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 were admirals in the United States Navy. 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 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, he narrowly escaped death in the 1967 Forrestal fire. On his twenty-third bombing mission during Operation Rolling Thunder in October 1967, he was shot down over Hanoi and badly injured. He subsequently endured five and a half years as a prisoner of war, including periods of torture. In 1968, he refused a North Vietnamese 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 hospitalAlexander, Man of the People, p. 12. at Coco Solo Naval Air StationTimberg, 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. 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, Mississippi, and Texas, 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 – some of whose descendants share the surname and call themselves the "black McCains" – and sharecroppers afterward; influential blues guitarist Mississippi John Hurt 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,Timberg, An American Odyssey, pp. 19–20. American Revolutionary War (due to which McCain maintained a membership with the Sons of the American Revolution), War of 1812,McCain, Faith of My Fathers, p. 20. Used to support ancestor in War of 1812, not given by any other source. for the Confederate States of America 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 who prospered on land deals during the early statehood years and struck oil in the Southwest. 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, 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, 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 operationsTimberg, 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 in the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II. His operations off the Philippines and Okinawa, and air strikes against Formosa and the Japanese home islands, 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, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 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, 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, 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, and McCain attended the educationally stronger St. Stephen's School in Alexandria 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;Alexander, Man of the People, p. 21. 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."McCain, Faith of My Fathers, pp. 107–08. Used for direct quotation.
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.Alexander, Man of the People, pp. 22–24. 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, excelling in the lighter weight classes.Alexander, Man of the People, pp. 25, 26. He also played on the junior varsity football team and the tennis team, and participated in the student newspaper, yearbook, and drama club.Alexander, Man of the People, p. 26. 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. Ravenel was the only person outside McCain's family whom he sought out to talk with upon his return from being a POW in Vietnam, but Ravenel had died two years earlier. With what he later termed an "undistinguished, but acceptable" academic record,McCain, Faith of My Fathers, p. 116. Used to support brief quotation of McCain self-assessment. 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 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."McCain, Faith of My Fathers, pp. 110–111. Used to support McCain state of mind and direct quotation. Timberg, An American Odyssey, p. 34, gives this formulation: "And so, ... John McCain journeyed to Annapolis, raised his right hand, and marched joylessly into his future."