John McCain

John McCain

John Sidney McCain III was born Aug. 29, 1936, in the Panama Canal Zone, the namesake of his father and grandfather, both distinguished four-star Navy admirals.

In July 1967, McCain, a naval aviator, barely escaped death on the USS Forrestal in a fiery disaster that killed 134 of his shipmates and nearly sunk the aircraft carrier in the Gulf of Tonkin.

That October, his A-4 Skyhawk attack bomber was blown out of the sky over North Vietnam, landing him in a prisoner of war camp where he endured severe brutality and would spend more than five years.

And as the four-term Republican senator from Arizona continues in his bid to become the nation’s 44th president, it’s not likely that anyone will. Especially as they get to know even more about the decorated veteran, former prisoner of war and frequent talk-show guest.

For all the different names applied to him over the years - “maverick” is perhaps the best remembered - McCain is difficult to label.