With the coming of the 2008 United States presidential election in November, all eyes are on the candidates. John Sidney McCain III, Senior United States Senator from Arizona, is a candidate for the Republican Party nomination. However, the following will not be a discussion of his political positions and whatnot, rather, a brief look back at his military career.

Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, who were both United States Navy admirals, McCain entered the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He graduated in 1958, upon which he was commissioned an ensign, and spent two and a half years as a naval aviator in training at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida and Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas, flying A-1 Skyraiders. He graduated from flight school in 1960 and became a naval pilot of attack aircraft. In the 1960s he served as a flight instructor at Naval Air Station Meridian in Mississippi, but eventually grew tired of his training role and requested a combat assignment. In December 1966 he was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal, flying A-4 Skyhawks.

In 1967 Forrestal was assigned to join Operation Rolling Thunder, the bombing campaign against North Vietnam as part of the Vietnam War. McCain’s first five attack missions over the country went without a hitch, and he earned the reputation of a serious aviator. On July 29, 1967, he was almost killed in action as a Lieutenant Commander while serving on Forrestal, operating at Yankee Station. A Zuni rocket from an F-4 Phantom was accidentally fired across the carrier’s deck while the crew was preparing to launch attacks, and it struck McCain’s A-4E Skyhawk as the jet was preparing for launch. McCain was able to escape from his jet but was struck in the legs and chest by shrapnel.

On October 26, 1967, McCain was flying as part of a 20-plane attack against a thermal power plant in central Hanoi when his A-4 Skyhawk was shot down during its approach run by an SA-2 anti-aircraft missile. McCain fractured both arms and a leg, and he nearly drowned after parachuting into Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi. He was transported to the city’s main prison, and although badly wounded, his captors refused to put him in the hospital. Only when the North Vietnamese discovered that his father was a top admiral did they give him medical attention and announce his capture. McCain was held as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for a total of five and a half years.

McCain became a celebrity upon his return to the United States, appearing in publications and participating in several parades and personal appearances. He underwent treatment for his injuries, and attended the National War College in Fort McNair in Washington, DC from 1973 to 1974. Few doubted his capability to fly again, but by late 1974 he had recuperated just enough to pass his flight physical and have his flight status reinstated. He became Executive Officer and then Commanding Officer of the VA-174 Hellrazors, the East Coast A-7 Corsair II Navy training squadron stationed at Naval Air Station Cecil Field outside Jacksonville, Florida, and the largest attack squadron in the Navy. McCain is credited for improving its aircraft readiness and pilot safety metrics, and winning the squadron its first Meritorious Unit Commendation.