1,500 line up to pay respects to John Mccain
PHOENIX — Fifteen hundred people endured triple-digit Arizona heat Wednesday and waited in long lines outside the Arizona Capitol to attend a public viewing honoring the late Sen. John Mccain.
The public viewing followed the emotional private ceremony attended by the Mccain family and drew a mix of people — Republicans and Democrats, Arizonans and Californians. Some of them had met Mccain. Those who didn't know him still felt a need to attend.
Parents brought their children so they could witness history. Many of those in line said they were drawn to the event to honor Mccain's military service. Others said they liked his politics.
And even those who didn't always agree with Mccain said they owed it to him to pay their respects.
The following is a sample of those who waited in line: ___ A group of more than 80 Vietnamese residents from Orange County, California, came in on two buses. The group wore specially made yellow Tshirts that said, "We salute our hero Senator John Mccain."
Derrick Nguyen, 55, said a radio station in the Little Saigon community announced it would provide bus transportation if people wanted to go pay final respects to Mccain.
Nguyen, an attorney and a community organizer, said more than 100 people signed up right away, though several stayed back in California because of the heat and timing.
"We are so excited and so touched to have this opportunity to pay our respects to the late senator," Nguyen said.
Mccain was beloved for his experience in fighting alongside the South Vietnamese and for supporting the families of political detainees. Nguyen said in the 1990s Mccain pushed an amendment to a law that allowed for unmarried, adult children of detainees to come to the United States.
"Many, many of the families that wouldn't have made it to America made it here. And they have become U.S. citizens and good Americans," Nguyen said. ___ John Caccitolo wheeled his 4-month-old son in a stroller through the long line of people waiting to pay their respects to Mccain.
Caccitolo, a staff sergeant in the Army who drove up from Tucson for the public viewing, said it's important for him to bring his son so he could have a little piece of history.
"I wanted him to be able to say that he was here when he grows up," Caccitolo said.
Caccitolo said he never met Mccain, but he was impressed with his military service, including his refusal to take early release as a prisoner of war until his fellow prisoners were freed.
"To agree to stay is pretty incredible," Caccitolo said. "And when you get back (to the United States), you would think he would want to hang out at the beach. But he wanted to continue serving his country." ___ Louis Albin, an artist in Phoenix and Navy veteran, wore a sailor's cap and dressed in all white to honor Mccain and his military service.
His custom-made Tshirt featured an image of a thumb's-up covered in the stars and stripes of the flag. The image is a play on Mccain's thumb's-down vote that sank President Donald Trump's repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
Albin turned the thumb up as a wink to Mccain's vote, of which Albin approved.
Albin said he got to know Mccain over the years at town hall meetings as the senator responded to the scandal at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in which whistleblowers revealed that veterans on secret waiting lists faced delays in their health care of up to a year.
"He knew me," Albin said. "He didn't know my name or anything. But he knew me from the events."
Albin said he voted for Mccain, but he didn't always agree with him. He disapproved of Mccain's role in the savings and loan scandal in the 1980s.
"But as person, I liked him," Albin said.