For his part, her husband Jack McCain was punished for being absent without leave. Her 48 years of marriage were consumed by her husband's naval career, yet McCain looks back at her time as a service wife with delight, though the pay was dismal and her husband was gone for long stretches. When he was home, Jack was a tireless workaholic. If you chose the Navy, you do what it requires. A lot of wives didn't like that, and thankfully they left.
People work on high bridges.
When an accident happens, you can't bellyache. You chose the profession. When McCain read an excerpt from a book about her son's time in captivity, she called him, not to empathize but to berate him. In one particularly brutal scene, he heaved bouquets of expletives at his captors. She didn't budge.