Remembering John McCain, a Titan among men
by Ivan Couronne
John Sidney McCain III had but one employer throughout his iconic and tempestuous career: the United States of America.
It was a family tradition. McCain was a direct descendant, he claimed, of a captain in George Washington's army during the Revolutionary War.
And like his father and grandfather before him, each four-star admirals named John McCain, he lived in the service of his country: first as a US Navy fighter pilot, then as a lawmaker until his death Saturday at age 81, following a brain cancer diagnosis in the summer of 2017.
He too might have become an admiral, if a Soviet-made surface-to-air missile had not cut short his own high-flying military trajectory on October 26, 1967.
On the day of his 23rd mission over Vietnam, his A-4 Skyhawk was hit as he flew across Hanoi's skies.