John McCain: Survivor
04 November 2008 à 00h29
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Obviously, the Republican candidate for the presidential election of the United States had faced many personal tests. Most of them could have made him kneel. But “the maverick” is still up and running.
26 august 1936
John Sidney McCain III is born at Coco Solo Naval Air Station, in Panama Canal Zone
1954
John McCain enters the US Naval Academy, where he would later graduate
3 july 1965
He marries a model from Philadelphia, Carol. He adopts her two boys and they have a daughter. They would separate 15 years later
1966
John McCain takes part in the Vietnam War. He is a pilot and is assigned to an aircraft carrier. He would have his first near death experiment. During the war, his plane is shot down, and he is captured near Hanoi. He is kept in jail for five years
1977
John McCain serves as Navy liaison to the Senate, where he discovers political life
1980
He marries Cindy, who is 18 years younger and helps her father to lead Ansheuser-Busch, one of the largest American beer distributors
1986
John McCain is elected to the US Senate from Arizona
1999-2000
He announces his candidacy for president, but finally gives up and endorses George Bush as Republican candidate
March 2008
John McCain is the Republican nominated for the presidential election, against the democrat Barack Obama
McCain was raised in a family strongly connected to the Navy. Both his father and his paternal grandfather were four-star admirals. Following in their footsteps, John McCain entered the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. But he was not very fond of authority and frequently antagonized higher-ranking personnel. "I was pretty aggressive... I learned how to take hard blows and to get back up and keep going", he explained later to Newsweek magazine. However, he is still known as a straight-talker, a “hothead”, saying “Fuck you” to another senator during a harsh debate on immigration in 2007.
Despite his strong personality, he finally graduated and started his aviator training. Flying his Skyhawk plane, McCain faced death for the first time nine years later. A missile hit the USS-Forrestal aircraft carrier in Vietnam, killing more than 130 sailors. But John McCain survived. One year later, in 1967, his plane was shot down north of Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital. His two arms were broken, and so was one of his legs. Then, the young pilot was brought to a local jail, called the “Hanoi Hilton”, where was is kept during five years. When his father became the commander of the US forces in Vietnam, he was offered release. He refused, arguing that other prisoners captured before him should be released first. John McCain and his campaign staff easily tell this part of the candidate’s life –his figure as a soldier during the Vietnam War, wounded and a prisoner, give him something like the aura of a hero.
But he is not that proud of his victory against illness. In 2000, John McCain endorsed George W. Bush for the Republican nomination. His defeat gave him time to treat his cancer at an early stage, probably saving his life. “If it was left alone, the risk was high that [his] melanoma would not just have become thicker and would also almost certainly spread”, explained Dr. Jeffrey Lee, a cancer specialist, to Time magazine.
John McCain also faced a troubled family life. He has always been described as a Don Juan, which sometimes caused him problems. He divorced from his first wife, Carol, in 1980 after he admitted womanizing. During the same year, he married Cindy and moved to her home state, Arizona. The couple adopted a child from Bangladesh, a young girl called Bridget. A normal family life? Yet, during the 2000 campaign, rumors said that Bridget was the black child of McCain, fathered out of wedlock…
Aged 72, John McCain has overcome all of those pitfalls. As the senator for Arizona, he is now running for presidency for the second time -and probably the last, regarding his age. McCain seems more determined than ever. Can the young Democratic senator for Illinois accomplish what neither war, nor illness, nor family problems have succeeded to do –defeat him?
(credit: REUTERS/Carlos Barria)
Citation
"I would say that I have more scars than Frankenstein. […] I've learned a few things along the way"
(John McCain, Reader’s Digest’s, 2007)
26 august 1936
John Sidney McCain III is born at Coco Solo Naval Air Station, in Panama Canal Zone
1954
John McCain enters the US Naval Academy, where he would later graduate
3 july 1965
He marries a model from Philadelphia, Carol. He adopts her two boys and they have a daughter. They would separate 15 years later
1966
John McCain takes part in the Vietnam War. He is a pilot and is assigned to an aircraft carrier. He would have his first near death experiment. During the war, his plane is shot down, and he is captured near Hanoi. He is kept in jail for five years
1977
John McCain serves as Navy liaison to the Senate, where he discovers political life
1980
He marries Cindy, who is 18 years younger and helps her father to lead Ansheuser-Busch, one of the largest American beer distributors
1986
John McCain is elected to the US Senate from Arizona
1999-2000
He announces his candidacy for president, but finally gives up and endorses George Bush as Republican candidate
March 2008
John McCain is the Republican nominated for the presidential election, against the democrat Barack Obama
Despite his strong personality, he finally graduated and started his aviator training. Flying his Skyhawk plane, McCain faced death for the first time nine years later. A missile hit the USS-Forrestal aircraft carrier in Vietnam, killing more than 130 sailors. But John McCain survived. One year later, in 1967, his plane was shot down north of Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital. His two arms were broken, and so was one of his legs. Then, the young pilot was brought to a local jail, called the “Hanoi Hilton”, where was is kept during five years. When his father became the commander of the US forces in Vietnam, he was offered release. He refused, arguing that other prisoners captured before him should be released first. John McCain and his campaign staff easily tell this part of the candidate’s life –his figure as a soldier during the Vietnam War, wounded and a prisoner, give him something like the aura of a hero.
But he is not that proud of his victory against illness. In 2000, John McCain endorsed George W. Bush for the Republican nomination. His defeat gave him time to treat his cancer at an early stage, probably saving his life. “If it was left alone, the risk was high that [his] melanoma would not just have become thicker and would also almost certainly spread”, explained Dr. Jeffrey Lee, a cancer specialist, to Time magazine.
John McCain also faced a troubled family life. He has always been described as a Don Juan, which sometimes caused him problems. He divorced from his first wife, Carol, in 1980 after he admitted womanizing. During the same year, he married Cindy and moved to her home state, Arizona. The couple adopted a child from Bangladesh, a young girl called Bridget. A normal family life? Yet, during the 2000 campaign, rumors said that Bridget was the black child of McCain, fathered out of wedlock…
Aged 72, John McCain has overcome all of those pitfalls. As the senator for Arizona, he is now running for presidency for the second time -and probably the last, regarding his age. McCain seems more determined than ever. Can the young Democratic senator for Illinois accomplish what neither war, nor illness, nor family problems have succeeded to do –defeat him?
(credit: REUTERS/Carlos Barria)
