McCain buried next to old mate
US senator’s last journey ends ‘near where it began’ at naval academy
The late Senator John McCain was buried in a private ceremony at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, bringing to a close five days of events honouring the late Arizona Republican.
McCain, who died last month of brain cancer at age 81, was the son and grandson of four-star admirals and a 1958 graduate of the Naval Academy. He endured more than five years of torture and imprisonment as a POW in Vietnam.
The private memorial service was attended by McCain’s family, close friends, former classmates and military leaders. Among the speakers were longtime friend Senator Lindsey Graham, (R), retired army general and former CIA Director David Petraeus, and the senator’s son Jack McCain.
After the ceremony, McCain was laid to rest next to his Naval Academy classmate and friend Admiral Charles Larson.
For his final resting place, McCain picked the historic site overlooking the Severn River, not Arlington National Cemetery, where his father and grandfather, both admirals, were buried.
Years ago, Larson, an admiral himself and an ally throughout McCain’s life, reserved four plots at the cemetery — two for McCain and himself, and two for their wives, now widows. Larson died in 2014, and McCain wrote in a recent memoir that he wanted to be buried next to his friend, “near where it began”.
On Sunday, official Washington — with the notable exception of US President Donald Trump — gathered at Washington National Cathedral for a memorial service that featured tributes by such speakers as former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
McCain’s legacy of bipartisanship and the deterioration of civility under Trump were themes mentioned by many of those who eulogised him, with some of the sharpest words aimed at the President coming from the senator’s daughter Meghan
McCain.
Graham recounted his memories of McCain on CNN. He said that the main takeaway from the past week and from McCain’s life is service to a cause greater than oneself.
“If you’re thinking of public service, pick a cause worthy of a good fight, and, above all else, when you make a mistake, admit it,” Graham said.
He weighed in on Meghan McCain’s tribute to her father, during which she said her father’s America “has no need to be made great again because America was always great.” The remark was widely interpreted as a swipe at Trump, whose 2016 campaign slogan was “Make America Great Again.”
Graham said that he was proud of Meghan McCain and that she was “her father’s daughter.”
“If you say something bad about her dad, you will know it, whether you are the janitor or the president of the United States. She is grieving for the father she adored, and I think most Americans understand that.”