Family & Fatherhood

Could you give an order that would put a loved one in mortal danger?

As a fourth generation of John McCain's family prepares for battle, the candidate talks about his life in a military dynasty.

It’s a cool, sunny June morning in New Hampshire, and Senator John McCain of Arizona stands on a makeshift stage in the center of a crowded firehouse. He’s here in the town of Gilford, population 7,500, doing what he has been doing in one way or another since 1999: running for president. Today he’s holding a town-hall meeting for 200 or so potential voters, as a large press corps—I count at least 10 TV crews—covers the event. They’re here because, of the 18 candidates who are officially declared for either the Republican or Democratic presidential nomination at this point, McCain is arguably one of the most famous. And it was in the state of New Hampshire, on the chilly evening of February 1, 2000, where he crushed Governor George W. Bush of Texas by 17 points in the primary—an upset victory that first put McCain on the national political map.

This time around, the questions are different than they were seven years ago; some of these voters have family members fighting in Iraq. Then again, this is a different campaign. I covered McCain during the 2000 election, and it was clear to me that he relished the role of the insurgent. It fit his character perfectly, since he had been a maverick for much of his life. In 2007, McCain entered the race as the front-runner, but so far he has trailed his rivals in fund-raising and polls. In July, he was forced to shake up his campaign, fire 50 staffers, and deny that he was dropping out of the race. Among independent voters and Democrats who have favored him in the past, he has been eviscerated for kowtowing to old enemies in the Bush White House and the religious right, and within the Republican Party itself, he has taken blows for stands that are unpopular with hard-liners, such as passing campaign finance reform and teaming with Ted Kennedy on immigration. And then there’s the war.

McCain soldiers on, apparently unconcerned about his rivals and criticism from the media who once treated him as their darling—a Republican they could embrace. But he has never been the anointed one and is not comfortable in the position. In his 25-year political career, he has been a natural outsider who challenges the system, or a bipartisan peacemaker who brings both sides together, but never the establishment’s candidate. If he finds his voice in this campaign—and many observers believe he must—it will be an expression of his determination to follow his gut no matter what, for better or worse.

In Gilford this morning, audience members ask him about the war in Iraq, fighting terror­ism, and immigration. McCain is animated and affable onstage, often lacing his answers with his singular dark, sardonic humor. (He is known for frequently quoting Chairman Mao as saying “It’s always darkest before it is totally black.”) Today, McCain eventually directs the topics to one with which he is always comfortable: the American military. While joking with an audience member who had graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, McCain brings up the subject of his son John Sidney McCain IV, nicknamed Jack. McCain himself was the third John Sidney McCain to go to the United States Naval Academy; Jack, 21, entering his graduating year, is the fourth.

“You know, my son Jack attends the Naval Academy, where he has zero demerits,” McCain says in his even, deadpan delivery. Then after a pause for comic effect, he adds, “I got so concerned, I had DNA tests run just to make sure he was my son.”
The audience roars with laughter because they are in on the joke. McCain has never hid the fact that he graduated fifth from the bottom of his class at the academy in 1958. That part of his personal story is almost as well-known as the fact that during the Vietnam War he spent five and a half years as a prisoner of war in a detention center that became known as the Hanoi Hilton, after he was shot down by a surface-to-air missile during a bombing raid over Hanoi. What is less well-known, and what has been submerged in the day-to-day rumble of the early campaign of 2008, is the reason he ended up there.

McCain is part of a family that can trace its lineage back to an officer who served on the staff of General George Washington. As a result, he belongs to the Society of the Cincinnati, the nation’s oldest military hereditary society (George Washington was its first president; Alexander Hamilton its second), whose membership is made up of descendants of officers of the Revolutionary Army. Only the firstborn son of a member can inherit membership. (McCain’s son Jack will inherit his.) The organization’s motto captures its mission: “He gave up everything to serve the Republic.”

While early members of the McCain family served in various branches of the military, in the past century the family has become almost exclusively associated with the Navy. McCain’s grandfather and father were four-star admirals—the only father and son to become four-star admirals in American military history—and McCain retired as a captain. In addition to his son Jack, who is attending the Naval Academy in preparation of becoming a commissioned officer, there is his youngest son, James, whose nickname is Jimmy. Jimmy, 19, enlisted in the United States Marine Corps last year—and by summer’s end, he’ll be deployed for active combat duty in Iraq.
Historian Douglas Brinkley says the family has “exhibited the kind of instinctive heroism and call to national service that Theodore Roosevelt embraced. The McCain men have viewed their American birthright as a pedestal on which to serve; they have that old-fashioned American trait that is devoid of elitism and aristocracy, that says you have to put country first and foremost, even above family. The McCains are in the top tier of America’s greatest military families.”