John Sidney McCain III, the Vietnam War Hero, Senator, and Maverick who became one of the most distinctive features in American political history,  died last Saturday at the age of 81 surrounded by his family.  He was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor in July 2017 and had been undergoing medical treatment up until August 24, 2018. 

Born on August 29th,1936, at Coco Solo Naval Station in the Panama Canal Zone, John McCain became both an American and global hero during a time when political, military, and cultural tensions were at a peak. Both his father and grandfather graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, both men going on to become admirals. McCain graduated fifth from the bottom of his class. 

By 1967, McCain had faced war in the Pacific and had escaped a fire during the Vietnam War aboard the USS Forrestal aircraft carrier. A few months later, his Skyhawk jet was shot down on a bombing mission over North Vietnam. He was severely injured and spent more than five years as a prisoner of war. It was an experience that left him with lifelong injuries including a severely restricted ability to move his arms.  “I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s,” McCain said in his 2008 Republican National Convention speech. “I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again; I wasn’t my own man anymore; I was my country’s.” 

Four years later, he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1982 and the Senate in 1986. It was an office he held for the remaining 31 years of his life. He pushed for campaign finance reform and the effort to account for those missing in Vietnam. His career almost ended when he was implicated in the Keating Five Scandal in 1989, accused with several other lawmakers of helping the owner of the Lincoln Savings and Loan, who had donated to his campaign. 

McCain ran twice for president. In 2000, he ran for the Republican nomination for president, winning New Hampshire’s primary but losing the nomination to George W. Bush. In 2008, he defeated a host of Republican candidates to win the GOP nomination for president but lost the election to Barack Obama.

A national memorial service was held at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington D.C.to honor and celebrate the life of Senator John McCain. The senator’s family, friends, colleagues, staff, and many U.S. and International leaders attended the service. On the way to his service, John McCain’s funeral procession made a stop at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial where his wife, Cindy McCain laid a wreath in his honor along with Jim Mattis and John Kelly.

Meghan McCain opened the memorial service with a tearful and impassioned tribute to him. She said to applause, “The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great.”

Eulogies were read by Barack Obama and George W. Bush at McCain’s request and drew on to the senator’s legacy at home and abroad to talk of the nation’s values. Former President George W. Bush said John McCain, “detested the abuse of power” and hailed the senator’s “combination of courage and decency.” Former President Barack Obama said, “We come to celebrate an extraordinary man, a warrior, a statesman, a patriot who embodied so much that is best in America.” Following after Bush, Obama said John McCain “made us better presidents.”

On Sunday, a private memorial service was held at the U.S. Naval Academy Chapel in Annapolis Maryland. John McCain will be laid to rest next to Naval Academy classmate and friend Admiral Chuck Larson, who died in 2014.