From a family of Navy officers, John McCain destined for Naval Academy

Editor's note: This is the second of an 18-chapter profile of Sen. John McCain, portions of which originally were published in October 1999 and March 2007. It has been updated and expanded. Read more about this project: John McCain’s American Story.

It's 1955 in Annapolis, Maryland, and Midshipman John McCain and his roommate, Frank Gamboa, were eating lunch at the mess hall at the U.S. Naval Academy. A first class man, a "firstie" in Navy parlance, began dressing down a Filipino steward.

Gamboa hardly noticed the exchange, but young John McCain was paying close attention. Since the steward was an enlisted man, he couldn't fight back. The firstie was being a bully, a no-no at the Naval Academy.

The man outranked everyone at the table. McCain and Gamboa were barely past being plebes, the school's lowest rank. Fearing trouble, other underclassmen ate quickly and left. The browbeating continued.

Finally, McCain could take no more.

"Hey, why don't you pick on someone your own size?" McCain blurted.

There was a moment of silent shock at the table.

"What did you say?" replied the firstie.

"Why don't you stop picking on him?" McCain said. "He's doing the best he can."

"What is your name, mister?" snapped the firstie, an open threat to put McCain on report.

"Midshipman John McCain the Third," McCain said, looking straight at the upperclassman. "What's yours?"

The firstie saw the look in McCain's eyes. And fled.

A lineage of service

John McCain had plenty to live up to at the Naval Academy.

There was his grandfather, Adm. John "Slew" McCain, Class of 1906, a grizzled old sea dog who commanded aircraft carriers in the Pacific during World War II. And his father, Adm. Jack McCain, Class of 1931, won the Silver Star for his command of two submarines during World War II.

It was McCain's grandfather who set the course for the family.

"With his bony frame, hooked nose and sunken cheeks, he looked at least 10 years older than his age," E.B. Potter wrote of Slew McCain in a 1985 biography of Navy legend William "Bull" Halsey. "Junior officers and enlisted men often referred to him as Popeye the Sailor Man, whom he superficially resembled."

Slew McCain's peers at the Naval Academy were Halsey and Chester Nimitz, who would become major commanders during World War II. One of Slew McCain's first assignments was as executive officer on a gunboat in the Philippines commanded by Nimitz.

"They would hunt and fish, and every now and then they would stop in for their mail," grandson John McCain once recalled in a TV interview. "Can you imagine?"

In the 1930s, the military passed a regulation that aircraft carriers could be commanded only by aviators. Already in his 50s, McCain's grandfather went to flight school.

He crashed five airplanes but got his wings and went on to command a carrier. He eventually would rise to command all U.S. carriers in the Pacific, under Halsey. Planes under Slew McCain's command participated in a number of battles, including Leyte Gulf, where he met waves of Japanese kamikaze attacks and once sank 49 Japanese ships in a day.

'Their love for one another was complete'

Slew McCain was the quintessential combat officer — a throwback, a gregarious, beloved commander who didn't worry whether his uniform was pressed, McCain said. But the war, and his lifestyle, taxed his health.

"He had a very hard life to start with," his grandson recalled. "He smoked and he drank and he didn't take care of himself. Also, the strain of operations in World War II was immense."

When the Japanese surrendered aboard the USS Missouri on Sept. 2, 1945, Slew McCain was there. He can be seen in the famous picture, standing in the front row of U.S. officers. He was 61 years old, but looks 80.

In fact, he had been sick for two weeks, at least since a ceasefire was called on Aug. 15, 1945. Around that time, the elder McCain talked with John Thach, who recalled the conversation in the book "Carrier Warfare in the Pacific."

McCain had been staying in his sea cabin, popping his head out only occasionally.

"Admiral, you don't feel very well, do you?" Thach asked.

"Well," Slew McCain responded, "this surrender has come as kind of a shock to all of us. I feel lost. I don't know what to do. I know how to fight, but now I don't know whether I know how to relax or not. I am in an awful letdown. I do feel bad."

On the day of the surrender, the old man would see his son, John S. McCain Jr., a submarine commander. The younger McCain had been given the job of escorting Japanese submarines into Tokyo Bay. Father and son posed for a picture aboard the Proteus, a submarine tender.

It was the last time John McCain Jr. would see his father alive.

Four days after the surrender aboard the Missouri, Slew McCain flew back to Coronado, California. Thach went to visit him and noted that he looked even worse. A few minutes into the visit, McCain said he wanted to lie down.

Thach went to San Diego. A short time later, he got a phone call.

John "Slew" McCain had died of a heart attack. There is speculation that he may have suffered an earlier heart attack at sea but never sought treatment.

"My father could not get home in time for the funeral and burial in Arlington National Cemetery," John McCain wrote in the foreword to Alton Keith Gilbert's 2006 biography of Slew McCain, "A Leader Born." "Just as well, he told my mother, because 'it would have killed me.' I don't think my father ever knew a single day, through the many trials and accomplishments of his own life, when he didn't mourn the loss of his father. Their love for one another was complete."

A family's legacy

McCain's grandfather and father would become the first father-son team to reach the rank of four-star admiral.

"My father spoke of him to me often, as an example of what kind of man I should aspire to be," John McCain recalled.

Halsey biographer Potter wrote that "there were few wiser or more competent officers in the Navy than Slew McCain."

The Navy honored him in 1953 by naming a new destroyer the USS John S. McCain. That ship was eventually decommissioned, but the Navy later named a destroyer the USS John S. McCain to honor McCain's father and grandfather.

Slew McCain is buried next to his brother, William Alexander McCain, a cavalry officer known as "Wild Bill."

Bill McCain, who graduated from West Point, chased Mexican insurgent Pancho Villa with Gen. John J. "Black Jack" Pershing, served as an artillery officer during World War I and attained the rank of brigadier general.

In his 1999 book, "Faith of My Fathers," McCain details his Scotch-Irish roots, noting that his great-aunt was a descendant of Robert the Bruce, an early Scottish king.

On this continent, McCain's roots date to the American Revolution. An early ancestor, John Young, served on Gen. George Washington's staff. In 2017, a ceremony was held to honor Young with a Sons of the American Revolution plaque at his grave in Swoope, Virginia.

After the family moved to Mississippi, a number of McCain's ancestors fought in the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy.

McCain's grandfather grew up on the family plantation in Carroll County, Mississippi. Slew McCain attended the University of Mississippi, then entered the Naval Academy.

'He was a tough guy'

Like his grandfather, John McCain was no angel when he reached the Naval Academy in 1954. At Episcopal High, a private boarding school in Alexandria, Virginia, McCain was a rebel, earning the nickname "McNasty" from classmates who didn't dare cross him.

McCain was an excellent lightweight wrestler in high school. One of McCain's school friends, Malcolm Matheson, said McCain was no bully but took no guff.

"I always got along with him, but he was a tough guy," Matheson said. "He was small but feisty. He's always been that way. ... If you messed with him, you probably would end up on the wrong side of it."

Despite his rebellious nature, McCain was destined to attend the Naval Academy, like his grandfather and his father before him.

Ron Thunman, who commanded McCain's plebe, or first-year, class, had no idea that McCain came from a Navy family but said the young man immediately impressed him. The plebe battalions competed in sports, McCain as a boxer.

What he lacked in skill he made up for in ferocity, Thunman said.

"I got a real kick out of him," Thunman said. "It was clear that nobody was going to take him down without a hell of an effort."

Thunman said he noticed McCain had a quick mind and a good sense of humor. He quickly emerged as a leader in his group.

"He stood out because he was just one of those people that you liked and you got a chuckle out of," Thunman said. "He was somebody who was always moving at top speed in one direction or another. He was never one to hang back."

'It was a real adventure living with John'

McCain chafed under the strict rules of the academy. Each year, he was always in the "Century Club" — students with more than 100 demerits.

It was mostly small stuff: messy quarters, unshined shoes, reporting late to formation, things like that, recalled Gamboa, who roomed with McCain for three years.

"He and I, we got a lot of demerits," Gamboa said. "It was almost impossible not to."

McCain's grades were good in the subjects he enjoyed, such as literature and history. Gamboa said McCain would rather read a history book than do his math homework. He did just enough to pass the classes that didn't interest him.

"He stood low in his class," Gamboa said. "But that was by choice, not design."

On weekends, everyone wanted to hang out with McCain, who grew up around Washington, D.C., and knew all the best parties. And with his good looks, McCain attracted plenty of women.

"We used to call him 'John Wayne McCain,' " Gamboa said. "He was graying at the temples, and it made him more dashing. ... It was a real adventure living with John."

McCain's bio in the academy yearbook said it all:

"Sturdy conversationalist and party man. John's quick wit and clever sarcasm made him a welcome man at any gathering. His bouts with the academic and executive departments contributed much to the stockpiles of legends within the hall."

One such bout almost ended in disaster.

The further cadets rose in the academy, the fewer demerits they were allowed. Naturally, McCain was pushing the limit as his senior year neared an end.

McCain already had been skirting the rules. He and some friends had bought a television, which was prohibited. They would gather in their rooms on weekends, watching boxing on Friday nights and a Western, "Maverick," on Sundays. The men kept the TV hidden in a "pipe locker," a space between the dormitory rooms that housed plumbing, heating and ventilation.

"One day, the company officer got to crawling around in there, and he found the TV," Gamboa said.

Normally, all the men involved would play a game similar to paper, rock, scissors to determine who would get the demerits. But Gamboa and the others wouldn't let McCain take the chance. The 30 demerits from the TV would get him kicked out.

"He wanted to, but we just insisted," Gamboa said. "The guy who took the demerits (a model midshipman named Henry Vargo) had none."

'He treats me like a brother'

McCain also offered advice to the lovelorn. More than one midshipman made his way to McCain's room to ask for advice on a romantic relationship.

One evening, Gamboa was writing a thank-you letter to a date (a custom in those days) when McCain snatched the letter away.

"This is a terrible letter," McCain said. "Did you have fun with her? Do you want to see her again? Here, I'll tell you what to say."

Gamboa and McCain remained close. The friendship says something about McCain, notes Gamboa, a first-generation Mexican-American.

When the two met at the Naval Academy, they had nothing in common. Gamboa was the son of immigrant parents from a little town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. McCain, the son and grandson of naval officers, attended private schools in Virginia.

But to McCain, race and status meant nothing, Gamboa said.

"I don't think John McCain had even been associated with Hispanics or any minorities, given where he lived and the school he went to, but yet he picked me, a Mexican-American, to be his roommate," Gamboa said.

"I've heard the comment that he has always done well with minorities. He's the most colorblind person I've ever met in my life.

"He treats me like a brother."

Choosing a career

As the men graduated from the Naval Academy, they had to make a choice as to what branch of service they would enter, the Navy or the Marines.

Gamboa said he always knew which McCain would pick.

"There was never any question in our minds that he was going to be a flier," Gamboa said. "He was an adventurous spirit, and that's what he would do."

For McCain's roommates — Gamboa, Keith Bunting and Jack Dittrick — it was still an open question. Until they met Jack McCain, John's father.

During World War II, the elder McCain won the Silver Star while commanding two submarines: the USS Gunnel, which sunk freighters and battled Japanese destroyers in the Pacific, and the USS Dentuda, which was on hand at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay.

While his son attended the Naval Academy, Jack McCain was living in nearby Washington, D.C., working as the Navy's senior liaison officer to Congress.

On weekends, John McCain and his roommates would visit Jack McCain, who would chomp cigars and tell them about the Navy.

"Every time we went to John's house, we would get a blue-and-gold pep talk from Jack McCain," Gamboa said.

Jack McCain was not subtle. To his friends, he was known as "Good Goddamn McCain."

Speaking to the Annapolis Class of 1970, Jack McCain made light of the anti-war slogan "make love, not war" by noting that naval officers "were men enough to do both," according to "Faith of My Fathers."

"He was the best naval officer I ever met in my life," Gamboa said. "I think that's where John got his love of history, from his father. His father's den was filled ceiling to floor with books, and the majority were on history."

Jack McCain made a big impression on the midshipmen. McCain and his roommates joined the Navy, and all reached the rank of captain: Bunting as a submariner, Dittrick as an aviator and Gamboa on surface ships. John McCain went to flight school.

Embarking on life after the academy

During training, McCain had several close calls, including a crash in Corpus Christi Bay and a collision with power lines in Spain. In both cases, he emerged virtually unscathed.

In 1964, while stationed in Pensacola, Florida, McCain started dating Carol Shepp, a tall Philadelphia model he met while at Annapolis.

The next year, the two were married in Philadelphia. John soon adopted Carol's two sons from a previous marriage. In 1966, they had a daughter, Sidney.

A year later, McCain was sent to Vietnam as a bomber pilot on an aircraft carrier. Carol would not see her husband again for almost six years.

NEXT CHAPTER: John McCain was 'a very determined guy' as a POW

John McCain's American Story

Chapter 1:  John McCain a study in contradiction
Chapter 2: John McCain was destined for the Naval Academy
Chapter 3: John McCain was 'a very determined guy' as a POW
Chapter 4: John McCain's political ambition emerged after POW return
Chapter 5: John McCain's political career began after Arizona move
Chapter 6: Ever-ambitious, John McCain rises to the Senate
Chapter 7: John McCain 'in a hell of a mess' with Keating Five
Chapter 8: After Keating Five, John McCain faced new scandal
Chapter 9: John McCain becomes the 'maverick'
Chapter 10: 'Ugly' politics in John McCain's 2000 presidential run
Chapter 11: John McCain was frequent foe of Bush in early years
Chapter 12: John McCain goes establishment for 2nd White House run
Chapter 13: John McCain had rough start to 2008 presidential race
Chapter 14: John McCain clinches 2008 GOP presidential nomination
Chapter 15:  John McCain takes on Obama for president in 2008
Chapter 16:  John McCain fails in second bid for president
Chapter 17:  'Complete the danged fence,' John McCain proclaims
Chapter 18:  John McCain wins 6th term, reclaims 'maverick' label