Biographic - Sunday October 26, 2008 Comic Strip Licensing and Permissions

Transcript

John McCain was born at Coco solo naval air station in the Panama Canal Zone on August 29, 1936. Both his father and grandfather were four-star navy admirals, so it was no surprise that McCain entered the Naval Academy. After graduation, he trained as a naval pilot and was eventually assigned to combat duty in 1967. By then, he had married model Carol Shepp, adopting her two young boys. Daughter Sidney was born in 1966. Flying a bombing mission over North Vietnam in 1967, McCain was shot down and captured. Seriously injured, he was imprisoned in the jail nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton" and badly mistreated by his captors. Declining an early preparation, which he believed would hand the north Vietnamese a propaganda victory, he was held prisoner for five and a half years. After lengthy rehabilitation and physical therapy, he assumed command of a squadron in Florida before serving as the navy's liaison to the U.S. Senate, where he developed his political aspirations. By the time the much-decorated captain retired from the navy in 1981, his marriage had ended, and he had recently wed Cindy Hensley. He went to work for her father's beer distribution company in Phoenix, Arizona, where he began to lay the groundwork for a run for office. He was elected to congress in 1982. The McCains have four children together, including a daughter adopted from a Bangladesh Orphanege, In 1986, McCain succeeded conservative icon Barry Goldwater to become senator from Arizona. Three distinguished terms in the senate led to a run for the G.O.P presidential nomination in 2000, and a loss to George W. Bush if his second oval office succeeds, the 72-year-old will become the oldest man ever elected to the presidency.

Tags