from Washington, D.C. Wit ...
, and McCain attended the educationally stronger
St. Stephen's School in
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
from 1946 to 1949.
[Alexander, ''Man of the People'', p. 20.] To his family, McCain had long been quiet, dependable, and courteous,
[Timberg, ''An American Odyssey'', p. 23.] while at St. Stephen's he began to develop an unruly, defiant streak.
Another two years were then spent following his father to naval stations; altogether he attended about twenty schools during his youth.
He was frequently disciplined in school for fighting.
[McCain, ''Faith of My Fathers'', p. 100. "Many of the base schools I attended were substandard institutions. Sometimes the school building was nothing more than a converted aircraft hangar. The classes mixed children of varying ages. We might have one teacher on Monday and a different one on Tuesday. On other days, we lacked the services of any teacher at all. My first purpose during my brief stay in these schools was to impress upon my classmates that I was not a person to suffer slights lightly. My second purpose was to prove myself as an athlete. When I was disciplined by my teachers, which happened regularly, it was often for fighting."] He later wrote, "The repeated farewells to friends rank among the saddest regrets of a childhood constantly disrupted by the demands of my father's career... At each new school I arrived eager to make, by means of my insolent attitude, new friends to compensate for the loss of others. At each new school I grew more determined to assert my crude individualism. At each new school I became a more unrepentant pain in the neck."
In 1951, McCain enrolled at
Episcopal High School in Alexandria, an academically superior, all-male private boarding school with a rigorous
honor code, tradition of
hazing, and spartan living environment.
Most of the children there were sons of wealthy Southerners, from whom McCain got a glimpse of life and career aspirations outside the Navy culture.
[McCain, ''Faith of My Fathers'', pp. 108–10. Used to support McCain view of others at school. Timberg, ''An American Odyssey'', pp. 23–24, illustrates the well-to-do Southerners part by sampling their names.] Nicknamed "Punk" and "McNasty" due to his combative, fiery disposition, McCain enjoyed and cultivated a tough guy image; he also made a few friends.
[Timberg, ''An American Odyssey'', pp. 24–26.][Alexander, ''Man of the People'', p. 28.] McCain earned two
varsity letters in
wrestling
Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...
, excelling in the lighter
weight classes
Weight classes are divisions of competition used to match competitors against others of their own size. Weight classes are used in a variety of sports, especially combat sports (such as boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts and wrestling). Altern ...
. He also played on the
junior varsity football team and the tennis team, and participated in the student newspaper, yearbook, and drama club. English teacher
William Bee Ravenel III, who was also his football coach, became a great influence towards his sense of learning, honor, and self-image. With what he later termed an "undistinguished, but acceptable" academic record, McCain graduated from high school in 1954.
Naval Academy
Having done well on its entrance exams,
[McCain, ''An American Odyssey'', pp. 33–34.] McCain entered the
United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy ...
in
Annapolis, Maryland, in June 1954, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather.
[Timberg, ''The Nightingale's Song'', p. 31.] He had neither been ordered to go there by his parents nor discussed alternatives; as he later wrote, "I remember simply recognizing my eventual enrollment at the Academy as an immutable fact of life, and accepting it without comment."
Ambivalent about his presence there,
McCain chose not to conform to the Academy's rules and some of its traditions.
[McCain, ''Faith of My Fathers'', pp. 120–24. "In this well-ordered and timeless world, with its lofty aspirations and grim determination to make leaders and gentlemen of schoolboys, plebes who possessed minor eccentricities might be tolerated somewhat, but arrogant nonconformists encountered open hostility. Recognized as belonging in the latter category, I soon found myself in conflict with the Academy's authorities and traditions. Instead of beginning a crash course in self-improvement so that I could find a respectable place in the ranks, I reverted to form and embarked on a four-year course of insubordination and rebellion."] Each year he was given over a hundred demerits – earning him membership in the "Century Club"
[ Part of multi-chapter biographical profile of John McCain. Originally published by ''The Arizona Republic'' as "McCain: The life story of Arizona's maverick senator", written by reporter Bill Muller, October 3, 1999. Reporter Dan Nowicki updated and revised the biography with additional material in January 2007. Se]
"How the biography was put together"
for background and bibliographic sources. – for offenses such as shoes not being shined,
formation faults, room in disorder, and talking out of place.
[Timberg, ''The Nightingale's Song'', p. 33.] His father came to the Academy to reprimand him on his behavior a number of times.
He hated "plebe year", the trial by ordeal and
hazing of entering midshipmen that would eventually weed out one quarter of the class. He did not take well to those of higher rank arbitrarily wielding power over him – "It was bullshit, and I resented the hell out of it"
– and occasionally intervened when he saw it being done to others.
At 5-foot 7 inches
and 127 pounds
(1.70 m and 58 kg), he competed as a
lightweight boxer for three years, where he lacked skills but was fearless and "didn't have a reverse gear".
In his final year, he managed the battalion boxing team to a brigade championship.
Possessed of a strong intelligence, McCain did well in a few subjects that interested him, such as English literature, history, and government.
There was a fixed
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...
curriculum taken by all midshipmen; McCain's classmates were impressed by his cramming abilities on mathematics, science, and engineering courses
[Timberg, ''The Nightingale's Song'', pp. 41–42.] and thought his low grades were by inclination and not ability,
while McCain would later acknowledge that those courses were a struggle for him. His class rank was further lowered by poor grades for conduct and leadership, which reflected his sloppy appearance, rebellious attitude, and poor relations with his
company officer.
Despite his low standing, McCain was popular and a leader among his fellow midshipmen, in what writer
Robert Timberg, in his acclaimed 1995 work ''
The Nightingale's Song
''The Nightingale's Song'' is a 1995 book by ''Baltimore Sun'' journalist Robert Timberg. It relates the military and political careers of five graduates of the United States Naval Academy, most of whom served during the Vietnam War in either the ...
'', called a "manic, intuitive, highly idiosyncratic way".
Good at attracting women,
McCain was famed for organizing off-Yard activities with a group who called themselves "the Bad Bunch";
one classmate said that "being on liberty with John McCain was like being in a train wreck."
[Timberg, ''The Nightingale's Song'', p. 34.] Other midshipmen were annoyed by his behavior.
A June 1957 training cruise aboard the destroyer found McCain showing good skills at
the conn, and the destination stop in
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...
led to a dream-like romance with Brazilian fashion model and ballerina Maria Gracinda that persisted through a Christmastime reunion.
McCain graduated from the Naval Academy in June 1958; he was fifth from the bottom in
class rank
Class rank is a measure of how a student's performance compares to other students in their class. It is commonly also expressed as a percentile. For instance, a student may have a GPA better than 750 of their classmates in a graduating class o ...
, 894th out of 899.
Despite his difficulties, McCain later wrote that he never defamed the more compelling traditions of the Academy – courage, resilience, honor, and sacrifice for one's country – and he never wavered in his desire to show his father and family that he was of the same mettle as his naval forebears.
[McCain, ''Faith of My Fathers'', pp. 151–52. Used to support McCain overall perspectives and direct quotations on Naval Academy experience and value it gave him.] Indeed, Slew and Jack McCain had not had sterling records at the Academy themselves, finishing in the bottom third and bottom twentieth respectively. McCain realized later that the Academy had taught him that "to sustain my self-respect for a lifetime it would be necessary for me to have the honor of serving something greater than my self-interest", a lesson that he would need to carry him through a "desperate and uncertain" time a decade later.
Military career
Naval training, early assignments, first marriage, and children
McCain was commissioned an
ensign
An ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. The naval ensign (also known as war ensign), used on warships, may be diffe ...
on June 4, 1958.
[ As indicated by ] He spent two years as a
naval aviator in training, first at
Naval Air Station Pensacola
Naval Air Station Pensacola or NAS Pensacola (formerly NAS/KNAS until changed circa 1970 to allow Nassau International Airport, now Lynden Pindling International Airport, to have IATA code NAS), "The Cradle of Naval Aviation", is a United State ...
in
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
through September 1959, and then at
Naval Air Station Corpus Christi
Naval Air Station Corpus Christi is a United States Navy naval air base located six miles (10 km) southeast of the central business district (CBD) of Corpus Christi, in Nueces County, Texas.
History
A naval air station for Corpus Christi ...
in Texas, during which time he was promoted to
lieutenant, junior grade
Lieutenant junior grade is a junior commissioned officer rank used in a number of navies.
United States
Lieutenant (junior grade), commonly abbreviated as LTJG or, historically, Lt. (j.g.) (as well as variants of both abbreviations), i ...
.
He earned a reputation as a party man, as he drove a
Corvette, dated an
exotic dancer
A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at a bachelor party or other private event.
M ...
named "Marie the Flame of Florida", spent all his free time on the beach or in a Bachelor Officer Quarters room turned bar and friendly gambling den, and, as he later said, "generally misused my good health and youth".
He began as a sub-par flier: he had limited patience for studying aviation manuals, and spent study time reading history books instead.
[Timberg, ''An American Odyssey'', pp. 66–68.] He was not assigned to the elite units flying
fighter aircraft, and instead became a pilot of
attack aircraft.
During a March 1960 practice run in Texas, he lost track of his altitude and speed, and his single-seat, single-engine, piston-driven
AD-6 Skyraider crashed into
Corpus Christi Bay
Corpus Christi Bay is a scenic semi-tropical bay on the Texas coast found in San Patricio County, Texas, San Patricio and Nueces County, Texas, Nueces counties, next to the major city of Corpus Christi, Texas, Corpus Christi. It is separated from ...
and sank to the bottom.
Although momentarily knocked unconscious by the impact, he squeezed out of the cockpit and swam ten feet to the surface, escaping without major injuries.
[Alexander, ''Man of the People'', p. 32.] He graduated from flight school at Corpus Christi
in May 1960.
He joined squadron
VA-42 at
Naval Air Station Oceana
Naval Air Station (NAS) Oceana or NAS Oceana is a United States Navy Naval Air Station located in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Nowadays, the station is located on 23.9 km2. It has total of 250 aircraft deployed and buildings valued at $800 mil ...
in Virginia for five months of further training on the Skyraider.
Starting in November 1960, McCain flew Skyraiders with the
VA-65 "World Famous Fighting Tigers" squadron
[McCain, ''Faith of My Fathers'', p. 156. Used to supply aircraft type he was flying and his home base, not given by any other source.] on the aircraft carriers and . The carriers were based at
Naval Station Norfolk
Naval Station Norfolk is a United States Navy base in Norfolk, Virginia, that is the headquarters and home port of the U.S. Navy's Fleet Forces Command. The installation occupies about of waterfront space and of pier and wharf space of the Hampt ...
and cruised in the Caribbean and in several deployments to the Mediterranean.
His aviation skills improved,
but around December 1961 he collided with power lines while flying recklessly low over southern Spain.
The area suffered a
power outage
A power outage (also called a powercut, a power out, a power failure, a power blackout, a power loss, or a blackout) is the loss of the electrical power network supply to an end user.
There are many causes of power failures in an electricity ...
, but McCain was able to return his damaged Skyraider to ''Intrepid''.
On board for ''Enterprises maiden voyage in January 1962, McCain gained visibility with the captain and shipboard publicity that fellow sailors and aviators attributed to his famous last name.
McCain was made a
lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations.
The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...
in June 1962,
and was on alert duty on ''Enterprise'' when it helped enforce the naval quarantine of Cuba during the October 1962
Cuban Missile Crisis.
In November 1963, he was rotated back to shore duty, serving nine months on the staff of the Naval Air Basic Training Command at Pensacola.
In September 1964, he became a
flight instructor
A flight instructor is a person who teaches others to operate aircraft. Specific privileges granted to holders of a flight instructor qualification vary from country to country, but very generally, a flight instructor serves to enhance or evaluate ...
with the
VT-7 training squadron at
Naval Air Station Meridian
Naval Air Station Meridian or NAS Meridian is a military airport located 11 miles northeast of Meridian, Mississippi in Lauderdale County and Kemper County, and is one of the Navy's two jet strike pilot training facilities.
History
On July 16 ...
in Mississippi,
[Alexander, ''Man of the People'', p. 33.] where McCain Field had been named for his grandfather.
During the 1964 stint at Pensacola, McCain began a relationship with
Carol Shepp, a successful swimwear and runway model
originally from
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
.
They had known each other at the Naval Academy and she had married and then divorced one of his classmates.
McCain told her he wanted to do something important with his life, so he would be recorded in history.
On July 3, 1965, McCain married Shepp in Philadelphia.
She already had two children, Douglas and Andrew, born in 1959 and 1962 respectively;
[ Used to supply years of birth of two adopted sons.] he adopted them in 1966. Carol and he then had a daughter named Sidney in September 1966.
In the summer of 1965, McCain appeared as a contestant on the television
quiz show ''
Jeopardy!
''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given gene ...
'' (during the
Art Fleming era).
McCain won the first day, but lost on the second day.
He later recalled Final Jeopardy making the difference, where the clue was "Cathy loves him, but she married Edgar Linton instead". McCain knew
the novel in question, writing down "What is Wuthering Heights?", but the clue was looking for
the specific character, "Who is Heathcliff?"
In November 1965, he had his third accident when apparent engine failure in his
T-2 Buckeye
The North American T-2 Buckeye was the United States Navy's intermediate training aircraft, intended to introduce U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps student naval aviators and student naval flight officers to jets. It entered service in 1959, begi ...
trainer jet over the
Eastern Shore of Virginia
The Eastern Shore of Virginia consists of two counties ( Accomack and Northampton) on the Atlantic coast detached from the mainland of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The region is part of the Delmarva Peninsula and is s ...
led to his ejecting safely before his plane crashed.
While at Meridian, McCain requested a combat assignment.
In October 1966, he was slated for upcoming
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
duty, and so reported to the
VA-44 Replacement Air Group squadron at
Naval Air Station Cecil Field
Naval Air Station Cecil Field or NAS Cecil Field was a United States Navy air base, located in Duval County, Florida. Prior to October 1999, NAS Cecil Field was the largest military base in terms of acreage in the Jacksonville, Florida area.
NA ...
in Florida for training on the
A-4 Skyhawk
The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a single-seat subsonic carrier-capable light attack aircraft developed for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps in the early 1950s. The delta-winged, single turbojet engined Skyhawk was designed ...
, a single-seat jet attack aircraft.
[Timberg, ''An American Odyssey'', pp. 70–71.] There McCain was seen as a good pilot, albeit one who tended to "
push the envelope" in his flying.
Promoted to
lieutenant commander
Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding ran ...
in January 1967,
McCain joined the aircraft carrier by May 1967,
flying Skyhawks with the
VA-46 "Clansmen" squadron. ''Forrestal'' conducted training exercises in the Atlantic early in the year, then set sail for the Pacific in June.
By this time, Jack McCain had risen in the ranks, making
rear admiral in 1958 and
vice admiral in 1963; in May 1967, he was promoted to four-star admiral, and became
Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Naval Forces, Europe, stationed in London.
Vietnam operations
On July 25, 1967, ''Forrestal'' reached
Yankee Station
Yankee Station (officially Point Yankee) was a fixed coordinate off the coast of Vietnam where U.S. Navy aircraft carriers and support ships operated in open waters over a nine-year period during the Vietnam War. The location was used primar ...
in the
Gulf of Tonkin and joined
Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder was a gradual and sustained aerial bombardment campaign conducted by the United States (U.S.) 2nd Air Division (later Seventh Air Force), U.S. Navy, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) against the Democratic R ...
, the 1965–68
air interdiction
Air interdiction (AI), also known as deep air support (DAS), is the use of preventive tactical bombing and strafing by combat aircraft against enemy targets that are not an immediate threat, to delay, disrupt or hinder later enemy engagement of ...
and
strategic bombing
Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale, its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations, or both. It is a systematica ...
campaign against
North Vietnam
North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...
.
[Karaagac, ''John McCain'', p. 80.][McCain, ''Faith of My Fathers'', pp. 185–86.] By the end of 1966, Rolling Thunder was not meeting its most important goals. Accordingly, for 1967 an emphasized focus was placed on strategic industrial and resupply targets such as power plants, port facilities, and the like, including some targets that had previously been deemed too politically sensitive to attack. In particular, the
alpha strikes flown from ''Forrestal'' were against specific, pre-selected targets such as arms depots, factories, and bridges.
[Karaagac, ''John McCain'', p. 81.] The flights were quite dangerous, due to the strength of the
North Vietnamese air defenses, which used
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
-designed and -supplied
surface-to-air missiles,
anti-aircraft artillery, and
MiG
Russian Aircraft Corporation "MiG" (russian: Российская самолётостроительная корпорация „МиГ“, Rossiyskaya samolyotostroitel'naya korporatsiya "MiG"), commonly known as Mikoyan and MiG, was a Russi ...
jet interceptors.
[Karaagac, ''John McCain'', p. 82.] McCain's first five attack missions over North Vietnam went without incident, and while still unconcerned with minor Navy regulations, McCain had garnered the reputation of a serious aviator.
[Freeman, ''Sailors to the End'', p. 25.] McCain and his fellow pilots were frustrated by the micromanagement of Rolling Thunder from Washington;
he later wrote, "The target list was so restricted that we had to go back and hit the same targets over and over again... Most of our pilots flying the missions believed that our targets were virtually worthless. In all candor, we thought our civilian commanders were complete idiots who didn't have the least notion of what it took to win the war."
McCain was almost killed on board ''Forrestal'' on July 29, 1967. While the
air wing
In military aviation, a wing is a unit of command. In most military aviation services, a wing is a relatively large formation of planes. In Commonwealth countries a wing usually comprises three squadrons, with several wings forming a group ( ...
was preparing to launch attacks, a
Zuni rocket
The Zuni 5-inch Folding-Fin Aircraft Rocket (FFAR), or simply Zuni, is a unguided rocket developed by the Hunter-Douglas Division of Bridgeport Brass Company and deployed by the United States armed forces, and the French Air Force. The rocket was ...
from an
F-4 Phantom
The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber originally developed by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy.Swanborough and Bo ...
accidentally fired across the carrier's deck. The rocket struck either McCain's
A-4E Skyhawk
The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a single-seat subsonic carrier-capable light attack aircraft developed for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps in the early 1950s. The delta-winged, single turbojet engined Skyhawk was designed a ...
or one near it.
[ Regarding use (c), states either Aircraft No. 405 piloted by LCDR Fred D. White or No. 416 piloted by LCDR John McCain was struck by the Zuni. See also Which states that Aircraft No. 405 piloted by LCDR Fred D. White was hit and does not mention McCain. Freeman's ''Sailors to the End'' states that McCain's plane was hit and does not mention White.] The impact ruptured the Skyhawk's fuel tank, which ignited the fuel and knocked two bombs loose.
[Freeman, ''Sailors to the End'', p. 118.] McCain later said, "I thought my aircraft exploded. Flames were everywhere."
McCain escaped from his jet by climbing out of the cockpit, working himself to the nose of the jet, and jumping off its refueling probe onto the burning deck.
His flight suit caught on fire as he rolled through the flames, but he was able to put it out.
He went to help another pilot trying to escape the fire when the first bomb exploded; McCain was thrown backwards ten feet (three meters)
and suffered minor wounds when struck in the legs and chest by fragments.
[Timberg, ''An American Odyssey'', pp. 72–74.] McCain helped crewmen throw unexploded bombs overboard off the hangar deck elevator, then went to ''Forrestals
ready room and with other pilots watched the
ensuing fire and the fire-fighting efforts on the room's
closed-circuit television. The fire killed 134 sailors, injured scores of others, destroyed at least 20 aircraft, and took 24 hours to control.
In
Saigon a day after the conflagration, McCain praised the heroism of enlisted men who gave their lives trying to save the pilots on deck,
and told ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' reporter
R. W. Apple Jr., "It's a difficult thing to say. But now that I've seen what the bombs and the napalm did to the people on our ship, I'm not so sure that I want to drop any more of that stuff on North Vietnam."
But such a change of course was unlikely; as McCain added, "I always wanted to be in the Navy. I was born into it and I never really considered another profession. But I always had trouble with the regimentation."
As ''Forrestal'' headed to port for repairs, McCain volunteered to join the undermanned
VA-163 "Saints" squadron on board the . This carrier had earlier endured its own deck fire disaster and its squadrons had suffered some of the heaviest losses during Rolling Thunder. The Saints had a reputation for aggressive, daring attacks, but paid the price:
in 1967, one-third of their pilots were killed or captured, and all of their original fifteen A-4s had been destroyed.
After taking some leave in Europe and back home in
Orange Park, Florida, McCain joined ''Oriskany'' on September 30, 1967,
[McCain, ''Faith of My Fathers'', p. 182.] for a tour he expected would finish early the next summer. He volunteered to fly the squadron's most dangerous missions right away, rather than work his way up to them. During October 1967, the pilots operated in constant twelve-hour on, twelve-hour off shifts. McCain would be awarded a
Navy Commendation Medal
The Commendation Medal is a mid-level United States military decoration presented for sustained acts of heroism or meritorious service. Each branch of the United States Armed Forces issues its own version of the Commendation Medal, with a fifth ...
for leading his air section through heavy enemy fire during an October 18 raid on the Lac Trai shipyard in
Haiphong
Haiphong ( vi, Hải Phòng, ), or Hải Phòng, is a major industrial city and the third-largest in Vietnam. Hai Phong is also the center of technology, economy, culture, medicine, education, science and trade in the Red River delta.
Haiphong wa ...
.
On October 25, McCain successfully attacked the
Phúc Yên Air Base
Phúc Yên Air Base (also known as Noi Bai Air Base) is a Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF) ''(Không quân Nhân dân Việt Nam)'' military airfield located immediately north of Noi Bai International Airport and approximately north of Hanoi.
...
north of
Hanoi
Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...
through a barrage of anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air missile fire; credited with destroying one aircraft on the ground and damaging two, the raid would garner him the
Air Medal
The Air Medal (AM) is a military decoration of the United States Armed Forces. It was created in 1942 and is awarded for single acts of heroism or meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight.
Criteria
The Air Medal was establish ...
.
[ As indicated by ] Air defenses around Hanoi were at this point the strongest they would be during the entire war.
Prisoner of war
Arrival
On October 26, 1967, McCain was flying his twenty-third mission, part of a twenty-plane strike force against the Yen Phu
thermal power plant
A thermal power station is a type of power station in which heat energy is converted to electrical energy. In a steam-generating cycle heat is used to boil water in a large pressure vessel to produce high-pressure steam, which drives a steam ...
in central
Hanoi
Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...
that previously had almost always been off-limits to U.S. raids due to the possibility of
collateral damage
Collateral damage is any death, injury, or other damage inflicted that is an incidental result of an activity. Originally coined by military operations, it is now also used in non-military contexts.
Since the development of precision guided ...
.
Arriving just before noon, McCain dove from 9,000 to 4,000 feet on his approach;
as he neared the target, warning systems in McCain's
A-4E Skyhawk
The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a single-seat subsonic carrier-capable light attack aircraft developed for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps in the early 1950s. The delta-winged, single turbojet engined Skyhawk was designed a ...
alerted him that he was being tracked by enemy
fire-control radar.
[Timberg, ''An American Odyssey'', p. 78.] Like other U.S. pilots in similar situations, he did not break off the bombing run,
and he held his dive until he released his bombs at about 3,500 feet (1,000 m). As he started to pull up, the Skyhawk's wing was blown off by a Soviet-made
SA-2
The S-75 (Russian: С-75; NATO reporting name SA-2 Guideline) is a Soviet-designed, high-altitude air defence system, built around a surface-to-air missile with command guidance. Following its first deployment in 1957 it became one of the most w ...
anti-aircraft missile fired by the North Vietnamese Air Defense Command's 61st Battalion,
commanded by Captain Nguyen Lan
assisted by fire control officer Lieutenant Nguyen Xuan Dai.
(McCain was later awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross for this day,
while Nguyen Xuan Dai was awarded the title Hero of the People's Armed Forces.
Decades later,
Soviet Army
uk, Радянська армія
, image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg
, alt =
, caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army
, start_date ...
Lieutenant Yuri Trushechkin claimed that he had been the missile guidance officer who had shot McCain down. In any case, the raid was a failure, as the power plant was not damaged and three of the attacking planes were shot down.
)
McCain's plane went into a
vertical inverted spin.
McCain bailed out upside down at high speed;
the
force of the ejection fractured his right arm in three places, his left arm, and his right leg at the knee, and knocked him unconscious.
[Rochester and Kiley, ''Honor Bound'', p. 360.] McCain nearly drowned after parachuting into
Trúc Bạch Lake in Hanoi; the weight of his equipment was pulling him down, and as he regained consciousness, he could not use his arms.
Eventually, he was able to inflate his
life vest
A personal flotation device (PFD; also referred to as a life jacket, life preserver, life belt, Mae West, life vest, life saver, cork jacket, buoyancy aid or flotation suit) is a flotation device in the form of a vest or suite that is worn by a ...
using his teeth.
Several Vietnamese, possibly led by Department of Industry clerk Mai Van On, pulled him ashore. A mob gathered around, spat on him, kicked him, and stripped him of his clothes; his left shoulder was crushed with the butt of a rifle and he was bayoneted in his left foot and left groin area.
He was then transported to Hanoi's main
Hỏa Lò Prison
Hỏa Lò Prison (, Nhà tù Hỏa Lò; french: Prison Hỏa Lò) was a prison in Hanoi originally used by the French colonists in Indochina for political prisoners, and later by North Vietnam for U.S. prisoners of war during the Vietnam War. ...
, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton" by American POWs.
McCain reached Hỏa Lò in as bad a physical condition as any prisoner during the war.
[Hubbell, ''P.O.W.'', p. 363.] His captors refused to give him medical care unless he gave them military information; they beat and interrogated him, but McCain only offered his name, rank, serial number, and date of birth
[Hubbell, ''P.O.W.'', p. 364.][Timberg, ''An American Odyssey'', p. 79.] (the only information he was required to provide under the
Geneva Conventions
upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864
The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conve ...
and permitted to give under the
U.S. Code of Conduct).
Soon thinking he was near death, McCain said he would give them more information if taken to the hospital,
hoping he could then put his interrogators off once he was treated. A prison doctor came and said it was too late, as McCain was about to die anyway.
Only when the North Vietnamese discovered that his father was a high-ranking admiral did they give him medical care,
calling him "the crown prince".
Two days after McCain's plane went down, that event and his status as a POW made the front pages of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''
and ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
''. Interrogation and beatings resumed in the hospital; McCain gave the North Vietnamese his ship's name, squadron's name, and the attack's intended target.
[McCain, ''Faith of My Fathers'', pp. 193–94.] This information, along with personal details of McCain's life and purported statements by McCain about the war's progress, would appear over the next two weeks in the North Vietnamese official newspaper ''
Nhân Dân
''Nhân Dân'' (Vietnamese: ''The People'') is the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Vietnam. According to the newspaper, it is “the voice of the Party, the State and the people of Vietnam.”
It has a daily circulation of 180,000 ...
''
as well as in dispatches from outlets such as the Cuban news agency
Prensa Latina
Prensa Latina, legal name Agencia de Noticias Latinoamericana S.A. (Latin American News Agency), is the official state news agency of Cuba, founded in March 1959 shortly after the Cuban Revolution.
Overview
In a speech by Fidel Castro in Santiag ...
. Disclosing the military information was in violation of the Code of Conduct, which McCain later wrote he regretted, although he saw the information as being of no practical use to the North Vietnamese. Further coerced to give future targets, he named cities that had already been bombed, and responding to demands for the names of his squadron's members, he supplied instead the names of the
Green Bay Packers'
offensive line
In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numb ...
.
McCain spent six weeks in the hospital,
receiving marginal care in a dirty, wet environment. A prolonged attempt to set the fractures on his right arm, done without anesthetic, was unsuccessful; he received an operation on his broken leg but no treatment for his broken left arm. He was temporarily taken to a clean room and interviewed by a French journalist,
François Chalais, whose report was carried on the French television program ''
Panorama'' in January 1968
and later in the U.S. on the ''
CBS Evening News
The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature st ...
''. The film footage of McCain lying in the bed, in a cast, smoking cigarettes and speaking haltingly, would become one of the most widely distributed images of McCain's imprisonment.
McCain was observed by a variety of North Vietnamese, including renowned Vietnamese writer
Nguyễn Tuân and Defense Minister and Army commander-in-chief General
Võ Nguyên Giáp
Võ Nguyên Giáp (; 25 August 1911 – 4 October 2013) was a Vietnamese general and communist politician who is regarded as having been one of the greatest military strategists of the 20th century. He served as interior minister in President ...
.
[Rochester and Kiley, ''Honor Bound'', p. 361.] Many of the North Vietnamese observers assumed that McCain must be part of America's political-military-economic elite. Now having lost fifty pounds (twenty-three kilograms), in a chest cast, covered in grime and eyes full of fever, and with his hair turned white,
in early December 1967 McCain was sent to a prisoner-of-war camp on the outskirts of Hanoi nicknamed "the Plantation".
He was placed in a cell with
George "Bud" Day, a badly injured and tortured
Air Force
An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...
pilot (later awarded the
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valo ...
) and Norris Overly, another Air Force pilot; they did not expect McCain to live another week.
[Coram, ''American Patriot'', pp. 186–87.] Overly, and subsequently Day, nursed McCain and kept him alive;
[Coram, ''American Patriot'', p. 188.] Day later recalled that McCain had "a fantastic will to live".
[Rochester and Kiley, ''Honor Bound'', p. 363.]
Solitary
In March 1968, McCain was put into
solitary confinement, where he remained for two years. Unknown to the POWs, in April 1968, Jack McCain was named
Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Command (CINCPAC) effective in July, stationed in
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
and commander of all U.S. forces in the Vietnam theater.
In mid-June, Major Bai, commander of the North Vietnamese prison camp system, offered McCain a chance to return home early.
The North Vietnamese wanted to score a worldwide propaganda coup by appearing merciful,
and also wanted to show other POWs that members of the elite like McCain were willing to be treated preferentially.
[Hubbell, ''P.O.W.'', pp. 450–51.] McCain turned down the offer of release, due to the POWs' "first in, first out" interpretation of the
U.S. Code of Conduct: he would only accept the offer if every man captured before him was released as well.
[Hubbell, ''P.O.W.'', p. 452.] McCain's refusal to be released was remarked upon by North Vietnamese senior negotiator
Lê Đức Thọ
Lê Đức Thọ (; 14 October 1911 – 13 October 1990), born Phan Đình Khải in Nam Dinh Province, was a Vietnamese revolutionary, general, diplomat, and politician. He was the first Asian to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with ...
to U.S. envoy
Averell Harriman
William Averell Harriman (November 15, 1891July 26, 1986), better known as Averell Harriman, was an American Democratic politician, businessman, and diplomat. The son of railroad baron E. H. Harriman, he served as Secretary of Commerce un ...
, during the ongoing
Paris Peace Talks
The Paris Peace Accords, () officially titled the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Viet Nam (''Hiệp định về chấm dứt chiến tranh, lập lại hòa bình ở Việt Nam''), was a peace treaty signed on January 27, 1 ...
. Enraged by his declining of the offer, Bai and his assistant told McCain that things would get very bad for him.
In late August 1968, a program of vigorous torture methods began on McCain.
The North Vietnamese used rope bindings to put him into prolonged, painful positions and severely beat him every two hours, all while he was suffering from dysentery.
[Hubbell, ''P.O.W.'', pp. 452–54.] His right leg was reinjured, his ribs were cracked, some teeth were broken at the gumline, and his left arm was re-fractured.
Lying in his own waste, his spirit was broken;
the beginnings of a suicide attempt were stopped by guards.
After four days of this, McCain signed and taped an anti-American propaganda "confession" that said, in part, "I am a black criminal and I have performed the deeds of an air pirate. I almost died, and the Vietnamese people saved my life, thanks to the doctors."
He used stilted Communist jargon and ungrammatical language to signal that the statement was forced.
McCain was haunted then and since with the belief that he had dishonored his country, his family, his comrades and himself by his statement,
but as he later wrote, "I had learned what we all learned over there: Every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine."
[ (reposted under title "John McCain, Prisoner of War: A First-Person Account", January 28, 2008). Reprinted in pp. 434–63. Used to support direct quotes from McCain, or to fill in details not given by other sources.] Two weeks later his captors tried to force him to sign a second statement; his will to resist restored, he refused.
He sometimes received two to three beatings per week because of his continued resistance; the sustained mistreatment went on for over a year.
His refusals to cooperate, laced with loud obscenities directed towards his guards, were often heard by other POWs.
[Coram, ''American Patriot'', p. 189.] His boxing experience from his Naval Academy days helped him withstand the battering,
and the North Vietnamese did not break him again.
Other American POWs were similarly tortured and maltreated in order to extract "confessions" and propaganda statements.
Many, especially among those who had been captured earlier and imprisoned longer – such as those in the "
Alcatraz Gang" – endured even worse treatment than McCain. Under extreme duress, virtually all the POWs eventually yielded something to their captors.
There were momentary exceptions: on one occasion, a guard surreptitiously loosened McCain's painful rope bindings for a night; when, months later, the guard later saw McCain on Christmas Day, he stood next to McCain and silently drew a
cross
A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a sa ...
in the dirt with his foot. In October 1968, McCain's isolation was partly relieved when
Ernest C. Brace was placed in the cell next to him; he taught Brace the
tap code
The tap code, sometimes called the knock code, is a way to encode text messages on a letter-by-letter basis in a very simple way. The message is transmitted using a series of tap sounds, hence its name.
The tap code has been commonly used by pri ...
the prisoners used to communicate. On Christmas Eve 1968, a church service for the POWs was staged for photographers and film cameras; McCain defied North Vietnamese instructions to be quiet, speaking out details of his treatment then shouting "Fu-u-u-u-ck you, you son of a bitch!" and giving
the finger
In Western culture, "the finger", or the middle finger (as in giving someone the (middle) finger, the bird or flipping someone off) is an obscene hand gesture. The gesture communicates moderate to extreme contempt, and is roughly equivalent i ...
whenever a camera was pointed at him. McCain refused to meet with various
anti-Vietnam War peace groups coming to Hanoi, such as those led by
David Dellinger
David T. Dellinger (August 22, 1915 – May 25, 2004) was an American pacifist and an activist for nonviolent social change. He achieved peak prominence as one of the Chicago Seven, who were put on trial in 1969.
Early life and schooling
Delli ...
,
Tom Hayden
Thomas Emmet Hayden (December 11, 1939October 23, 2016) was an American social and political activist, author, and politician. Hayden was best known for his role as an anti-war, civil rights, and intellectual activist in the 1960s, authoring t ...
, and
Rennie Davis
Rennard Cordon Davis (May 23, 1940 – February 2, 2021) was an American anti-war activist who gained prominence in the 1960s. He was one of the Chicago Seven defendants charged for anti-war demonstrations and large-scale protests at the 1968 D ...
, not wanting to give either them or the North Vietnamese a propaganda victory based on his connection to his father.
McCain was still badly hobbled by his injuries, earning the nickname "Crip" among the other POWs, but despite his physical condition, continued beatings and isolation, he was one of the key players in the Plantation's resistance efforts.
In May 1969,
U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird
Melvin Robert Laird Jr. (September 1, 1922 – November 16, 2016) was an American politician, writer and statesman. He was a U.S. congressman from Wisconsin from 1953 to 1969 before serving as Secretary of Defense from 1969 to 1973 under Presi ...
began publicly questioning North Vietnamese treatment of
U.S. prisoners.
[ See also same UPI story in ] On June 6, 1969, a
United Press International
United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20t ...
report described a
Radio Hanoi broadcast, made on June 2, that denied any such mistreatment.
The transmission, one of a series of North Vietnamese propaganda broadcasts on the subject of prisoners, used excerpts from McCain's spoken, forced "confession" of a year before, including statements such as: "I have bombed the cities, towns and villages and caused injuries and even death for the people of North Vietnam. After I was captured, I was taken to a hospital in Hanoi where I received very good medical treatment. I was given an operation on my leg which enabled me to walk again and a cast on my right arm, which was badly broken in three places. The doctors are very good and they knew a great deal about medicine."
(The broadcast was picked up and recorded by the
Foreign Broadcast Information Service
The Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) was an open source intelligence component of the Central Intelligence Agency's Directorate of Science and Technology. It monitored, translated, and disseminated within the U.S. government openly ...
and copies of it are available from the
National Archives and Records Administration
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It ...
, as a 2016 newspaper story confirmed.
)
Starting in late 1969, treatment of McCain and the other POWs suddenly improved.
[Hubbell, ''P.O.W.'', p. 519.] North Vietnamese leader
Ho Chi Minh
(: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as (' Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as P ...
had died the previous month, possibly causing a change in policy towards POWs.
Also, a badly beaten and weakened POW who had been released that summer disclosed to the world press the conditions to which they were being subjected,
and the
National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia, which included McCain's brother
Joe, heightened awareness of the POWs' plight.
[McCain, ''Faith of My Fathers'', pp. 290–91. Used to illustrate McCain family role while he was a POW.] In December 1969, McCain was transferred back to the Hỏa Lò, "Hanoi Hilton"; his solitary confinement ended in March 1970. When the prisoners talked about what they wanted to do once they got out, McCain said he wanted to become President.
McCain consented to a January 1970 interview outside Hỏa Lò with Spanish-born, Cuban psychologist , that was published in the official Cuban newspaper ''
Granma''.
McCain talked about his life and expressed no remorse for his bombing North Vietnam,
and Barral proclaimed him "an insensitive individual without human depth."
The POWs issued an edict forbidding any further such interviews,
and despite pressure from his captors, McCain subsequently refused to see any anti-war groups or journalists sympathetic to the North Vietnamese regime.
Release
McCain and other prisoners were moved around to different camps at times, but conditions over the next several years were generally more tolerable than they had been before.
Unknown to them, during each year that Jack McCain was CINCPAC he paid a Christmastime visit to the American troops in
South Vietnam serving closest to the
DMZ
A demilitarized zone (DMZ or DZ) is an area in which treaties or agreements between nations, military powers or contending groups forbid military installations, activities, or personnel. A DZ often lies along an established frontier or bounda ...
; he would stand alone and look north, to be as close to his son as he could get.
[McCain, ''Faith of My Fathers'', pp. 287–88. McCain states that he received dozens of reports over the years of his father having done this.] By 1971, some 30–50 percent of the POWs had become disillusioned about the war, both because of the apparent lack of military progress and what they heard of the growing anti-war movement in the U.S., and some of them were less reluctant to make propaganda statements for the North Vietnamese.
[Hubbell, ''P.O.W.'', pp. 548–49.] McCain was not among them: he participated in a defiant church service and led an effort to write letters home that only portrayed the camp in a negative light, and as a result spent much of the year in a camp reserved for "bad attitude" cases.
Back at the "Hanoi Hilton" from November 1971 onward, McCain and the other POWs cheered
the resumed bombing of the north starting in April 1972, whose targets included the Hanoi area and whose daily orders were issued by Jack McCain, knowing his son was in the vicinity.
[Timberg, ''An American Odyssey'', pp. 106–07.] Jack McCain's tour as CINCPAC ended in September 1972, despite his desire to have it extended so he could see the war to its conclusion.
The old-time POWs cheered even more during the intense
"Christmas Bombing" campaign of December 1972,
when Hanoi was subjected for the first time to repeated
B-52 Stratofortress raids. Although its explosions lit the night sky and shook the walls of the camp, scaring some of the newer POWs,
most saw it as a forceful measure to compel North Vietnam to finally come to terms.
The
Paris Peace Accords were signed on January 27, 1973, ending direct U.S. involvement in the war, but the
Operation Homecoming
Operation Homecoming was the return of 591 American prisoners of war (POWs) held by North Vietnam following the Paris Peace Accords that ended U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
Operation
On January 27, 1973, Henry Kissinger (then assistant ...
arrangements for the 591 American POWs took longer. McCain was finally released from captivity on March 14, 1973, being taken by bus to
Gia Lam Airport, transferred to U.S. custody, and flown by
C-141
The Lockheed C-141 Starlifter is a retired military strategic airlifter that served with the Military Air Transport Service (MATS), its successor organization the Military Airlift Command (MAC), and finally the Air Mobility Command (AMC) of the ...
to
Clark Air Base in the Philippines.
(After the last of the POWs had been released, McCain's forced "confession", along with similar statements from other POWs, was aired again during a
Voice of Vietnam
The Voice of Vietnam or VOV (also Radio the Voice of Vietnam, Vietnamese: ''Đài Tiếng nói Việt Nam'') is the Vietnamese national radio broadcaster. Directly controlled by the government of Vietnam, it is tasked with propagating the pol ...
broadcast on April 10, 1973, as the North Vietnamese sought to refute the returning prisoners' tales of having been tortured.
)
Altogether, McCain was held as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five and a half years, nearly five of them after his refusal to accept the out-of-sequence repatriation offer. His wartime injuries left him permanently incapable of raising either arm more than 80 degrees.
For his actions as a POW, McCain was awarded the
Silver Star Medal, the
Legion of Merit, three
Bronze Star Medals, another instance of the
Navy Commendation Medal
The Commendation Medal is a mid-level United States military decoration presented for sustained acts of heroism or meritorious service. Each branch of the United States Armed Forces issues its own version of the Commendation Medal, with a fifth ...
, and the
Purple Heart Medal.
He also gained an appreciation, from experiencing the mutual help and organized resistance of the POWs, that his earlier individualism needed to be tempered by a belief in causes greater than self-interest.
Return to United States
Upon his return to the United States a few days later, McCain was reunited with his wife Carol and his family.
She had suffered her own crippling, near-death ordeal during his captivity, due to an automobile accident in December 1969 that left her hospitalized for six months and facing twenty-three operations and ongoing physical therapy. (Businessman and POW advocate
Ross Perot had paid for her medical care.
) By the time McCain saw her, she was four inches (ten centimeters) shorter, on crutches, and substantially heavier.
As a returned POW, McCain became a celebrity of sorts: ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' ran a story and front-page photo of him getting off the plane at
Clark Air Base in the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
;
he authored a thirteen-page cover story describing his ordeal and his support for the
Nixon administration
Richard Nixon's tenure as the 37th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1969, and ended when he resigned on August 9, 1974, in the face of almost certain impeachment because of the Watergate Scanda ...
's handling of the war in ''
U.S. News & World Report'';
he participated in parades in Orange Park and elsewhere and made personal appearances before groups, where he showed strong speaking skills;
and he was given the
key to the city
The Freedom of the City (or Borough in some parts of the UK) is an honour bestowed by a municipality upon a valued member of the community, or upon a visiting celebrity or dignitary. Arising from the medieval practice of granting respected ...
of
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
.
McCain also found high-level political visibility. On April 14, four returned POWs were in attendance and honored at the
White House Correspondents' dinner
The White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) is an organization of journalists who cover the White House and the president of the United States. The WHCA was founded on February 25, 1914, by journalists in response to an unfounded rumor t ...
; McCain was one of them and shook hands with President
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
. Then Nixon gave an address to former POWs in an auditorium at the State Department during the day of May 24.
McCain had undergone surgery earlier in the month for leg injuries suffered during his shoot-down,
and a photograph of him on crutches shaking the hand of President Nixon became iconic.
[Timberg, ''An American Odyssey'', p. 113.] That evening, 600 ex-POWs and their families were honored at a gala dinner on the lawn of The White House.
The McCains became frequent guests of honor at dinners hosted by
Governor of California Ronald Reagan and his wife
Nancy Reagan, and John McCain made a strong impression speaking at a large prayer breakfast hosted by the governor.
McCain had admired Ronald Reagan while in captivity and afterwards, believing him to be a man who saw honor in Vietnam service and a potential leader who would not lead the nation into a war it was unwilling to win.
McCain underwent three operations in total and other treatment for his injuries, spending three months at the Naval Regional Medical Center in Jacksonville.
Psychological tests, given to all the returning POWs, showed that McCain had "adjusted exceptionally well to repatriation" and had "an ambitious, striving, successful pattern of adjustment". McCain told examiners that he withstood his ordeal by having "Faith in country, United States Navy, family, and God". Unlike many veterans, McCain did not experience flashbacks or nightmares of his Vietnam experience, although due to the association with prison guards, the sound of keys rattling would cause him to "tense up".
McCain was promoted to
commander effective July 1973
and attended the
National War College in
Fort McNair
Fort Lesley J. McNair is a United States Army post located on the tip of Greenleaf Point, the peninsula that lies at the confluence of the Potomac River and the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. To the peninsula's west is the Washington Chan ...
in Washington, D.C. during the 1973–1974 academic year. (Former POWs were given latitude in choosing their next assignment. Navy officials objected to McCain's choice of the National War College, as he was not yet a commander, the minimum rank needed to qualify; McCain had earned the rank but it had not yet become official. McCain appealed to
Secretary of the Navy
The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense.
By law, the se ...
John Warner, a friend of his father's, and gained admission.
) There he intensively studied the history of Vietnam and the
French and American wars there,
and wrote "
The Code of Conduct and the Vietnam Prisoners of War", a long paper on the Vietnam POW experience as a test of the
U.S. Code of Conduct.
By the time he graduated,
McCain concluded that mistakes by American political and military leaders had doomed the war effort.
(The particular operation that had led to his downing, Rolling Thunder, had been stopped in 1968, and while it had caused the North Vietnamese some logistical and resource difficulties, it had not succeeded in altering any of the fundamental equations involved in eventually determining the war's outcome.) McCain accepted the right of the anti-war movement in the U.S. to have exercised their freedom to protest, and he adopted a live-and-let-live attitude towards those who had
evaded the draft.
[Timberg, ''An American Odyssey'', pp. 116–18.] Nor did the vast changes in American social mores that had taken place during his absence bother him, as it did many other former POWs.
McCain returned to
Saigon in November 1974;
he and a couple of other former POWs received the
National Order of Vietnam
The National Order of Vietnam ( vi, Bảo Quốc Huân Chương) was a combined military-civilian decoration of South Vietnam and was considered the highest honor that could be bestowed upon an individual by the Republic of Vietnam government.
...
, that country's highest honor. He also spoke at the South Vietnamese war college, five months before
Saigon fell.
[Timberg, ''An American Odyssey'', pp. 122–23.]
McCain resolved not to become a "professional POW" but to move forward and rebuild his life.
Few thought McCain could fly again, and if he could not meet the medical requirements to remain a naval aviator he said he would consider a career in the
United States Foreign Service
The United States Foreign Service is the primary personnel system used by the diplomatic service of the United States federal government, under the aegis of the United States Department of State. It consists of over 13,000 professionals carry ...
.
But he was determined to try, and during this time he engaged in nine months of grueling, painful
physical therapy, especially to get his knees to bend again.
Commanding officer
McCain recuperated just enough to pass his flight physical and have his flight status reinstated.
In August 1974, he was assigned to the
Replacement Air Group VA-174 "Hellrazors".
This was an
A-7 Corsair II
The LTV A-7 Corsair II is an American carrier-capable subsonic light attack aircraft designed and manufactured by Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV).
The A-7 was developed during the early 1960s as replacement for the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk. Its design w ...
training squadron located at
Naval Air Station Cecil Field
Naval Air Station Cecil Field or NAS Cecil Field was a United States Navy air base, located in Duval County, Florida. Prior to October 1999, NAS Cecil Field was the largest military base in terms of acreage in the Jacksonville, Florida area.
NA ...
in Jacksonville
[ pp. 248–51.] and the largest aviation squadron in the Navy.
He became its
executive officer in 1975,
and on July 1, 1976, he was made VA-174's
commanding officer.
[Alexander, ''Man of the People'', pp. 84–86.] This last assignment was controversial, as he did not have the required experience of having commanded a smaller squadron first
(something that he now had too high a rank to do). While some senior officers resented McCain's presence as favoritism due to his father, junior officers rallied to him and helped him qualify for A-7 carrier landings.
As commanding officer, McCain relied upon a relatively unorthodox leadership style based upon the force of his personality.
He removed personnel he thought ineffective, and sought to improve morale and productivity by establishing an informal rapport with enlisted men.
Dealing with limited post-Vietnam defense budgets and parts shortages,
he was forceful in demanding that respect be given to the female officers just beginning to arrive into the unit.
McCain's leadership abilities were credited with improving the unit's aircraft readiness; for the first time, all fifty of its aircraft were able to fly.
Although some operational metrics declined during the period,
the pilot safety improved to the point of having zero accidents.
The squadron was awarded its first-ever
Meritorious Unit Commendation,
while McCain received a
Meritorious Service Medal A Meritorious Service Medal is an award presented to denote acts of meritorious service, and sometimes gallantry, that are worthy of recognition. Notable medals with similar names include:
* Meritorious Civilian Service Award
*Meritorious Service Me ...
.
McCain later stated that being commanding officer of VA-174 was the most rewarding assignment of his naval career. When his stint ended in July 1977,
the change of command ceremony was attended by his father and the rest of his family, as well as some of his fellow POWs; speaker Admiral
Isaac C. Kidd, Jr. said that John had joined Jack and Slew McCain in a place of honor in Navy tradition, a tribute that deeply moved McCain.
During their time in Jacksonville, the McCains' marriage began to falter.
[Timberg, ''The Nightingale's Song'', p. 239.] McCain had extramarital affairs;
he was seen with other women in social settings and developed a reputation among his colleagues for womanizing.
Some of McCain's activity with other women occurred when he was off-duty after routine flights to
Marine Corps Air Station Yuma
Marine Corps Air Station Yuma or MCAS Yuma is a United States Marine Corps air station. It is the home of multiple squadrons of F-35B Lightning IIs of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron 1 (MAWTS-1), Ma ...
and
Naval Air Facility El Centro
Naval Air Facility El Centro or NAF El Centro is a United States Navy Naval Air Facility located approximately six miles (10 km) northwest of El Centro, in Imperial County, California. NAF El Centro is under the jurisdiction of Navy Regi ...
.
Marital difficulties were in fact quite common among the returned POWs.
[ Includes "... But 2nd Chance at Living Lies Ahead" sidebar with same byline.] However, McCain later said, "My marriage's collapse was attributable to my own selfishness and immaturity more than it was to Vietnam, and I cannot escape blame by pointing a finger at the war. The blame was entirely mine."
His wife Carol later stated that the failure was not due to her accident or Vietnam and that "I attribute
he breakup of our marriagemore to John turning 40 and wanting to be 25 again than I do to anything else."
[Timberg, ''The Nightingale's Song'', p. 240. Timberg also observed that, "McCain was no different from most veterans of the war. As he went through life, Vietnam kept scrambling onstage and chewing up the scenery no matter how often he thought he had written it out of the script."] Writer and Vietnam veteran Robert Timberg believes that "Vietnam did play a part, perhaps not the major part, but more than a walk-on."
According to John McCain, "I had changed, she had changed. People who have been apart that much change."
Senate liaison, divorce, and second marriage
McCain had thought about entering politics since his return from Vietnam,
although 1964 had been the only time in his life he had ever voted.
In 1976, he briefly thought of running for the
U.S. House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
from Florida;
[ he had the support of some local figures in Jacksonville, but was convinced by other Republican Party leaders that he did not have sufficient political experience, funding, or popular support to defeat longtime Democratic incumbent Charles E. Bennett.] Instead, he worked so hard for Ronald Reagan's 1976 Republican primary campaign that his base commander reprimanded him for being too politically active for his naval position.
As his tenure with VA-174 was ending, McCain was assigned to a low-profile desk job within the Naval Air Systems Command
The Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) provides materiel support for aircraft and airborne weapon systems for the United States Navy. It is one of the Echelon II Navy systems commands (SYSCOM), and was established in 1966 as the successor to the ...
. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral James L. Holloway III
James Lemuel Holloway III (February 23, 1922 – November 26, 2019) was a United States Navy admiral and naval aviator who was decorated for his actions during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. After the Vietnam War, he was poste ...
thought this assignment a waste of McCain's social talents,[Timberg, ''An American Odyssey'', pp. 126–28.] and instead in July 1977 McCain was appointed to the Senate Liaison Office within the Navy's Office of Legislative Affairs (an assignment Jack McCain had once held). The office's role mostly consisted of providing constituent
Constituent or constituency may refer to:
Politics
* An individual voter within an electoral district, state, community, or organization
* Advocacy group or constituency
* Constituent assembly
* Constituencies of Namibia
Other meanings
* Const ...
service and acting as a facilitator among legislators, the Department of Defense, and lobbyists. McCain later said the liaison job represented " yreal entry into the world of politics and the beginning of my second career as a public servant". McCain's lively personality and knowledge of military matters made his post in the Russell Senate Office Building
The Russell Senate Office Building is the oldest of the United States Senate office buildings. Designed in the Beaux-Arts architectural style, it was built from 1903 to 1908 and opened in 1909. It was named for former Senator Richard Russe ...
a popular gathering spot for senators and staff. He also frequently escorted congressional delegations on overseas trips, where he arranged entertaining side escapades. McCain was influenced by senators of both parties, and formed an especially strong bond with John Tower
John Goodwin Tower (September 29, 1925 – April 5, 1991) was an American politician, serving as a Republican United States Senator from Texas from 1961 to 1985. He was the first Republican Senator elected from Texas since Reconstruction. Tower ...
of Texas, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee
The Committee on Armed Services (sometimes abbreviated SASC for ''Senate Armed Services Committee'') is a committee of the United States Senate empowered with legislative oversight of the nation's military, including the Department of Def ...
. During 1978 and 1979, McCain played a key behind-the-scenes role in gaining congressional funding for a new supercarrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a n ...
against the wishes of the Carter administration and Navy Secretary
The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense.
By law, the s ...
W. Graham Claytor Jr. In August 1979, McCain was promoted to naval captain, and became Director of the Senate Liaison Office. During McCain's time there, the Senate Liaison Office enjoyed one of its few periods of high influence.
McCain and his wife Carol had been briefly separated soon after returning to Washington, but then reunited and remained married. In April 1979, while attending a military reception for senators in Hawaii, McCain met Cindy Lou Hensley, eighteen years his junior, a teacher from Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States, and the on ...
, and the daughter of James Willis Hensley, a wealthy Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC is an American brewing company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2008, it has been wholly owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV ( AB InBev), now the world's largest brewing company, which owns multiple ...
beer distributor, and Marguerite "Smitty" Hensley. They began dating, travelling between Arizona and Washington to see each other, and John McCain urged his wife Carol to accept a divorce. The McCains stopped cohabiting in January 1980, and John McCain filed for divorce in February, which Carol McCain accepted at that time. After she did not respond to court summonses, the uncontested divorce became official in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, on April 2, 1980. McCain gave Carol a settlement that included full custody of their children, alimony, child support including college tuition, houses in Virginia and Florida, and lifelong financial support for her ongoing medical treatments resulting from the 1969 automobile accident; they would remain on good terms. McCain and Hensley were married on May 17, 1980, in Phoenix, with Senators William Cohen
William Sebastian Cohen (born August 28, 1940) is an American lawyer, author, and politician from the U.S. state of Maine. A Republican, Cohen served as both a member of the United States House of Representatives (1973–1979) and Senate (1979 ...
and Gary Hart as best man and groomsman. McCain's children were upset with him and did not attend the wedding, but after several years they reconciled with him and Cindy. Carol McCain became a personal assistant to Nancy Reagan and later Director of the White House Visitors Office
The White House Visitors Office is responsible for public tours of the White House, for maintaining a facility where the public can obtain information about the White House, and for other White House events such as the White House Easter Egg Roll, ...
. The Reagans were stunned by the divorce; Nancy Reagan's relationship with John McCain turned cold for a while following it, but eventually the two renewed their friendship. The same happened with most of McCain's other friends, who were eventually won over by the force of his personality and his frequent expressions of guilt over what had happened.
Around the end of 1980, McCain decided to retire from the Navy.[''Worth the Fighting For'', pp. 9–10. Used to give chronology point not supplied by any other source.] He had not been given a major sea command,[Timberg, ''An American Odyssey'', p. 135.] and his physical condition had deteriorated, causing him to fail the flight physical required for any carrier command position (in addition to his limited arm movement, certain weather would always cause him to walk with a limp). McCain thought he might make rear admiral, but probably not vice admiral, and never become a four-star admiral as his grandfather and father had been. McCain later wrote that he did not anguish over his decision, although it pained his mother, who thought congressional careers paled in comparison to top naval ones. He was excited by the idea of being a member of Congress and was soon recruiting a campaign manager that Cohen knew, for a planned run at a House seat from Arizona. In early 1981, Secretary of the Navy
The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense.
By law, the se ...
John F. Lehman
John Francis Lehman Jr. (born September 14, 1942) is an American private equity investor and writer who served as Secretary of the Navy (1981–1987) in the Ronald Reagan administration where he promoted the creation of a 600-ship Navy. From 200 ...
, who did not want to see McCain leave the liaison post, told McCain that he was still on the path to be selected for one-star rear admiral. McCain told Lehman that he was leaving the Navy and that he could "do more good" in Congress.
McCain retired with an effective date of April 1, 1981, the rank of captain, and a disability pension due to his wartime injuries. For his service in the Senate liaison office, McCain was awarded a gold star in lieu of a second award of the Legion of Merit. Jack McCain died on March 22, 1981.[Timberg, ''An American Odyssey'', p. 138.] On March 27, 1981, McCain attended his father's funeral at Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...
, wearing his uniform for the last time before signing his discharge papers, and later that day flew to Phoenix with his wife Cindy to begin his new life.
Military awards
McCain's military decorations and awards include:
Citations
These are some of the citations associated with the awards:
* Silver Star Medal
The Silver Star Medal (SSM) is the United States Armed Forces' third-highest military decoration for valor in combat. The Silver Star Medal is awarded primarily to members of the United States Armed Forces for gallantry in action against an en ...
* Legion of Merit
** First award (with "V" device)
** Second award (gold star)
* Distinguished Flying Cross
* Bronze Star Medal
** First award (with "V" device)
** Second award (gold star; with "V" device)
** Third award (gold star; with "V" device)
* Meritorious Service Medal A Meritorious Service Medal is an award presented to denote acts of meritorious service, and sometimes gallantry, that are worthy of recognition. Notable medals with similar names include:
* Meritorious Civilian Service Award
*Meritorious Service Me ...
* Air Medal
** First award (with bronze star)
** Second award (numeral "2")
* Navy Commendation Medal
** First award (with "V" device)
** Second award (gold star; with "V" device)
References
Bibliography
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External links
Geobiography of John McCain's early years and military career
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCain, John
Early lives by military personnel
Early lives by politician
Early life
Early may refer to:
History
* The beginning or oldest part of a defined historical period, as opposed to middle or late periods, e.g.:
** Early Christianity
** Early modern Europe
Places in the United States
* Early, Iowa
* Early, Texas
* Early ...
Military careers by individual