McCain to be buried near best friend at naval academy
annapolis — It will be a fitting final resting place for a man who prized military service, cherished friendship and had little patience for formalities.
Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who died on Saturday of brain cancer, will be buried on a grassy hill at the US Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis, right next to a lifelong friend, within earshot of the next generation of midshipmen and within view of the banks of Severn River.
The senator’s choice was another that showed his trademark individuality. McCain, who died on Saturday after battling brain cancer, selected the out-of-the-way spot over the grandeur and solemnity of Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, where his father and grandfather — both admirals —are buried. Instead, the decorated Vietnam War veteran, former prisoner of war and six-term senator opted for a front-row position next to his friend Chuck Larson, himself an admiral and ally throughout McCain’s remarkable life. “Near, where our paths first
Near, where our paths first crossed.
John McCain in his memoir
crossed,” McCain wrote in his memoir of the site.
McCain’s office said on Sunday that Larson, who died in 2014, had reserved four plots at the site — for himself, McCain and their wives, both now widows.
From the grassy spot, the grunts and shouts of dozens of exercising midshipmen on Forrest Sherman Field float up to the grave site. Beyond that, crew teams row by and around the peninsula that since at least 1868 has served as the Naval Academy’s cemetery. Boats sail past, and occasional car horns from the nearby Baltimore Boulevard bridge interrupt the peace.
On Saturday, as McCain spent his final hours surrounded by family at his ranch in Arizona, his grave was already marked. “Sect 8 1704 McCain,” read a handwritten sign on a wooden post, noting the section and grave number, adjacent to Larson’s grave. —