MD Leaders React To Death Of Naval Academy Grad Sen. John McCain

ANNAPOLIS, MD — Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a former Republican presidential nominee and war hero whose father and grandfather were admirals and whose footsteps he followed in by graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, has died. McCain, 81, died Saturday at his home in Arizona. He was diagnosed last year with an aggressive form of brain cancer that had kept him away from the Senate since mid-December, died just one day after his family announced he would end his treatment for brain cancer. He would have turned 82 on Aug. 29.

He will be buried at the U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery overlooking the Severn River. McCain had earlier picked out a plot in the cemetery next to the burial site of his Academy classmate and lifelong friend Chuck Larson, who died in 2014, reports USA Today. The 1958 classmates were known as the "odd couple" with McCain earning demerits for breaking rules, which left him near the bottom of his class, while Larson earned good grades, eventually became a naval aide to President Richard Nixon and twice served as the superintendent of the Naval Academy.

"The Naval Academy is mourning the loss of one of our most distinguished graduates, Sen. John McCain (USNA ‘58). His life of service to our country is a legacy that will continue to be revered," the academy tweeted.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said McCain will forever remain one of the country's most valiant heroes who left a legacy of selfless service, grit, and determination.

"He has long stood as a shining example of doing the right thing and standing up for his principles even – and especially – when the going gets tough," Hogan said in a statement. "A grateful nation will be forever in his debt. The First Lady and I hold his wife Cindy, his family, and all those who knew and admired him in our prayers, and join them in mourning the loss of a true American hero who I was deeply honored to know.”

U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, said in a statement: “Senator John McCain was a statesman, a veteran, and an American hero. His passion and determination were unsurpassed in the U.S. Senate, and his moral compass was unfailing. The loss of Senator McCain will be felt deeply throughout the Senate and the country – where countless Americans have benefited from his service. My prayers go out to Senator McCain’s friends, family, and constituents during this time – you are in our hearts.”

Howard County Executive Allan H. Kittleman said, "Tonight, we mourn the passing of Senator John McCain. Senator McCain courageously served our nation during the Vietnam War and was a voice of reason, moderation and bipartisanship in the US Senate. He will be greatly missed. I hope that you will keep his family in your thoughts and prayers."

Early on, McCain started showing signs of the personality that would eventually seal his reputation as a maverick. In the Naval Academy, though, he was known more as an undisciplined troublemaker who broke rules such as making sure his shoes were shined. His father paid him several visits to reprimand him over behavioral issues. McCain graduated four years later, was designated an ensign, and sent to the naval base at Pensacola, Florida, to train as a pilot.

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See Also:

• Tributes Flow In For Sen. John McCain
• John McCain, War Hero And Senate Icon, Dead At 81

MILITARY INFLUENCE EARLY AND FOREVER

While the military shaped McCain as a child and young man, it would unquestionably define him as an adult and eventual prisoner of war.

John Sidney McCain III was born Aug. 29, 1936, into a military family at the Coco Solo Naval Air Station in the Panama Canal Zone. His grandfather, John Sidney McCain Sr., and his father, John Sidney McCain Jr., were both four-star admirals, and the senator's father eventually led the United States Pacific Command.

The young John moved from naval base to naval base, both in America and abroad, and graduated from a private preparatory boarding school in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1954.

In 1960, he was assigned to the U.S.S. Intrepid aircraft carrier, followed by a stint aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise. Both were based out of the Naval Station in Norfolk, Virginia, and both were deployed to the Caribbean and Mediterranean.

He earned a reputation as a reckless pilot. He was involved in three crashes but escaped each time without any serious injury. But in one of those incidents, he flew too low in Spain, causing a blackout.

McCain was serving on the Enterprise when he was promoted to lieutenant in June 1962. Four months later he was on the carrier when it helped enforce the blockade of Cuba during the missile crisis.

JOHN MCCAIN, POW
On Oct. 26, 1967, during his 23rd mission as a Navy bomber pilot, McCain's Skyhawk bomb diver was hit by a surface-to-air missile over Hanoi. The aircraft's right wing was destroyed and McCain was ejected from the aircraft, breaking his right leg and both arms and knocking him unconscious until he landed in a lake. He sank immediately to the bottom, but was able to kick himself to the surface, where he was captured by the North Vietnamese.

Throughout nearly six years of captivity, more than half of it spent in solitary confinement, McCain was repeatedly tortured. He received minimal care for his injuries. He would suffer lingering pain from those injuries throughout his lifetime.

McCain described the torture in a 2008 first-person account published before he won the Republican nomination for president. He was stripped of his clothing after North Vietnamese soldiers swam out and pulled him to the side of the lake.

"Of course, this being in the center of town, a huge crowd of people gathered, and they were all hollering and screaming and cursing and spitting and kicking at me," he told U.S. News & World Report. "When they had most of my clothes off, I felt a twinge in my right knee. I sat up and looked at it, and my right foot was resting next to my left knee, just in a 90-degree position. I said, 'My God — my leg!' That seemed to enrage them — I don't know why. One of them slammed a rifle butt down on my shoulder, and smashed it pretty badly. Another stuck a bayonet in my foot. The mob was really getting up-tight."

At a North Vietnamese prison camp he was beaten during interrogations and told medical treatment would be withheld until he gave up more information beyond the sparse details he had provided — his name, rank, serial number and date of birth.

His captors soon realized he was the son of a decorated admiral and transferred him to a hospital — a filthy, dirty facility where he was fed only spoonfuls of nourishment a day and received treatment he later said nearly killed him. The commander of the North Vietnam prison camps, called a CAT, offered to release him, but he declined.

In December 1969, McCain was transferred to Hoala Prison — the notorious "Hanoi Hilton" — POW camp, where he spent the final years of his captivity. He and other American POWs were released on March 14, 1973, less than two months after the Vietnam ceasefire went into effect.

The Navy promoted him to commander, and he spent a year at the National War College, where he studied the war and his captivity. He came to the conclusion that the war had been poorly run and gained notoriety when he spoke out in support of the rights of anti-war protesters and those who had fled the United States to evade the draft.

Includes reporting by Patch Editor Beth Dalbey

PHOTO: U.S. Sen. John McCain, chairman of the US Senate Committee on Armed Services, listens to testimony before the committee. Shutterstock image