Three generations of courage
Tortured from his capture in 1967 to his release in 1973 so much so that up till his death on Aug. 25, he could not raise his arms overhead, John S. McCain III rejected early release from his North Vietnamese captors, to—as the New York Times puts it, “keep his honor and to avoid an enemy propaganda coup or risk demoralizing his fellow prisoners.”
During his solitary confinement, his weight dropped to 108 pounds. By the time he was freed at age 36, his hair had already gone white.
Courage despite unrelenting pain is rare. The current Potus (President of the United States) once mocked McCain, “I like people who weren’t captured” and even refused to fly the flag at half-mast for the late senator until the public clamored for it.
The Navy was the family business. His grandfather, Admiral John Sidney McCain Sr. saw combat in World War I, and when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, he became aircraft commander in the South Pacific.
In the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944, when the Allied fleet faced the bigger forces of Japanese Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita, McCain Sr. came to the rescue.
“McCain had been monitor- ing the original pleas for help and, recognizing the seriousness of the situation, turned around without awaiting orders,” says a Wikipedia entry. “His ships raced downwind toward the battle, briefly turning into the wind to recover returning planes. [Afterwards, Allied support came.] Though the attack did little damage, it strengthened Kurita's decision to retire.”
McCain Sr.’s health was failing, and when Japan fell, he just wanted to go home. But he had to sit in the front row of the USS Missouri when Japan surrendered formally in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945. Four days later, he died at home in California.
His son John Sidney McCain Jr. had already been commanding submarines in the same war. Wikipedia describes one such engagement:
“Underwater for hours, sometimes near the sea bottom, McCain surfaced; Japanese escorts fired shells at him as he stood on the bridge, while he fired torpedoes back, striking and sinking one … McCain dove again and the Japanese ships continued in sonar-based pursuit. After a total of 36 hours, nearly all spent underwater, [submarine] Gunnel’s batteries were about to fail and the air was very hot and virtually unbreathable. McCain surfaced in battle stations position, ready to engage in a disadvantageous gun battle with the Japanese pursuers, but they were heading in the opposite direction and he was able to escape.”
McCain Jr. would become an admiral, too, making Senior and Junior the first father and son to achieve the highest naval honor in the United States.
McCain Jr. became commander of US Naval Forces in Europe, and from 1968 to 1972, commander in chief of Pacific Command, overseeing the Vietnam War. Even though his son was in Hanoi, he still ordered bombings in the area. He and his wife bore the pain of their son’s captivity bravely, saying only that news that his son was alive was “something to live for.”
McCain Jr. retired in 1972, and a year after, his son was released. In 1981, the former had a heart attack aboard an aircraft carrier.
Hardly saints (the McCains graduated near the bottom in Annapolis Naval Academy), they indulged in drink. McCain III divorced his first wife, by his side during his trials, to marry a younger woman.
But the late senator possessed profound moral sense. He campaigned against waterboarding and other forms of torture. In 2008, when a woman made racist remarks against Obama, McCain III defended his opponent, describing him a “decent family man.”
McCain III pushed to resume US relations with Vietnam. Upon his death, many Vietnamese openly mourned. His former rivals, presidents Obama and Bush, did eulogies, bridging for a moment the partisan divide.