"John Sidney McCain III was born on August 29, 1936, at Coco Solo Naval Air Station in the Panama Canal Zone, the second of three children born to naval officer John S. McCain Jr. and his wife, Roberta. At the time of his birth, the McCain family was stationed in the Panama Canal Zone, under American control.
Both McCain´s father and paternal grandfather, John Sidney McCain, Sr., were four-star admirals and his father rose to command all the U.S. naval forces in the Pacific.
McCain spent his childhood and adolescent years moving between naval bases in America and abroad. He attended Episcopal high School, a private preparatory boarding school in Alexandria, Virginia, graduating in 1954.
Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, McCain graduated (fifth from the bottom of his class) from the Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1958. He also graduated from flight school in 1960.
With the outbreak of the Vietnam War, McCain volunteered for combat duty and began flying carrier-based attack planes on low-altitude bombing runs against the North Vietnamese. He escaped serious injury on July 29, 1967, when his A-4 Skyhawk plane was accidentally shot by a missile on board the USS Forestal, causing explosions and fires that killed 134.
On October 26, 1967, during his 23rd air mission, McCain´s plane was shot down during a bombing run over the North Vietnamese capital of Hanoi. He broke both arms and one leg during the ensuing crash. McCain was moved to Hoa Loa prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton," on December 9, 1969.
His captors soon learned he was the son of a high-ranking officer in the U.S. Navy and repeatedly offered him early release, but McCain refused, not wanting to violate the military code of conduct and knowing that the North Vietnamese would use his release as a powerful piece of propaganda.
McCain eventually spent five and a half years in various prison camps, three and a half of those in solitary confinement, and was repeatedly beaten and tortured before he was finally released, along with other American POWs, on March 14, 1973, less than two months after the Vietnam cease fire went into effect. McCain earned the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross.
Though McCain had lost most of his physical strength and flexibility, he was determined to continue serving as a naval aviator. After a painful nine months of rehabilitation, he returned to flying duty, but it soon became clear that his injuries had permanently impaired his ability to advance in the Navy.
His introduction to politics came in 1976, when he was assigned as the Navy´s liaison to the U.S. Senate. In 1981, after marrying his second wife, Cindy Hensley, McCain retired from the Navy, and moved to Phoenix, Arizona. While working in public relations for his father-in-law´s beer distribution business, he began establishing connections in politics.
McCain was first elected to political office on November 2, 1982, easily winning a seat in the House of Representatives after his well-known war record helped overcome doubts about his "carpetbagger" status. He was re-elected in 1984.
Having adapted well to the largely conservative politics of his home state, McCain was a loyal supporter of the Reagan administration and numbered among a group of young "new Right."
In 1986, after the retirement of the longtime Arizona senator and prominent Republican Barry Goldwater, McCain won election to the U.S. Senate. Both in the House and the Senate, McCain earned a reputation as a conservative politician who nonetheless was not afraid to question the ruling Republican orthodoxy. In 1983, for example, he called for the withdrawal of U.S. Marines from Lebanon, and he also publicly criticized the administration´s handling of the Iran-Contra affair.
From 1987 to 1989, McCain underwent a federal investigation as a member of the "Keating Five," a group of senators who were accused of improperly intervening with federal regulators on behalf of Charles H. Keating Jr., a bank chairman whose Lincoln Savings & Loan Association eventually became one of the biggest failures in the savings and loan disasters of the late 1980s. He was eventually cleared of the charges, although investigators declared that he had exercised "poor judgment" by meeting with the regulators.
McCain weathered the scandal and won re-election to the Senate three times, each time with a solid majority. His reputation as a maverick politician with firm beliefs and a quick temper only increased, and many were impressed with his willingness to be extremely open with the public and the press. He has worked diligently in support of increased tobacco legislation and especially the reform of the campaign finance system, professing some more liberal views and generally proving to be more complex than merely a straight-ahead conservative.
In 1999, McCain published Faith of My Fathers, the story of his family´s military history and his own experiences as a POW. He also emerged as a solid challenger to the frontrunner, Governor George W. Bush of Texas, for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000. Many people from both political parties found his straight talk refreshing. In the New Hampshire primary, McCain won by a surprisingly wide margin, largely bolstered by independent voters and cross-over Democrats.
After a roller-coaster ride during the primaries--Bush won South Carolina, while McCain captured Michigan and Arizona--Bush emerged triumphant on "Super Tuesday" in early March 2000, winning New York and California, among a number of others. Though McCain won in most of the New England states, his large electoral deficit forced him to "suspend" his campaign indefinitely. On May 9, after holding out for two months, McCain formally endorsed Bush.
In August 2000, McCain was diagnosed with skin cancer lesions on his face and arm, which doctors determined were unrelated to a similar lesion which he had removed in 1993. He subsequently underwent surgery, during which all the cancerous tissue was successfully removed. McCain also underwent routine prostate surgery for an enlarged prostate in August of 2001.
McCain was back in the headlines in the spring of 2001, when the Senate debated and eventually passed, by a vote of 59-41, a broad overhaul of the campaign finance system. The bill was the fruit of McCain's six-year effort, with Democratic Senator Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin to reform the system. Central to the McCain-Feingold bill was a controversial ban on the unrestricted contributions to political parties known as "soft money." The new law was narrowly upheld by the Supreme Court in 2003.
McCain supported the Iraq War, but criticized The Pentagon several times, especially about low troop strength. At one point, McCain declared he had "no confidence" in the leadership of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. McCain supported the 2007 surge of more than 20,000 troops, which supporters say has increased security in Iraq.
McCain also publicly supported President Bush´s bid for re-election, even though he differed with Bush on several issues including torture, pork barrel spending, illegal immigration, a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and global warming. He also defended the Vietnam War record of Bush´s opponent, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, which came under attack during the campaign.
With Bush limited to two terms, McCain officially entered the 2008 presidential race on April 25, 2007, during an announcement in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
McCain married Carol Shepp, a model originally from Philadelphia, on July 3, 1965. He adopted her two young children from a previous marriage (Doug and Andy Shepp) and they had a daughter (Sydney, b. 1966). The couple divorced in April 1980.
McCain met Cindy Lou Hensley, a teacher from Phoenix and daughter of a prosperous Arizona beer distributor, while she was on vacation in 1979 with her parents in Hawaii. He was still married at the time, but separated from his first wife. John and Cindy McCain were married May 17, 1980 in Phoenix. They have four children: Meghan (b. 1984), John IV (known as Jack, b. 1986), James (known as Jimmy, b. 1988), and Bridget (b. 1991 in Bangladesh, adopted by the McCains in 1993)."
- - -
"John McCain's 5 1/2 years of captivity in North Vietnam were divided into two phases. Early on, this son and grandson of high-ranking Naval officers was accorded relatively privileged status. Then he refused early release--which he saw as a public relations stunt by his captors--insisting that POWs held longer than him should be granted their freedom first. Thereafter, McCain was treated much more severely, but he also had an opportunity to bond with his fellow prisoners. Those experiences strengthened his resolve and eased his transition back into civilian life.
HANOI, Vietnam, April 26, 2000 -- As he strode through the shadowy hallways and incongruously sunny courtyards, gesturing here, pointing to a detail there, Senator John McCain might have been a father showing his son his alma mater.
Except the landmarks on this tour were dank cells like the one where Mr. McCain spent two years in solitary confinement, and leg irons, which he once wore as a punishment for insulting the guards.
"It's always interesting for me to be back here and show my son the place where I lived for a long time," the Arizona Republican said as he paused next to a faded photograph of himself as a grim-faced, unmistakably defiant inmate. "But I put Vietnam behind me when I left."
Yet, as he guided his wife and 13-year-old son through the remnants of the grim jail known as the "Hanoi Hilton , " Mr. McCain, long a proponent of better relations with Vietnam, betrayed feelings still raw a quarter of a century later.
"I still bear them ill will," he said of the prison guards, "not because of what they did to me, but because of what they did to some of my friends -- including killing some of them."
Mr. McCain and his wife, Cindy, had visited the prison, known as Hoa Lo, on one of his seven previous trips to Vietnam since his release in 1973. But Mr. McCain, whose visit comes just before the 25th anniversary on Sunday of the end of the Vietnam War, said he wanted to show his son Jack the place.
A sprawling French colonial-era fortress, the jail housed 300 American pilots at various periods during the war. The Vietnamese authorities tore down much of it in 1993 to make way for a luxury hotel and office complex called Hanoi Towers. But they preserved one corner as a museum.
Today, Mr. McCain seemed aware that the site had become just another stop on the tourist trail for people visiting Vietnam's now-popular capital. At several points during the self-guided tour he stopped to say hello or to have his picture taken with American tourists -- most of whom said they supported him during his unsuccessful campaign for the Republican presidential nomination this year.
He also offered an acidic commentary on how the Vietnamese portrayed life inside the prison. Alongside the pictures of Mr. McCain and his fellow prisoners, a plaque declared: "Though having committed untold crimes on our people, the American pilots suffered no revenge once they were captured and detained. Instead, they were treated with adequate food, clothing and shelter."
Shaking his head, Mr. McCain muttered, "That's entertainment."
Nearby, another set of photos showed the Americans receiving letters from their families, meeting with North Vietnamese journalists and attending Mass. Mr. McCain pointed out that one of the pilots photographed at Mass had placed his hand on his chin, with only his middle finger extended.
"I think that sums up how he felt about being here," Mr. McCain said.
Mr. McCain has described his five and a half year imprisonment as a nightmarish time, in which he was beaten and kept in solitary confinement. Twice he tried to hang himself, only to be cut down and assaulted by the guards.
Mr. McCain was captured on Oct. 26, 1967, after his Navy plane was shot down while on a bombing run over Hanoi. He parachuted into a lake, breaking both arms and a leg.
On Tuesday, Mr. McCain paid a visit to the lake, known as Truc Bac, where he described to reporters being dragged ashore and beaten by an angry mob. On this visit, several curious locals stepped forward to greet Mr. McCain -- some posing for photographs with his family.
In prison, Mr. McCain said the American inmates communicated by tapping on the walls of their cells. The prisoners nicknamed their cell-block Thunderbird, and Mr. McCain described how it was lighted with a single bulb. During the day, loudspeakers that hung from the ceiling would drone with music by North Vietnamese propaganda figures like the singer known as Hanoi Hannah. "I heard her every day," Mr. McCain said. "She's a marvelous entertainer. I'm surprised she didn't get to Hollywood."
The Vietnamese government has expressed anger at Mr. McCain's description of his treatment as a prisoner of war, especially in his recent memoir. Today, despite his sarcasm and fleeting bitterness, the senator seemed reluctant to add to his earlier accounts of that period.
Indeed, Mr. McCain has long advocated reconciling the two countries and was instrumental in the establishment of diplomatic relations with Hanoi five years ago. At his arrival here on Tuesday, he said he had come to "commemorate the beginning and continuation of a new relationship between the United States and Vietnam."
In meetings with senior Vietnamese officials, the senator said he discussed negotiations on a trade agreement between the two countries. A deal was agreed to in principle last July, but has bogged down since then as the Vietnamese have balked at several provisions.
Still, for this most celebrated of P.O.W.'s , the war is the shadow that lurks behind every meeting. On Tuesday, soon after he landed in Hanoi, Mr. McCain attended a ceremony on a sweltering airport tarmac, in which the remains of six people, believed to be American soldiers missing since the war, were loaded on an Air Force plane and flown to Hawaii for forensic analysis.
For Jack McCain, the visit seemed to confirm the stories his father had told him. As he left the prison, the young Mr. McCain said he had expected the cells to be cramped and dark. Indeed, his knowledge of the prison seemed so thorough that he expressed surprise at only one small detail: the iron doors at the main entrance were wide enough that his father was delivered through them in a truck."
- - -
John S. McCain, III Silver Star Citation
"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while interned as a Prisoner of War in North Vietnam
from 27 October to 8 December 1967.
His captors, completely ignoring international agreements, subjected him to extreme mental and physical cruelties in an attempt to obtain military information and false confessions for propaganda purposes.
Through his resistance to those brutalities, he contributed significantly toward the eventual abandonment of harsh treatment by the North Vietnamese, which was attracting international attention.
By his determination, courage, resourcefulness, and devotion to duty,
he reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions
of the Naval Service and the United States Armed Forces."
- - -
SOURCE: WE CAME HOME copyright 1977
Captain and Mrs. Frederic A Wyatt (USNR Ret), Barbara Powers Wyatt, Editor
P.O.W. Publications, 10250 Moorpark St., Toluca Lake, CA 91602
Text is reproduced as found in the original publication (including date and
spelling errors).
UPDATE - 09/95 by the P.O.W. NETWORK, Skidmore, MO
JOHN S. McCAIN II
Lieutenant Commander - United States Navy
Shot Down: October 26, 1967
Released: March 15, 1973
"Lcdr. John McCain, a Navy flyer and son of the admiral who commanded the
war in the Pacific, spent 5 1/2 years in captivity. Here is part of his
story.
On my 23rd mission, a missile the size of a telephone pole, blew the right
wing off the Skyhawk bomber which I was piloting. It went into an inverted,
almost straight down spin. I was knocked unconscious by the force of the
ejection. I did not realize it at the moment, but I had broken my right leg
at the knee, my left arm and my right arm in three places. I regained
consciousness as I parachuted into a lake right in the center of Hanoi. My
helmet and oxygen mask had been blown off. With my fifty pounds of equipment
and gear I sank to the bottom. I rose and then started sinking. I could not
understand why I could not use my right arm or leg. The third time I sank I
couldn't get back to the surface. With my teeth I was finally able to get
the toggle released thus inflating the life preserver which floated me to
the top.
Some North Vietnamese swam out and pulled me to the side of the lake. As
they stripped me of my clothes, they kicked and spit on me. I noticed my
right foot was at a 90 degree position resting next to my left knee. When I
said, "My God - my leg!" they became enraged. They slammed a rifle butt down
on my shoulder which smashed it pretty badly and another stuck a bayonet in
my foot. About this time a guy appeared who quieted the crowd. I was then
put on a stretcher and was taken to prison. Immediately the interrogations
began and when I refused to answer their questions they would knock me into
unconsciousness. Finally after four days of this I agreed to give
information if they would take me to a hospital. The doctor, after taking
my pulse said, "It's too late." They left the room. Sometime later, the
chief interrogator again returned shouting "Your father a big admiral, now
we take you to hospital." I tell you this to make a point. There were hardly
any amputees among the prisoners who came back because the North Vietnamese
would not give medical treatment to someone badly injured. The transition to
the dirt, filth and infection made it difficult for a guy to survive. In
fact, the treatment in the hospital almost killed me.
The hospital was filthy and every time it rained there would be almost an
inch of water on the floor. I almost never saw a doctor or a nurse. I was,
however, assigned a 16 year old kid right out of the rice fields. He
delighted in hitting and slapping me. Then as I could not use my arms he was
to feed me, but ate most of the food himself. I was getting from three to
four tablespoons per day.
I knew that because of my father the North Vietnamese would try to obtain
more than the usual propaganda. They worked on setting my right arm for an
hour and a half, trying to align the three broken bones - all without any
sedation. When it was over they took me into a room with a nice bed, in came
the TV cameras and I was filmed with a French Communist. They wanted me to
tell about the lenient and humane treatment I had received. As soon as the
filming was over I was put back in my room. They gave me one operation on my
leg (said I needed two but because of my bad attitude I would get one). My
left arm was to heal itself.
After six weeks in the hospital I was put in prison. My weight was down to
100 from 155 and my roommates said later that they had not expected that I
could live one week. George Day and Norris Overly kept me alive during those
days I was incapacitated. In March 19681 started two years of living in
solitary.
They tried many designs to force me to embarrass my father and the United
States. I found that prayer helped. It wasn't a question of asking for
superhuman strength or for God to strike the North Vietnamese dead. It was
asking for moral and physical courage, for guidance and wisdom to do the
right thing. I asked for comfort when I was in pain and sometimes I received
relief. I was sustained in many times of trial.
When the pressure was on you seemed to go one way or the other. Either it
was easier for them to break you the next time or it was harder. In other
words, if you are going to make it, you get tougher.
The Communists left no doubt in my mind that it was not a question of South
Vietnam alone. Two North Vietnamese generals said to me at separate times,
"After we liberate South Vietnam, we're going to liberate Cambodia. And
after Cambodia we're going to liberate Laos and after we liberate Laos we're
going to liberate Thailand and after we liberate Thailand we're going to
liberate Malaysia and then Burma. We're going to liberate all of Southeast
Asia. That is what Communism is all about - armed struggle to overthrow the
capitalist countries."
I had a lot of time to think and I came to the conclusion that one of the
most important things in life - along with a man's family - is to make
some contribution to his country."
