Early life and military career of John McCain The early life and military career of John Sidney McCain III spans the first forty - five years of his life ( 1936 – 1981 ) . McCain ' s father and grandfather were admirals in the United States Navy . McCain was born on August 29 , 1936 , in the Panama Canal Zone , and attended many schools growing up as his family moved among naval facilities . McCain graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1958 . He married the former Carol Shepp in 1965 ; he adopted two children from her previous marriage and they had another child together . As a naval aviator , McCain flew attack aircraft from carriers . During the Vietnam War , he narrowly escaped death in the 1967 " Forrestal " fire . On his twenty - third bombing mission in October 1967 , he was shot down over Hanoi and badly injured . He subsequently endured five and a half years as a prisoner of war , including periods of torture . In 1968 , he refused a North Vietnam ese offer of early release , because it would have meant leaving before other prisoners who had been held longer . He was released in 1973 after the Paris Peace Accords . Upon his return , McCain studied at the National War College , commanded a large training squadron in Florida , and was appointed the Navy liaison to the U . S . Senate . He divorced his wife Carol in 1980 and married the former Cindy Hensley shortly thereafter . He retired from the Navy in 1981 as a captain . Early years and education . Family heritage . John Sidney McCain III was born on August 29 , 1936 , at a United States Navy hospital at Coco Solo Naval Air Station in Panama Canal Zone , Panama , to Navy officer John S . " Jack " McCain , Jr . ( 1911 – 1981 ) and Roberta ( Wright ) McCain ( 1912 – ) . McCain is of Scotch - Irish and English ancestry . John McCain ' s grandparents were natives of Arkansas , Mississippi , and Texas , and much of his ancestry was Southern on both his mother ' s side and father ' s side . The McCain family ' s patrilineal ancestral home is in Mississippi ' s Carroll County ; they owned and ran a plantation in Teoc from 1848 until 1952 . The plantation had slaves before the American Civil War – some of whose descendants share the surname and call themselves the " black McCains " – and sharecropper s afterward ; influential blues guitarist Mississippi John Hurt was born on the plantation to one of the latter . The McCain family tree has a long heritage of American military service , with ancestors fighting as soldiers in the Indian Wars , American Revolutionary War ( due to which McCain maintains a membership with the Sons of the American Revolution ) , War of 1812 , for the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War , and in World War I . The tree also includes roguish behavior and economic success . John McCain ' s maternal grandfather , Archibald Wright ( 1875 – 1971 ) , was a Mississippi native who migrated to Muskogee , Oklahoma in his twenties , ran afoul of the law with several gambling and bootlegging charges , then became a strong - willed wildcatter who prospered on land deals during the early statehood years and struck oil in the Southwest . Rich by age forty , he never worked again and became a stay - at - home father . Raising a family in Oklahoma and Southern California , he instilled in Roberta and her twin sister Rowena a lifelong habit of travel and adventure . There is also independent - minded behavior in the family tree : Jack McCain and Roberta Wright eloped and married in a bar in Tijuana , Mexico , when Archibald Wright ' s wife Myrtle objected to Roberta ' s association with a sailor . McCain ' s father and paternal grandfather eventually became Navy admirals , and were the first father - son pair to achieve four - star admiral rank . His grandfather , Admiral John S . " Slew " McCain , Sr . ( 1884 – 1945 ) , was a pioneer of aircraft carrier operations who in 1942 commanded all land - based air operations in support of the Guadalcanal campaign , and who ultimately in 1944 – 1945 aggressively led the Fast Carrier Task Force in the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II . His operations off the Philippines and Okinawa , and air strikes against Formosa and the Japanese home islands , caused tremendous destruction of Japanese naval and air forces in the closing period of the war . His death four days after the Japanese surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay was front page news . Jack McCain was a submarine commander in several theaters of operation in World War II and was decorated with both the Silver Star and Bronze Star . Early life . For his first ten years , " Johnny " McCain ( the family nickname he was given ) was frequently uprooted as his family , including older sister Sandy ( born 1934 ) and younger brother Joe ( born 1942 ) , followed his father to New London , Connecticut , Pearl Harbor , Hawaii , and other stations in the Pacific Ocean . Summer vacations were sometimes spent at the family ' s Teoc plantation , but McCain always felt his heritage was military , not Southern . McCain attended whatever naval base school was available , often to the detriment of his education , as schools were sometimes substandard and their curricula often erratic . After the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor , his father was absent for long stretches . His formal education was supplemented by the efforts of his mother , who took advantage of the family ' s many long - distance travels to expose him to historical and cultural sites . He later wrote , " She taught me to find so much pleasure in life that misfortune could not rob me of the joy of living . " A Republican , she also made sure that he followed current events , although his parents avoided outward partisan affiliations due to his father ' s military career . After World War II ended , his father stayed in the Navy , sometimes working political liaison posts . The family settled in Northern Virginia , and McCain attended the educationally stronger St . Stephen ' s School in Alexandria from 1946 to 1949 . To his family , McCain had long been quiet , dependable , and courteous , while at St . Stephen ' s he began to develop an unruly , defiant streak . Another two years were then spent following his father to naval stations ; altogether he attended about twenty schools during his youth . He was frequently disciplined in school for fighting . He later wrote , " The repeated farewells to friends rank among the saddest regrets of a childhood constantly disrupted by the demands of my father ' s career . . . At each new school I arrived eager to make , by means of my insolent attitude , new friends to compensate for the loss of others . At each new school I grew more determined to assert my crude individualism . At each new school I became a more unrepentant pain in the neck . " In 1951 , McCain enrolled at Episcopal High School in Alexandria , an academically superior , all - male private boarding school with a rigorous honor code , tradition of hazing , and spartan living environment . Most of the children there were sons of wealthy Southerners , from whom McCain got a glimpse of life and career aspirations outside the Navy culture . Nicknamed " Punk " and " McNasty " due to his combative , fiery disposition , McCain enjoyed and cultivated that tough guy image ; he also made a few friends . McCain earned two varsity letters in wrestling , excelling in the lighter weight classes . He also played on the junior varsity football team and the tennis team , and participated in the student newspaper , yearbook , and drama club . English teacher William Bee Ravenel III , who was also his football coach , became a great influence towards his sense of learning , honor , and self - image . With what he later termed an " undistinguished , but acceptable " academic record , McCain graduated from high school in 1954 . Naval Academy . Having done well on its entrance exams , McCain entered the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis , Maryland in June 1954 , following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather . He had neither been ordered to go there by his parents nor discussed alternatives ; as he later wrote , " I remember simply recognizing my eventual enrollment at the Academy as an immutable fact of life , and accepting it without comment . " Ambivalent about his presence there , McCain chose not to conform to the Academy ' s rules and some of its traditions . Each year he was given over a hundred demerits – earning him membership in the " Century Club " – for offenses such as shoes not being shined , formation faults , room in disorder , and talking out of place . His father came to the Academy to reprimand him on his behavior a number of times . He hated " plebe year " , the trial by ordeal and hazing of entering midshipmen that would eventually weed out one quarter of the class . He did not take well to those of higher rank arbitrarily wielding power over him – " It was bullshit , and I resented the hell out of it " – and occasionally intervened when he saw it being done to others . At 5 - foot 7 inches and 127 pounds ( 1 . 70 m and 58 kg ) , he competed as a lightweight boxer for three years , where he lacked skills but was fearless and " didn ' t have a reverse gear " . In his final year , he managed the battalion boxing team to a brigade championship . Possessed of a strong intelligence , McCain did well in a few subjects that interested him , such as English literature , history , and government . There was a fixed Bachelor of Science curriculum taken by all midshipmen ; McCain ' s classmates were impressed by his cramming abilities on mathematics , science , and engineering courses and thought his low grades were by inclination and not ability , while McCain would later acknowledge that those courses were a struggle for him . His class rank was further lowered by poor grades for conduct and leadership , which reflected his sloppy appearance , rebellious attitude , and poor relations with his company officer . Despite his low standing , he was popular and a leader among his fellow midshipmen , in what biographer Robert Timberg called a " manic , intuitive , highly idiosyncratic way " . Good at attracting women , he was famed for organizing off - Yard activities with a group who called themselves " the Bad Bunch " ; one classmate said that " being on liberty with John McCain was like being in a train wreck . " Other midshipmen were annoyed by his behavior . A June 1957 training cruise aboard the destroyer found McCain showing good skills at the conn , and the destination stop in Rio de Janeiro led to a dream - like romance with Brazilian fashion model and ballerina Maria Gracinda that persisted through a Christmastime reunion . McCain graduated from the Naval Academy in June 1958 ; he was fifth from the bottom in class rank , 894th out of 899 . Despite his difficulties , McCain later wrote that he never defamed the more compelling traditions of the Academy – courage , resilience , honor , and sacrifice for one ' s country – and he never wavered in his desire to show his father and family that he was of the same mettle as his naval forebears . Indeed , Slew and Jack McCain had not had sterling records at the Academy themselves , finishing in the bottom third and bottom twentieth respectively . McCain realized later that the Academy had taught him that " to sustain my self - respect for a lifetime it would be necessary for me to have the honor of serving something greater than my self - interest " , a lesson that he would need to carry him through a " desperate and uncertain " time a decade later . Military career . Naval training , early assignments , first marriage , and children . McCain was commissioned an ensign . He spent two years as a naval aviator in training , first at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida through September 1959 , and then at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas , during which time he was promoted to lieutenant , junior grade . He earned a reputation as a party man , as he drove a Corvette , dated an exotic dancer named " Marie the Flame of Florida " , spent all his free time on the beach or in a Bachelor Officer Quarters room turned bar and friendly gambling den , and , as he later said , " generally misused my good health and youth " . He began as a sub - par flier : he had limited patience for studying aviation manuals , and spent study time reading history books instead . He was not assigned to the elite units flying fighter aircraft , and instead became a pilot of attack aircraft . During a March 1960 practice run in Texas , he lost track of his altitude and speed , and his single - seat , single - pistoned - engine AD - 6 Skyraider crashed into Corpus Christi Bay and sank to the bottom . Although momentarily knocked unconscious by the impact , he squeezed out of the cockpit and swam ten feet to the surface , escaping without major injuries . He graduated from flight school at Corpus Christi in May 1960 . He joined squadron VA - 42 at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia for five months of further training on the Skyraider . Starting in November 1960 , McCain flew Skyraiders with the VA - 65 " World Famous Fighting Tigers " squadron on the aircraft carriers and . The carriers were based at Naval Station Norfolk and cruised in the Caribbean and in several deployments to the Mediterranean . His aviation skills improved , but around December 1961 he collided with power lines while recklessly flying too low over southern Spain . The area suffered a power outage , but McCain was able to return his damaged Skyraider to " Intrepid " . On board for " Enterprise " ' s maiden voyage in January 1962 , McCain gained visibility with the captain and shipboard publicity that fellow sailors and aviators attributed to his famous last name . McCain was made a lieutenant in June 1962 , and was on alert duty on " Enterprise " when it helped enforce the naval quarantine of Cuba during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis . In November 1963 , he was rotated back to shore duty , serving nine months on the staff of the Naval Air Basic Training Command at Pensacola . In September 1964 , he became a flight instructor with the VT - 7 training squadron at Naval Air Station Meridian in Mississippi , where McCain Field had been named for his grandfather . During the 1964 stint at Pensacola , McCain began a relationship with Carol Shepp , a successful swimwear and runway model originally from Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . They had known each other at the Naval Academy and she had married and then divorced one of his classmates . McCain told her he wanted to do something important with his life , so he would be recorded in history . On July 3 , 1965 , McCain married Shepp in Philadelphia . She already had two children , Douglas and Andrew , born in 1959 and 1962 respectively ; he adopted them in 1966 . Carol and he then had a daughter named Sidney in September 1966 . In July 1965 , McCain appeared as a contestant on the quiz show " Jeopardy ! " ( during the Fleming era ) , winning one game and losing the next . In November 1965 , he had his third accident when apparent engine failure in his T - 2 Buckeye trainer jet over the Eastern Shore of Virginia led to his ejecting safely before his plane crashed . While at Meridian , McCain requested a combat assignment . In October 1966 , he was slated for upcoming Vietnam War duty , and so reported to the VA - 44 Replacement Air Group squadron at Naval Air Station Cecil Field in Florida for training on the A - 4 Skyhawk , a single - seat jet attack aircraft . There McCain was seen as a good pilot , albeit one who tended to " push the envelope " in his flying . Promoted to lieutenant commander in January 1967 , McCain joined the aircraft carrier by May 1967 , flying Skyhawks with the VA - 46 " Clansmen " squadron . " Forrestal " conducted training exercises in the Atlantic throughout the spring , then set sail for the Pacific in June . By this time , Jack McCain had risen in the ranks , making rear admiral in 1958 and vice admiral in 1963 ; in May 1967 , he was promoted to four - star admiral , and became Commander - in - Chief , U . S . Naval Forces , Europe , stationed in London . Vietnam operations . On July 25 , 1967 , " Forrestal " reached Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin and joined Operation Rolling Thunder , the 1965 – 1968 air interdiction and strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnam . The alpha strikes flown from " Forrestal " were against specific , pre - selected targets such as arms depots , factories , and bridges . They were quite dangerous , due to the strength of the North Vietnamese air defenses , which used Soviet - designed and - supplied surface - to - air missile s , anti - aircraft artillery , and MiG jet interceptors . McCain ' s first five attack missions over North Vietnam went without incident , and while still unconcerned with minor Navy regulations , McCain had garnered the reputation of a serious aviator . McCain and his fellow pilots were frustrated by the micromanagement of Rolling Thunder from Washington ; he later wrote , " The target list was so restricted that we had to go back and hit the same targets over and over again . . . Most of our pilots flying the missions believed that our targets were virtually worthless . In all candor , we thought our civilian commanders were complete idiots who didn ' t have the least notion of what it took to win the war . " McCain was almost killed on board " Forrestal " on July 29 , 1967 . While the air wing was preparing to launch attacks , a Zuni rocket from an F - 4 Phantom accidentally fired across the carrier ' s deck . The rocket struck either McCain ' s A - 4E Skyhawk or one near it . The impact ruptured the Skyhawk ' s fuel tank , which ignited the fuel and knocked two bombs loose . McCain later said , " I thought my aircraft exploded . Flames were everywhere . " McCain escaped from his jet by climbing out the cockpit , working himself to the nose of the jet , and jumping off its refueling probe onto the burning deck . His flight suit caught on fire as he rolled through the flames , but he was able to put it out . He went to help another pilot trying to escape the fire when the first bomb exploded ; McCain was thrown backwards ten feet ( three meters ) and suffered minor wounds when struck in the legs and chest by fragments . McCain helped crewmen throw unexploded bombs overboard off the hangar deck elevator , then went to " Forrestal " ' s ready room and with other pilots watched the ensuing fire and the fire - fighting efforts on the room ' s closed - circuit television . The fire killed 134 sailors , injured scores of others , destroyed at least 20 aircraft , and took 24 hours to control . In Saigon a day after the conflagration , McCain praised the heroism of enlisted men who gave their lives trying to save the pilots on deck , and told " New York Times " reporter R . W . Apple , Jr . , " It ' s a difficult thing to say . But now that I ' ve seen what the bombs and the napalm did to the people on our ship , I ' m not so sure that I want to drop any more of that stuff on North Vietnam . " But such a change of course was unlikely ; as McCain added , " I always wanted to be in the Navy . I was born into it and I never really considered another profession . But I always had trouble with the regimentation . " As " Forrestal " headed to port for repairs , McCain volunteered to join the undermanned VA - 163 " Saints " squadron on board the . This carrier had earlier endured its own deck fire disaster and its squadrons had suffered some of the heaviest losses during Rolling Thunder . The Saints had a reputation for aggressive , daring attacks , but paid the price : in 1967 , one - third of their pilots were killed or captured , and all of their original fifteen A - 4s had been destroyed . After taking some leave in Europe and back home in Orange Park , Florida , McCain joined " Oriskany " on September 30 , 1967 , for a tour he expected would finish early the next summer . He volunteered to fly the squadron ' s most dangerous missions right away , rather than work his way up to them . During October 1967 , the pilots operated in constant twelve - hour on , twelve - hour off shifts . McCain would be awarded a Navy Commendation Medal for leading his air section through heavy enemy fire during an October 18 raid on the Lac Trai shipyard in Haiphong . On October 25 , McCain successfully attacked the Phuc Yen airfield north of Hanoi through a barrage of anti - aircraft artillery and surface - to - air missile fire , which would garner him the Bronze Star . Air defenses around Hanoi were then the strongest they would be during the entire war . Prisoner of war . Arrival . On October 26 , 1967 , McCain was flying his twenty - third mission , part of a twenty - plane strike force against the Yen Phu thermal power plant in central Hanoi that previously had almost always been off - limits to U . S . raids due to the possibility of collateral damage . Arriving just before noon , McCain dove from 9 , 000 to 4 , 000 feet on his approach ; as he neared the target , warning systems in McCain ' s A - 4E Skyhawk alerted him that he was being tracked by enemy fire - control radar . Like other U . S . pilots , he would not consider breaking off a bombing run , and he held his dive until he released his bombs at about 3 , 500 feet ( 1 , 000 m ) . As he started to pull up , the Skyhawk ' s wing was blown off by a Soviet - made SA - 2 anti - aircraft missile fired by the North Vietnamese Air Defense Command ' s 61st Battalion , commanded by Captain Nguyen Lan and with fire control officer Lieutenant Nguyen Xuan Dai . ( McCain was later awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for this day , while Nguyen Xuan Dai was awarded the title Hero of the People ' s Armed Forces . Decades later , Soviet Army Lieutenant Yuri Trushechkin claimed that he had been the missile guidance officer who had shot McCain down . In any case , the raid was a failure , as the power plant was not damaged and three of the Navy planes were shot down . ) McCain ' s plane went into a vertical inverted spin . Bailing out upside down at high speed , the force of the ejection fractured McCain ' s right arm in three places , his left arm , and his right leg at the knee , and knocked him unconscious . McCain nearly drowned after parachuting into Trúc Bạch Lake in Hanoi ; the weight of his equipment was pulling him down , and as he regained consciousness , he could not use his arms . Eventually , he was able to inflate his life vest using his teeth . Several Vietnamese , possibly led by Department of Industry clerk Mai Van On , pulled him ashore . A mob gathered around , spat on him , kicked him , and stripped him of his clothes ; his left shoulder was crushed with the butt of a rifle and he was bayoneted in his left foot and abdominal area . He was then transported to Hanoi ' s main Hoa Lo Prison , nicknamed the " Hanoi Hilton " by American POWs . McCain reached Hoa Lo in as bad a physical condition as any prisoner during the war . His captors refused to give him medical care unless he gave them military information ; they beat and interrogated him , but McCain only offered his name , rank , serial number , and date of birth ( the only information he was required to provide under the Geneva Conventions and permitted to give under the U . S . Code of Conduct ) . Soon thinking he was near death , McCain said he would give them more information if taken to the hospital , hoping he could then put his interrogators off once he was treated . A prison doctor came and said it was too late , as McCain was about to die anyway . Only when the North Vietnamese discovered that his father was a top admiral did they give him medical care , calling him " the crown prince " . Two days after McCain ' s plane went down , that event and his status as a POW made the front pages of " The New York Times " and " The Washington Post " . Interrogation and beatings resumed in the hospital ; McCain gave the North Vietnamese his ship ' s name , squadron ' s name , and the attack ' s intended target . This information , along with personal details of McCain ' s life and purported statements by McCain about the war ' s progress , would appear over the next two weeks in the North Vietnamese official newspaper " Nhân Dân " as well as in dispatches from outlets such as the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina . Disclosing the military information was in violation of the Code of Conduct , which McCain later wrote he regretted , although he saw the information as being of no practical use to the North Vietnamese . Further coerced to give future targets , he named cities that had already been bombed , and responding to demands for the names of his squadron ' s members , he supplied instead the names of the Green Bay Packers ' offensive line . McCain spent six weeks in the hospital , receiving marginal care in a dirty , wet environment . A prolonged attempt to set the fractures on his right arm , done without anesthetic , was unsuccessful ; he received an operation on his broken leg but no treatment for his broken left arm . He was temporarily taken to a clean room and interviewed by a French journalist , François Chalais , whose report was carried on the French television program " Panorama " in January 1968 and later in the U . S . on the " CBS Evening News " . The film footage of McCain lying in the bed , in a cast , smoking cigarettes and speaking haltingly , would become the most well - known images of McCain ' s imprisonment . McCain was observed by a variety of North Vietnamese , including renowned Vietnamese writer Nguyễn Tuân and Defense Minister and Army commander - in - chief General Vo Nguyen Giap . Many of the North Vietnamese observers assumed that McCain must be part of America ' s political - military - economic elite . Now having lost fifty pounds ( twenty - three kilograms ) , in a chest cast , covered in grime and eyes full of fever , and with his hair turned white , in early December 1967 McCain was sent to a prisoner - of - war camp on the outskirts of Hanoi nicknamed " the Plantation " . He was placed in a cell with George " Bud " Day , a badly injured and tortured Air Force pilot ( later awarded the Medal of Honor ) and Norris Overly , another Air Force pilot ; they did not expect McCain to live another week . Overly , and subsequently Day , nursed McCain and kept him alive ; Day later remembered that McCain had " a fantastic will to live " . Solitary . In March 1968 , McCain was put into solitary confinement , where he remained for two years . Unknown to the POWs , in April 1968 , Jack McCain was named Commander - in - Chief , Pacific Command ( CINCPAC ) effective in July , stationed in Honolulu and commander of all U . S . forces in the Vietnam theater . In mid - June , Major Bai , commander of the North Vietnamese prison camp system , offered McCain a chance to return home early . The North Vietnamese wanted to score a worldwide propaganda coup by appearing merciful , and also wanted to show other POWs that members of the elite like McCain were willing to be treated preferentially . McCain turned down the offer of release , due to the POWs ' " first in , first out " interpretation of the U . S . Code of Conduct : he would only accept the offer if every man captured before him was released as well . McCain ' s refusal to be released was remarked upon by North Vietnamese senior negotiator Le Duc Tho to U . S . envoy Averell Harriman , during the ongoing Paris Peace Talks . Enraged by his declining of the offer , Bai and his assistant told McCain that things would get very bad for him . In late August 1968 , a program of vigorous torture methods began on McCain . The North Vietnamese used rope bindings to put him into prolonged , painful positions and severely beat him every two hours , all while he was suffering from dysentery . His right leg was reinjured , his ribs were cracked , some teeth were broken at the gumline , and his left arm was re - fractured . Lying in his own waste , his spirit was broken ; the beginnings of a suicide attempt were stopped by guards . After four days of this , McCain signed and taped an anti - American propaganda " confession " that said , in part , " I am a black criminal and I have performed the deeds of an air pirate . I almost died , and the Vietnamese people saved my life , thanks to the doctors . " He used stilted Communist jargon and ungrammatical language to signal that the statement was forced . McCain was haunted then and since with the belief that he had dishonored his country , his family , his comrades and himself by his statement , but as he later wrote , " I had learned what we all learned over there : Every man has his breaking point . I had reached mine . " Two weeks later his captors tried to force him to sign a second statement ; his will to resist restored , he refused . He sometimes received two to three beatings per week because of his continued resistance ; the sustained mistreatment went on for over a year . His refusals to cooperate , laced with loud obscenities directed towards his guards , were often heard by other POWs . His boxing experience from his Naval Academy days helped him withstand the battering , and the North Vietnamese did not break him again . Other American POWs were similarly tortured and maltreated in order to extract " confessions " and propaganda statements . Many , especially among those who had been captured earlier and imprisoned longer – such as those in the " Alcatraz Gang " – endured even worse treatment than McCain . Under extreme duress , virtually all the POWs eventually yielded something to their captors . There were momentary exceptions : on one occasion , a guard surreptitiously loosened McCain ' s painful rope bindings for a night ; when , months later , the guard later saw McCain on Christmas Day , he stood next to McCain and silently drew a cross in the dirt with his foot . In October 1968 , McCain ' s isolation was partly relieved when Ernest C . Brace was placed in the cell next to him ; he taught Brace the tap code the prisoners used to communicate . On Christmas Eve 1968 , a church service for the POWs was staged for photographers and film cameras ; McCain defied North Vietnamese instructions to be quiet , speaking out details of his treatment then shouting " Fu - u - u - u - ck you , you son of a bitch ! " and giving the finger whenever a camera was pointed at him . McCain refused to meet with various anti - Vietnam War peace groups coming to Hanoi , such as those led by David Dellinger , Tom Hayden , and Rennie Davis , not wanting to give either them or the North Vietnamese a propaganda victory based on his connection to his father . McCain was still badly hobbled by his injuries , earning the nickname " Crip " among the other POWs , but despite his physical condition , continued beatings and isolation , he was one of the key players in the Plantation ' s resistance efforts . In May 1969 , U . S . Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird began publicly questioning North Vietnamese treatment of U . S . prisoners . On June 5 , 1969 , a United Press International report described a Radio Hanoi broadcast that denied any such mistreatment . The broadcast used excerpts from McCain ' s forced " confession " of a year before , including a statement where he said he had bombed " cities , towns and villages " and had received " very good medical treatment " as a prisoner . In late 1969 , treatment of McCain and the other POWs suddenly improved . North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh had died the previous month , possibly causing a change in policy towards POWs . Also , a badly beaten and weakened POW who had been released that summer disclosed to the world press the conditions to which they were being subjected , and the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia , which included McCain ' s brother Joe , heightened awareness of the POWs ' plight . In December 1969 , McCain was transferred back to the Hoa Lo " Hanoi Hilton " ; his solitary confinement ended in March 1970 . When the prisoners talked about what they wanted to do once they got out , McCain said he wanted to become President . McCain consented to a January 1970 interview outside Hoa Lo with Spanish - born , Cuban psychologist Fernando Barral , that was published in the official Cuban newspaper " Granma " . McCain talked about his life and expressed no remorse for his bombing North Vietnam , and Barral proclaimed him " an insensitive individual without human depth . " The POWs issued an edict forbidding any further such interviews , and despite pressure from his captors , McCain subsequently refused to see any anti - war groups or journalists sympathetic to the North Vietnamese regime . Release . McCain and other prisoners were moved around to different camps at times , but conditions over the next several years were generally more tolerable than they had been before . Unbeknownst to them , each year that Jack McCain was CINCPAC , he paid a Christmastime visit to the American troops in South Vietnam serving closest to the DMZ ; he would stand alone and look north , to be as close to his son as he could get . By 1971 , some 30 – 50 percent of the POWs had become disillusioned about the war , both because of the apparent lack of military progress and what they heard of the growing anti - war movement in the U . S . , and some of them were less reluctant to make propaganda statements for the North Vietnamese . McCain was not among them : he participated in a defiant church service and led an effort to write letters home that only portrayed the camp in a negative light , and as a result spent much of the year in a camp reserved for " bad attitude " cases . Back at the " Hanoi Hilton " from November 1971 onward , McCain and the other POWs cheered the resumed bombing of the north starting in April 1972 , whose targets included the Hanoi area and whose daily orders were issued by Jack McCain , knowing his son was in the vicinity . Jack McCain ' s tour as CINCPAC ended in September 1972 , despite his desire to have it extended so he could see the war to its conclusion . The old - time POWs cheered even more during the intense " Christmas Bombing " campaign of December 1972 , when Hanoi was subjected for the first time to repeated B - 52 Stratofortress raids . Although its explosions lit the night sky and shook the walls of the camp , scaring some of the newer POWs , most saw it as a forceful measure to compel North Vietnam to finally come to terms . The Paris Peace Accords were signed on January 27 , 1973 , ending direct U . S . involvement in the war , but the Operation Homecoming arrangements for the 591 American POWs took longer . McCain was finally released from captivity on March 14 , 1973 , being taken by bus to Gia Lam Airport , transferred to U . S . custody , and flown by C - 141 to Clark Air Base in the Philippines . Altogether , McCain was held as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five and a half years , nearly five of them after his refusal to accept the out - of - sequence repatriation offer . His wartime injuries left him permanently incapable of raising either arm more than 80 degrees . For his actions as a POW , McCain was awarded the Silver Star , the Legion of Merit , three more instances of the Bronze Star , another instance of the Navy Commendation Medal , and the Purple Heart . He also gained an appreciation , from experiencing the mutual help and organized resistance of the POWs , that his earlier individualism needed to be tempered by a belief in causes greater than self - interest . Return to United States . Upon his return to the United States a few days later , McCain was reunited with his wife Carol and his family . She had suffered her own crippling , near - death ordeal during his captivity , due to an automobile accident in December 1969 that left her hospitalized for six months and facing twenty - three operations and ongoing physical therapy . Businessman and POW advocate Ross Perot had paid for her medical care . By the time McCain saw her , she was four inches ( ten centimeters ) shorter , on crutches , and substantially heavier . As a returned POW , McCain became a celebrity of sorts : " The New York Times " ran a story and front - page photo of him getting off the plane at Clark Air Base in the Philippines ; he authored a thirteen - page cover story describing his ordeal and his support for the Nixon administration ' s handling of the war in " U . S . News & World Report " ; he participated in parades in Orange Park and elsewhere and made personal appearances before groups , where he showed strong speaking skills ; he was given the key to the city of Jacksonville , Florida ; and a photograph of him on crutches shaking the hand of President Richard Nixon at a White House reception for returning POWs became iconic . The McCains became frequent guests of honor at dinners hosted by Governor of California Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy Reagan , and John McCain made a strong impression speaking at a large prayer breakfast hosted by the governor . McCain had admired Ronald Reagan while in captivity and afterwards , believing him a man who saw honor in Vietnam service and a potential leader would not lead the nation into a war it was unwilling to win . McCain underwent three operations and other treatment for his injuries , spending three months at the Naval Regional Medical Center in Jacksonville . Psychological tests , given to all the returning POWs , showed that McCain had " adjusted exceptionally well to repatriation " and had " an ambitious , striving , successful pattern of adjustment " . McCain told examiners that he withstood his ordeal by having " Faith in country , United States Navy , family , and God " . Unlike many veterans , McCain did not experience flashbacks or nightmares of his Vietnam experience , although due to the association with prison guards , the sound of keys rattling would cause him to " tense up " . McCain was promoted to commander effective July 1973 and attended the National War College in Fort McNair in Washington , D . C . during the 1973 – 1974 academic year . There he intensively studied the history of Vietnam and the French and American wars there , and wrote " The Code of Conduct and the Vietnam Prisoners of War " , a long paper on the Vietnam POW experience as a test of the U . S . Code of Conduct . By the time he graduated , he concluded that mistakes by American political and military leaders had doomed the war effort . He accepted the right of the anti - war movement in the U . S . to have exercised their freedom to protest , and he adopted a live - and - let - live attitude towards those who had evaded the draft . Nor did the vast changes in American social mores that had taken place during his absence bother him , as it did many other former POWs . McCain returned to Saigon in November 1974 ; he and a couple of other former POWs received the National Order of Vietnam , that country ' s highest honor . He also spoke at the South Vietnamese war college , five months before Saigon fell . McCain resolved not to become a " professional POW " but to move forward and rebuild his life . Few thought McCain could fly again , but he was determined to try , and during this time he engaged in nine months of grueling , painful physical therapy , especially to get his knees to bend again . Commanding officer . McCain recuperated just enough to pass his flight physical and have his flight status reinstated . In August 1974 , he was assigned to the Replacement Air Group VA - 174 " Hellrazors " . This was an A - 7 Corsair II training squadron located at Naval Air Station Cecil Field in Jacksonville and the largest aviation squadron in the Navy . He became its executive officer in 1975 , and on July 1 , 1976 , he was made VA - 174 ' s commanding officer . This last assignment was controversial , as he did not have the required experience of having commanded a smaller squadron first ( something that he now had too high a rank to do ) . While some senior officers resented McCain ' s presence as favoritism due to his father , junior officers rallied to him and helped him qualify for A - 7 carrier landings . As commanding officer , McCain relied upon a relatively unorthodox leadership style based upon the force of his personality . He removed personnel he thought ineffective , and sought to improve morale and productivity by establishing an informal rapport with enlisted men . Dealing with limited post - Vietnam defense budgets and parts shortages , he was forceful in demanding that respect be given the female officers just beginning to arrive into the unit . McCain ' s leadership abilities were credited with improving the unit ' s aircraft readiness ; for the first time , all fifty of its aircraft were able to fly . Although some operational metrics declined during the period , the pilot safety improved to the point of having zero accidents . The squadron was awarded its first - ever Meritorious Unit Commendation , while McCain received a Meritorious Service Medal . McCain later stated that being commanding officer of VA - 174 was the most rewarding assignment of his naval career . When his stint ended in July 1977 , the change of command ceremony was attended by his father and the rest of his family , as well as some of his fellow POWs ; speaker Admiral Isaac C . Kidd , Jr . said that John had joined Jack and Slew McCain in a place of honor in Navy tradition , a tribute that deeply moved McCain . During their time in Jacksonville , the McCains ' marriage began to falter . McCain had extramarital affairs ; he was seen with other women in social settings and developed a reputation among his colleagues for womanizing . Some of McCain ' s activity with other women occurred when he was off - duty after routine flights to Marine Corps Air Station Yuma and Naval Air Facility El Centro . McCain later said , " My marriage ' s collapse was attributable to my own selfishness and immaturity more than it was to Vietnam , and I cannot escape blame by pointing a finger at the war . The blame was entirely mine . " His wife Carol later stated that the failure was not due to her accident or Vietnam and that " I attribute [ the breakup of our marriage ] more to John turning 40 and wanting to be 25 again than I do to anything else . " John McCain ' s biographer , Robert Timberg , believes that " Vietnam did play a part , perhaps not the major part , but more than a walk - on . " According to John McCain , " I had changed , she had changed . People who have been apart that much change . " Senate liaison , divorce , and second marriage . McCain had thought about entering politics since his return from Vietnam , although 1964 had been the only time in his life he had ever voted . In 1976 , he briefly thought of running for the U . S . House of Representatives from Florida ; he had the support of some local figures in Jacksonville , but was convinced by other Republican Party leaders that he did not have sufficient political experience , funding , or popular support to defeat longtime Democratic incumbent Charles E . Bennett . He did work so hard for Ronald Reagan ' s 1976 Republican primary campaign that his base commander reprimanded him for being too politically active for his naval position . As his tenure with VA - 174 was ending , McCain was assigned to a low - profile desk job within the Naval Air Systems Command . Chief of Naval Operations Admiral James L . Holloway III thought this assignment a waste of McCain ' s social talents , and instead in July 1977 McCain was appointed to the Senate Liaison Office within the Navy ' s Office of Legislative Affairs ( an assignment Jack McCain had once held ) . The office ' s role mostly consisted of providing constituent service and acting as a facilitator among legislators , the Department of Defense , and lobbyists . McCain later said the liaison job represented " [ my ] real entry into the world of politics and the beginning of my second career as a public servant " . McCain ' s lively personality and knowledge of military matters made his post in the Russell Senate Office Building a popular gathering spot for senators and staff . He also frequently escorted congressional delegations on overseas trips , where he arranged entertaining side escapades . McCain was influenced by senators of both parties , and formed an especially strong bond with John Tower of Texas , the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee . During 1978 and 1979 , McCain played a key behind - the - scenes role in gaining congressional funding for a new supercarrier against the wishes of the Carter administration and Navy Secretary W . Graham Claytor Jr . In August 1979 , McCain was promoted to captain , and became Director of the Senate Liaison Office . During McCain ' s time there , the Senate Liaison Office enjoyed one of its few periods of high influence . McCain and his wife Carol had been briefly separated soon after returning to Washington , but then reunited and remained married . In April 1979 , while attending a military reception for senators in Hawaii , McCain met Cindy Lou Hensley , eighteen years his junior , a teacher from Phoenix , Arizona and the daughter of James Willis Hensley , a wealthy Anheuser - Busch beer distributor , and Marguerite " Smitty " Hensley . They began dating , travelling between Arizona and Washington to see each other , and John McCain urged his wife Carol to accept a divorce . The McCains stopped cohabiting in January 1980 , and John McCain filed for divorce in February , which Carol McCain accepted at that time . After she did not respond to court summonses , the uncontested divorce became official in Fort Walton Beach , Florida , on April 2 , 1980 . McCain gave Carol a settlement that included full custody of their children , alimony , child support including college tuition , houses in Virginia and Florida , and lifelong financial support for her ongoing medical treatments resulting from the 1969 automobile accident ; they would remain on good terms . McCain and Hensley were married on May 17 , 1980 in Phoenix , with Senators William Cohen and Gary Hart as best man and groomsman . McCain ' s children were upset with him and did not attend the wedding , but after several years they reconciled with him and Cindy . Carol McCain became a personal assistant to Nancy Reagan and later Director of the White House Visitors Office . The Reagans were stunned by the divorce ; Nancy Reagan ' s relationship with John McCain turned cold for a while following it , but eventually the two renewed their friendship . The same happened with most of McCain ' s other friends , who were eventually won over by the force of his personality and his frequent expressions of guilt over what had happened . Around the end of 1980 , McCain decided to retire from the Navy . He had not been given a major sea command , and his physical condition had deteriorated , causing him to fail the flight physical required for any carrier command position ( in addition to his limited arm movement , certain weather would always cause him to walk with a limp ) . McCain thought he might make rear admiral , but probably not vice admiral , and never become a four - star admiral as his grandfather and father had been . McCain later wrote that he did not anguish over his decision , although it pained his mother , who thought congressional careers paled in comparison to top naval ones . He was excited by the idea of being a member of Congress and was soon recruiting a campaign manager that Cohen knew , for a planned run at a House seat from Arizona . In early 1981 , Secretary of the Navy John F . Lehman , who did not want to see McCain leave the liaison post , told McCain that he was still on the path to be selected for one - star rear admiral . McCain told Lehman that he was leaving the Navy and that he could " do more good " in Congress . McCain retired with an effective date of April 1 , 1981 , the rank of captain , and a disability pension due to his wartime injuries . For his service in the Senate liaison office , McCain was awarded a second instance of the Legion of Merit . Jack McCain died on March 22 , 1981 . On March 27 , 1981 , McCain attended his father ' s funeral at Arlington National Cemetery , wearing his uniform for the last time before signing his discharge papers , and later that day flew to Phoenix with his wife Cindy to begin his new life . Awards and decorations . John McCain received the following medals and decorations :