Political figure - John McCain
John Sidney McCain III was born in 1936 at Coco Solo Naval Air Station in the Panama Canal Zone, Panama, to naval officer John S. McCain, Jr. and Roberta (Wright) McCain. He is the senior United States Senator from Arizona and presidential nominee of the Republican Party in the 2008 presidential election.

McCain graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1958. In Vietnam War, he nearly lost his life in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire. In October 1967, while on a bombing mission over Hanoi, he was shot down, and captured by the North Vietnamese. He was a prisoner of war until 1973.

McCain retired from the Navy as a captain in 1981, moved to Arizona. He entered politics. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, he served two terms, and was then elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986, winning re-election easily in 1992, 1998, and 2004.

McCain lost his bid for the Republican nomination in the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush. He ran again for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, and gained enough delegates to become the party’s presumptive nominee in March 2008. McCain was formally nominated at the 2008 Republican National Convention in September 2008, together with his chosen running mate from Alaska, Governor Sarah Palin.

Political figure - John McCain
Grandfather – John “Slew” McCain Sr.

Political figure - John McCain
Father – John McCain Jr.

Political figure - John McCain
The future Senator with his sister Sandy, 1938.

Political figure - John McCain
McCain, left, stands with his mother Roberta, brother Joe and father John Jr. in 1951.

Political figure - John McCain
McCain enrolled in the Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1954.

Political figure - John McCain
McCain with first wife, Carol Shepp in Pensacola. They married in 1965.

Political figure - John McCain
The couple poses with Doug and Andy, Carol’s sons from her previous marriage, and Sidney sometime in the early 1970s.

Political figure - John McCain
Interview with John McCain on April 24, 1973, after his return home from Vietnam.

Political figure - John McCain
McCain with his wife Cindy Lou Hensley in 1979.

Political figure - John McCain
Cindy and John McCain and their four children: John IV, James, Meghan and Bridget.

Political figure - John McCain
John McCain meeting President Ronald Reagan with First Lady Nancy Reagan, March 1987.

Political figure - John McCain
The christening of USS John S. McCain at Bath Iron Works, with his mother Roberta, son Jack, daughter Meghan, and wife Cindy, 1992.

Political figure - John McCain
Republican presidential candidate John McCain, left, hugs Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the Arizona senator announces her as his vice-presidential in Dayton, Ohio.

Photos & info: Time.com, Wikipedia, Getty,
Crandall/Sipa, Corbis, Kiichiro Sato/Associated Press.


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